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03/06/2008
Lifeline Thrown To Desperate NI Home Owners
An innovative scheme to reduce the number of home repossessions is to be discussed today at a high level meeting between NI Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie and the Council of Mortgage Lenders - which represents 98% of all the companies that issue mortgages.
She is to present her plans for a new mortgage rescue scheme to allow 'not for profit' housing associations to buy and lease back properties to home owners who have run into financial difficulties.
Lenders have a responsibility to help those who can't make repayments, the MLA said, as she prepared to outline her rescue plan for people who have fallen into mortgage arrears.
The Minister has already presented her thinking to the NI Assembly in advance of a keynote speech to the Council of Mortgage Lenders' annual lunch in the Culloden Hotel today.
She is highlighting two imaginative new initiatives: Mortgage to Rent Scheme, which will see Housing Associations buying properties on behalf of homeowners who simply cannot afford to make repayments so that the Housing Association will then lease back the property to the current owners.
The second is known as 'Reverse Staircasing', which is for people with a much smaller outstanding mortgage who have fallen on hard times.
It would see a Housing Association buying out the outstanding mortgage and converting it as affordable rent, which the owner then pays to the Housing Association.
Both these schemes will allow families to remain in their homes. They are though, only designed for people in genuine hardship.
Margaret Ritchie said: "I am concerned at the 33% increase in mortgage repossession orders in the courts.
"I am concerned about the effect the credit crunch is having on people's budgets.
"Repossession must be the tool of last resort - not the path of least resistance.
"Is it right that people should be out on the street, or families broken up, if, with more imagination, we can keep them in their homes?
"My message to the leading high street banks is simple. Please be patient. Please be understanding.
"Take a long term approach and work with me to bring about solutions that may be less attractive to you in the short term, but may ultimately benefit you in the long term."
Margaret Ritchie will publish detailed proposals of her Mortgage Rescue Scheme, for consultation, later in the summer.
(BMcC)
She is to present her plans for a new mortgage rescue scheme to allow 'not for profit' housing associations to buy and lease back properties to home owners who have run into financial difficulties.
Lenders have a responsibility to help those who can't make repayments, the MLA said, as she prepared to outline her rescue plan for people who have fallen into mortgage arrears.
The Minister has already presented her thinking to the NI Assembly in advance of a keynote speech to the Council of Mortgage Lenders' annual lunch in the Culloden Hotel today.
She is highlighting two imaginative new initiatives: Mortgage to Rent Scheme, which will see Housing Associations buying properties on behalf of homeowners who simply cannot afford to make repayments so that the Housing Association will then lease back the property to the current owners.
The second is known as 'Reverse Staircasing', which is for people with a much smaller outstanding mortgage who have fallen on hard times.
It would see a Housing Association buying out the outstanding mortgage and converting it as affordable rent, which the owner then pays to the Housing Association.
Both these schemes will allow families to remain in their homes. They are though, only designed for people in genuine hardship.
Margaret Ritchie said: "I am concerned at the 33% increase in mortgage repossession orders in the courts.
"I am concerned about the effect the credit crunch is having on people's budgets.
"Repossession must be the tool of last resort - not the path of least resistance.
"Is it right that people should be out on the street, or families broken up, if, with more imagination, we can keep them in their homes?
"My message to the leading high street banks is simple. Please be patient. Please be understanding.
"Take a long term approach and work with me to bring about solutions that may be less attractive to you in the short term, but may ultimately benefit you in the long term."
Margaret Ritchie will publish detailed proposals of her Mortgage Rescue Scheme, for consultation, later in the summer.
(BMcC)
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