Rise in mortgage possessions

3 November 2006

Official figures show that the number of possession orders on mortgage arrears rose by 15% in the last year.

Possessions are ordered as a way for mortgage lenders to take some firm action on unpaid home loans. However, possession orders can be abandoned as soon or as late as the tardy mortgage payments are met.

These new statistics - from the Department of Constitutional Affairs - show that during the third quarter of 2006, 34,626 mortgage possession actions were entered and a total of 24,017 orders were made. That's a rise of 22% on the same period the year before.

But because many of these orders will not have been enforced - because the borrower has met the late mortgage repayments - these figures do not reflect accurately how many properties have been taken into possession.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders' last set of figures, out of 70,843 possession orders made on mortgage arrears, only 10,310 possessions were actually made.