If you are pondering the question “what happens if I stop paying my mortgage?” you could find yourself in difficulties if you do so. If you’re in financial strife, don’t stop paying your mortgage if you can help it, as there are alternative solutions.
If you stop paying your mortgage payments this will significantly affect your credit report. However, the bigger problem is that by missing mortgage payments this could end in you having your home repossessed, although in the UK the repossession process doesn’t start until after three missed mortgage payments.
If your credit report has been affected by missed mortgage payments, this will make obtaining future credit very difficult in the short term. Which not only includes getting home loans, but it will become extremely challenging to obtain any form of credit.
What happens if I stop paying my mortgage in more detail?
It’s only at the point when you’re struggling to pay your mortgage that you realise it’s not the bricks and mortar but the mortgage that keeps the roof over your head.
There are a number of reasons why you may be needing to stop paying your mortgage. This could include the loss of a job, health reasons or perhaps your business has gone bust!
If you are wondering what happens if you stop paying your mortgage, there are two major impacts to be aware of.
The risk of your home being repossessed.
Makes it difficult to obtain future credit in the short term.
Let’s take a look at these in more detail.
1. The risk of your home being repossessed
If you’ve already missed a mortgage payment, then you are currently ‘in arrears’ on your mortgage. It is at this point that the mortgage repossession process begins with your mortgage lender.
However, if you’ve not yet missed a mortgage payment, try wherever possible to pay this if you can. Before you miss a payment, speak to your lender straight away, as they may be able to help you.
However, if you have already missed a mortgage payment (or two), and if you’ve not already spoken to your mortgage lender, do it right away. That means not delaying and doing it NOW!
There are many options to avoid being repossessed, which can be found in the follow article:
This will pay your mortgage interest for you, but you’ll have to find the rest of the mortgage payment yourself. If you’re not able to do this, you may need to speak with your mortgage lender to see if you can switch to an interest-only mortgage temporarily.
If you’re eligible for the SMI scheme, the Government steps in and makes interest payments. This is on the first £200,000 of your outstanding mortgage for the period you can’t afford them. However, this is reduced to £100,000 if you’re getting Pension Credit.
The current interest rate for SMI is 2.61%. But this is subject to change each time the Bank of England average mortgage rate moves by at least 0.5% away from the current SMI rate. So the rate you pay will be affected either up or down if bank rates change.
2. Makes it difficult to obtain future credit in the short term
No matter how many mortgage payments are missed, your credit report will be badly affected. But if you end up being repossessed, this will stay on your credit report for seven years.
This will make obtaining future credit very difficult in the short term. Which doesn’t only include getting a home loan, but it will also become extremely challenging to obtain any form of credit. This includes credit cards and personal bank loans.
I hope this article has helped on what happens if I stop paying my mortgage
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What Happens If I Stop Paying My Mortgage In The UK? (Can’t Pay Mortgage Options)
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been investing in property since purchasing his first commercial property in the 1990's for his own Chartered Accountancy business. But his first property investment project was to turn an old dilapidated restaurant into a large 5-bed home, which he purchased for £117,500 and sold for £450,000 (to see an "after" photo of the house before it was sold see here: About). Russell owns a number of investment properties, which includes houses, flats and HMO's. More recently he has turned his creative side to investing in property using lease options. His largest lease option deal to date was to acquire 12 properties worth over £2 million for just £12, which means he paid just £1 to acquire each property!
