Home truths

Reposession orders are heading North at a worrying rate at the moment. Figures out today from the Ministry of Justice showed a total of 27,530 mortgage possession orders were made in the first three months of this year - that's up 17% compared to the same period a year ago.

The government is keen to point out that the orders that end in actual repossessions is historically small and prima facie they have point. The Council of Mortgage Lenders thinks orders that actually result in homes being repossessed will hit a total of 45,000 this year. That's well short of 1991 levels (during the height of the UK's last recession), when 75,540 houses were repossessed.

But (because there's always a but) to rely on this figure alone is misleading. The actual repossession figure is not the same as the total amount of people who lose their house during the process. There will be plenty of people who sell up in a bid to avoid a forced sale as well as people who go to companies that will buy their homes and then rent them back to them. All these people don’t show up in the stats and so the true impact of repossession orders is impossible to guage.

Other issues that will keep people talking include:

- how much sympathy these folk deserve for taking loans that were unrealistic?
- are lenders being too quick to take drastic steps when people fall behind in their payments?

Probably a subject to get out of the way before the weekend though…!