Debt advice organisations have found that many mortgage lenders still haven?t signed up for Government initiatives designed to prevent people from losing their homes, according to a report from The Guardian.
Last autumn, the Government announced measures that would seek to help vulnerable people stay in their homes. The range of measures included a ?mortgage rescue scheme? which was recently reported to have helped just one family in the UK, as well as new guidance for the courts to see that lenders don?t instantly go for repossession.
Even though some mainstream lenders have been less harsh towards struggling homeowners in the past months, there is still the case of the subprime and ?second charge? lending sectors which are lagging behind.
Citizens Advice, Shelter, the Money Advice Trust charity and AdviceUK talked to experts to see how the initiatives were doing. Their survey found that while 51 per cent of advisers saw an improvement in procedures at mainstream lenders, only one in five advisers said that there was improvement in the arrears collection practices of subprime and second charge lenders.
David Harker, Citizens Advice chief executive, said that the research pointed to higher-profile lenders being more helpful than their subprime and second charge counterparts: ?We want all lenders to be doing as much as possible to prevent people losing their homes. This means providing an understanding and constructive response and helping their customers come to a manageable solution.?
There are reportedly to be 800 repossessions a week and citizens advice bureaux in England and Wales saw a 49 per cent increase in new enquiries about secured loan and mortgage arrears in 2008.
