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But there’s a bright side to every story. The positive slant on this terrible situation is that there are an increasing number of opportunities for buying a repossessed house. If buying a home of your own has been an unreachable dream for the past decade, it might soon be a reality. Interest rates are at an all time low and mortgage rates should eventually follow. If you’re a first time buyer without a property to sell, the world’s your oyster… provided you can borrow the money.

Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to buying a repossessed house or flat. The smoother you can make the process and the more pitfalls you can manage to avoid, the more successful your first step onto the property market will be.

Most people think auctions when they think about house repossessions. And that’s a good place to start. The USA has a database of repossessed homes but the UK doesn’t, and many UK house repossessions are sold at auction by lenders.

Household name auction house Allsops is an independent property consulting company with a solid reputation for residential property auctions. Probably the UK’s biggest, they sell around a billion pounds’ worth of homes a year at auction, spread across seven massive auctions a year with between 250 and 350 properties at each auction. A good choice if you feel safer dealing with a well known brand name. But there are also local property auctions in most major towns.

Estate Agents also sell repossessions, although they don’t always proclaim the fact. You’ll have to actually go in and ask. Another route into buying a repossessed house is to simply ask around the banks and building societies in the area you want to buy, personally. While they don’t openly advertise repossessions they need to sell the repossessions on their books and they’ll probably be happy to give you details. Another simple way to find repossessed homes for sale is check for announcements in the local papers. Offers are always publicised in case a better offer comes along, to ensure the best possible deal for the seller.

The internet has revolutionised buying repossessed houses. There’s a good choice of specialist online providers who collect together UK house repossession auctions in one place so you can search them effectively from one place, Repossessedhousesforsale.co.uk is one. They hold a database of UK auction properties including details of local auctioneers and auction dates, and provide links to online auction catalogues, property details and guide prices. A great way to save time.

Whichever route you arrive at an auction by buying a repossessed house at auction can save you a fortune in estate agency fees. But it’ll still cost you money and you need to be prepared.

The same as an ordinary house purchase, buying at auction requires a deposit. You’ll generally need to fork out 10% of the purchase price, which means you need to have a firm grip on exactly what you can bid based on how much cash deposit you can scrape together. You pay the deposit as soon as you’ve bought a property, before you leave the auction house.

After that you have 28 days to pay the balance, no excuses. Buying a repossessed house at auction is a legally binding contract and you can’t back out. Because the wheels of mortgage lenders tend to turn very, very slowly it’s wise to get your loan agreed before you go anywhere near an auction house.

In difficult times, auction mortgages are as rare as ordinary mortgages. There are fewer deals around and – perhaps unsurprisingly – nobody seems to be advertising auction-specific deals. The first port of call should be your bank. Provided you have a good relationship with them, they should be able to give you a very fast decision about whether or not they’d be prepared to lend the money to buy a repossessed house.

Once you know what your bank can or can’t offer, it’s a good idea to let a Mortgage Broker loose on your case. Independent brokers, unlike tied brokers, have access to the entire UK mortgage market and can trawl around to find you the best deal. And they know the lingo, which helps. A tip: remember to tell your broker that you want a mortgage specifically for buying a repossessed house at auction. He or she will co-ordinate your mortgage approval date with your chosen auction date so everything is ready in good time.

But what of the future?

Will we all be knee deep in low cost repossessed houses and flats for the next decade? Are property prices due to keep falling, or will they recover? Predictions are mixed.

Savills is another of the property big boys, a leading name in UK residential estate agency and commercial property. While they don’t auction repossessed houses they do a great deal of research into the housing market and their views are well respected. In an article published in The Times on 14th November 2008 Savill’s Head of Residential Research Yolande Barnes said,

“… the roots of Britain’s downturn lie in the credit crisis and the consequent withdrawal of funding by lenders… The UK housing market really is a different country: in the US as many as one home-owning household in 16 has defaulted on its mortgage or faces repossession, compared with fewer than one in 200 in Britain. To predict that the UK housing market will fall by 40 per cent and remain at these new, corrected levels is to ignore the role of finite supply and the use of equity.” In other words, don’t be fooled by all the doom and gloom.

Sadly Yolande seems to be swimming against a pessimistic tide. The majority of experts insist that the housing market is broken, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. It appears that things could swing either way. Whoever’s right, it doesn’t change the fact that buying a repossessed a repossessed house, in today’s market, can net you an excellent deal. Provided you can find the finance!

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Usually the bank will not call you because you failed to pay for one month but when the calendar months move on and the do not hear from you, you just need to sit tight and wait for that dreaded letter. You are best placed to deal with any lender of you attend to their correspondence and try to negotiate something that you know you will be able to honor at the end of the day. When everything else has failed and repossession becomes a reality, you need to realise that should it take place, the bank will more often than not sell the house through a public auction and the challenge is that there is no telling whether the amount that will be raised will be enough to cover all your arrears. The really bad part of the news is that in the case that what is raised in not enough it will still be you who will have to raise the remaining amount in order to top it up.

