What is Mortgage Rescue?
The Mortgage Rescue Scheme is a new initiative that aims to provide assistance to vulnerable households at risk of losing their home. For homeowners experiencing serious financial difficulty and facing repossession a pot of money has been made available to buy your home from you and allow you and your family to remain in the property as a tenant. You make your application for help to your local Council who are responsible for managing the scheme.
Mortgage Rescue works in two different ways:
- Some households will get a Shared Equity Loan. A local housing association provides a loan to buy a share in your property. This will reduce your mortgage to a more afford- able level so you can continue to make your mortgage payments.
- Alternatively households will be offered help from a mortgage to rent scheme, whereby a local housing association buys the property and rents it back to you.
Who is Eligible?
You must be in serious financial difficulty and facing repossession in order to be assessed for the scheme.
To be eligible for the Mortgage Rescue Scheme your household must include someone in priority need. This could be:
- Someone within the household who is pregnant
- You have dependent children
- Someone is vulnerable due to old age or has a physical or mental impairment.
You will also need to meet additional criteria:
- All owners of your home must agree to Mortgage Rescue
- You must have received debt advice and counselling and have made agreements to repay your debts
- Your household must earn less than £60,000 a year
- You must have a clear need to remain in your home
- Your home must be suitable for your needs
- You cannot own a second home
How Can You Get Onto the Scheme?
You can be referred to the scheme in a number of ways:
- Contact your local council directly to get advice
- Citizens Advice
- Your Mortgage Lender
- The courts
- Registered Social Landlord
You can learn more about Mortgage Rescue by following the links below:
www.mortgagerescuescheme.co.uk
DON’T IGNORE ANY LETTERS FROM YOUR MORTGAGE LENDERS
Discus your options with your mortgage lender e.g. take a mortgage payment holiday, change or lengthen the term of your loan.
Seek free and independent debt advice early.
If you are having difficulty making your mortgage repayments, you must get advice as soon as possible to avoid repossession. This means talking to your mortgage lender or an independent advice agency as soon as you start to experience difficulties.
