Financial Difficulties
No one knows what life will throw at them, so in the event that unforeseen circumstances make it difficult for you to keep up with your mortgage payments, please talk to us and we’ll do what we can to help.
The first thing to do is to tell us.
If you are having financial difficulties, which may cause you to struggle with your monthly mortgage payments, it’s important that you contact us as soon as possible so as we can help you manage your payments, minimise further charges and hopefully avoid putting your home at risk.
Please don’t ignore the problem and hope it goes away.
What we will do
- Discuss the problem with you and help you find a solution
- Offer reasonable time to pay back any debt
- Talk to an agency which gives debt advice, such as Citizen’s Advice, on your behalf
- Only proceed to repossess your home as a last resort
How we can help
- Arrange a new payment plan, taking both your and our interests into account
- Change how you make your payments, or the date on which you make them
- Increase the term of the mortgage which would reduce the monthly payments
- Change the type of mortgage you have
If none of these options are suitable, we will explain why. If we can help with one of the above options, we will make you an offer and give you reasonable time to consider it.
Another option may be that we agree to you staying in the property in order that you may sell it depending on your circumstances.
How you can help us to help you
- It's important that you try to tell us as soon as you think you have a problem
- If we contact you, please try to get back to us as quickly as possible
- Seek debt advice if you would like help in managing your finances
- If you have someone acting as guarantor on your mortgage, make sure you tell them of your circumstances
- Keep to the payment plan we agree with you.
If there is a change in your circumstances that may affect the new arrangement, please tell us. If you cannot make the agreed payments, we may have to take legal action to retrieve the money, or ultimately, repossess your property.
Please, always talk to us if you are struggling with your mortgage payments.
Other sources of help to consider
- Check whether you may be entitled to any state benefits or tax credits which could increase your income
- Check your insurance policy to see if it could help with your payments
- Get free, independent professional advice from a Debt Counsellor, before changing your mortgage arrangements.
Cost and charges
A major reason why you should tell us swiftly if you are having difficulty keeping up payments, is to limit the amount of charges, which will be applied to mortgage arrears.
We must charge for reasonable administrative and legal costs in accordance with our Tariff of Charges.
In addition, you may not qualify for a preferential interest rate on expiry of any existing deal you may have.
Property in joint or multiple names
If you bought your home with other borrowers, each of you is equally responsible for all the money borrowed, even if you only pay part of the mortgage.
Complaints
If you wish to make a complaint about Progressive or feel that we have treated you unfairly, please contact:
Senior Manager (Lending), Progressive Building Society, 33-37 Wellington Place, Belfast.
If your complaint is not sorted to your satisfaction, you may then take it to the Financial Ombudsman, which provides a free and independent service for consumers:
The Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR
Other issues to be aware of
Please be aware of companies that approach you and offer you loans, or even invite you to sell your property to them and lease it back as a way of resolving short-term financial difficulty.
Such actions may not be in your best interest long term. So it’s best to seek independent advice before entering into an arrangement of this type.
You may even just want hand your keys over to us. If you take this approach, you will still owe us any outstanding debt so we always advise you to talk to us and we’ll do our best to agree a plan that works for all involved.
FAQs
What if an agreement cannot be reached?
If a solution cannot be reached, we may have to start proceedings to repossess your home. If this happens, we strongly recommend that you attend court and seek independent debt advice.
Please note that repossession is a last resort.
Starting court proceedings doesn’t necessarily mean you will lose your home and we will keep working with you to try to find a solution.
Before we take such steps, we will encourage you to contact the NI Housing Executive to see if they can help you find somewhere to live if the worst does happen, and you lose your home.
What happens if repossession does occur?
We will sell your home for the best price possible.
We will then use the money raised from the sale to pay off your mortgage and any other loans and charges.
If there is any money left over, we will pay it back to you.
What if selling the home doesn’t cover the mortgage amount?
If there are insufficient funds to pay off the whole mortgage after selling your home, you will owe the amount outstanding.
We will tell you how much this is as soon as possible.
We will then contact you after the property is sold to arrange for you to pay back the outstanding sum.
We will take account of your income and outgoings when we arrange a payment plan for this shortfall debt with you, however if we cannot arrange a suitable plan, we may go back to court to get our money back. You might have to pay additional court costs.
Speak to our team today
If you have a query regarding your existing mortgage product or require information on our range of products you can call us, email us or pop into one of our 12 branches. We look forward to hearing from you.