With a repossession order going through in your life, be prepared to stay in the cold for at least 12 years because that is how long you will stay in bad credit books and at the same time the bank will still want to follow you up for any amounts of money that is due to them from the mortgage arrears. So the best advice to anyone is to do all in their ability to make sure that repossession does not take place because a decade is such along time to stay in the cold financially where no lender is going to trust that you are a good borrower. At a time like that is when people consider a quick property sale whereby even though you lose ownership of the house you will still have a clean credit record that could assist you get back to your feet when things have improved.

If you have been invited to present yourself before a local judge in regard to your failed mortgage repayments it is important for you to attend and just have it in mind that the judge will listen to you and even try to offer you suggestion so as to avoid the falling of the hammer of repossession on you and if you are cooperative then you are likely to come out it all unscathed. There are times when the court is not convinced that you are a failure and they will give you the benefit if doubt which should be an opportunity for you to do something about the situation once again. When everything else fails do not forget a quick property sale as a solution.

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Individuals fall into arrears on their mortgage for many different reasons; accident or sickness, redundancy or unemployment, death of a spouse, insolvency or hikes in mortgage interest rates to name just a few. The most common reason for property repossession in current times can be attributed to general high levels of consumer debt. This comes in two forms, secured and unsecured debt. Whether this is due to the borrower making payments on their unsecured debts in priority over their mortgage or a level of mortgage borrowing taken out which their income cannot afford.

But how can a few missed payments on the mortgage lead to property repossession?

Very rarely will a property be repossessed over an isolated incident of a couple of missed payments. The advice given to borrowers who fall behind on their mortgage repayments is to contact their lender at the earliest possible opportunity. Speedy action on the part of the borrower can often reduce the potential arrears and put them on the road to recovery. Delaying action is likely to result in increased mortgage arrears and ultimately could lead to property repossession.

Borrowers have a number of options available to them in the early stages of mortgage arrears. These will include:

* Capitalising the arrears;

* Coming to an agreement with the lender to make good the missed payments over an agreed period of time. This is usually only a viable solution if the borrower can afford to increase the monthly mortgage payments;

* Paying the mortgage on an interest only basis for an agreed period. Of course this will only be an option open to those paying the mortgage on a repayment basis. This method is viewed as an immediate short term solution to relieve the immediate pressure as the arrears will still be outstanding;

* Increasing the term of the mortgage. This will take the effect of reducing the monthly payments, thus making them more affordable;

* Downsizing to a cheaper property. This could allow the borrower to use the cash raised to settle the arrears. This of course is not always a viable option as it is dependant on the seller finding a buyer for the property and so on;

* Surrendering an investment policy – such as an endowment or an ISA attached to the mortgage. Surrendering such policies will usually result in a significant loss to the investor as very rarely will he or she receive the full value of the policy. Consideration must then be given as to how the mortgage will be repaid at the end of the term with no repayment vehicle;

But what happens if an agreement with a lender cannot be made, or a solution found to clearing the arrears?

Handing back the keys to the lender is rarely a good idea. The borrower will still be responsible for paying the mortgage until the lender has sold the property. This will lead to more arrears and arrears charges being made. It must also be understood that prices obtained for repossessed properties will usually less than the market value – The lenders primary aim in this case is to sell the property as quickly as possible in order to recoup their funds.

If an arrangement is not made and the arrears situation escalates then it is highly likely that the lender will seek a legal remedy through the County Courts. The borrower will first be notified of this through a letter from the lender’s solicitor.

In order for the lender to take possession of a property, it is first necessary to petition the County Court for a possession order. The borrower will usually receive a court date for the hearing. Before the County Court will even consider granting a possession order it first has to be satisfied that every avenue has been explored by the lender and borrower. The County Court will take the view that possession should be the very last resort.

The County Court may take one of three course of action:

* It can grant an outright possession order. This will enable the lender to take possession of the property which will usually happen within 28 days;

* It can grant a suspended possession order. This will place an obligation on the borrower to make payments in accordance with the court’s decision, with the suspended possession order enforceable if the borrower fails to keep up the repayments.

* It can adjourn the case until a later time.

Once a possession order has been granted the court will also decide a date on which this order is enforceable. The lender can then take steps to take possession of the property.

Once the lender has obtained vacant possession of the property, they will then follow there possession procedures which will include; changing the locks, disconnecting utility services, taking gas and electric meters and informing the local police of the possession.

Even after the property repossession, the borrower can still redeem the mortgage up until the point of sale. This can sometimes happen if the borrower has been organising a remortgage during this process.

In the event of the lender losing money on the proceeds of the sale, it may take further action if it believes the borrower has the financial means to make good the loss.