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Lenders need to do more to help homeowners
12/05/2008 10:08:00
Lenders need to do more to assist homeowners to prevent them from having their homes repossessed, one body has said.
The Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) said that in too many cases lenders are using court action as a first rather than a last resort.
A spokesperson for the CAB said that it had seen a "sharp rise" in the number of consumers coming to them with mortgage arrears and many people using their county court advice desks to receive advice at "the eleventh hour".
However "we want to see all lenders doing everything in their power to avoid things getting to this stage. This means treating borrowers in arrears fairly and sympathetically, and being willing to negotiate with borrowers in trouble," he stated.
Data recently published by the Ministry of Justice on court orders for repossession show that the number of possession orders in the first quarter of this year were nine per cent higher than in the fourth quarter of 2007.
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