Home Loan Arrears QA
Q: Can I refinance a mortgage with arrears?
A: Yes. You, as mortgage holders can refinance mortgage arrears.
However, there is a substantial amount of Australian Governmental Compliance to establish benefits. Consequently, these benefits can be both financial benefits to the owner, and any other benefit to you as a loan applicant. As a result, to ensure the home loan arrears issue does not continue, we need to identify its underlying cause. Certainly, if this were the case, the new loan would have a high chance of falling behind on home loan repayments again. Plus, as a worst case scenario would simply incur fees, and the property remains at risk.
Do you need advice or help with your mortgage arrears? Contact Loan Saver Network for confidential assistance.
Q : Are lenders who offer mortgage arrears loans reputable?
A: ASIC registers all lenders in Australia, and they must meet ASIC's requirements.
Some of the requirements include
- hold an Australian Credit Licence
- have an internal and external dispute resolution scheme
- plus meet an exhaustive list of lending requirements to meet Australian lending guidelines.
All loans must meet the term as being “not unsuitable”. Yes, it is an unusual term, but all lenders must prove why a loan is suitable. They have to do this from a starting from a point showing where a loan is unsuitable. From there, they must provide a case about why it is now not unsuitable.
Q: How many months mortgage arrears before repossession?
A: The process to recover or sell your property after your loan falls into arrears can differ from lender to lender depending on their internal collection policy. Below you can read an example relevant to the procedures in Australia:
- Day 1 – monthly mortgage repayments due and not paid.
- Thirty days Default – a lender provides a default notice 30 days after non-payment.
- Indeed a lender must send a "notice to pay" before repossession can occur. Typically, you send this notice within 30 days after the default. If the mortgage allows, the lender can submit it before one month.
- Repossession can occur one month after a lender sends the notice to pay.
- Court orders to instruct a sheriff – legally a lender can change locks and remove occupants from the property one month after the notice to pay. However, a lender will usually proceed to court to obtain instructions for a sheriff to evict the homeowner. Certainly, this is because the lender may expose themselves to liability for civil or criminal damages for using excessive force. As a result, court proceedings can take time.
Repossession and the Credit Ombudsman (AFCA)
Also, delays repossession delays may occur where the lender needs to answer questions to a credit ombudsman complaint. Certainly, this happens in a large number of mortgage arrears cases. Consequently, these can stall and delay the repossession process; however, in most cases, are only a delay tactic.
We have seen repossessions occur six months, and even 12 months after the first non-payment of a home loan.
We have successfully refinanced home loans in arrears with more than 12 months of missed payments on a home loan. These long-term arrears are very rare to see these days, with most cases in the 1 month in arrears to 6-month range. This is because lenders do not tend to leave arrears ongoing for too long.
An escalation of the collection process, or more correctly termed 'lender dedication' to the repossession can occur when a perceived negative equity position is pending or occurred. Since, this is where the collection fees, default fees, default interest, loan interest, legal fees, and court costs are all added to your loan. Specifically, they erode the equity to a point where the loan balance exceeds the value of the property as a forced sale.
The lenders also understand that when a foreclosure occurs, the property is not always left in a satisfactory state for a top-dollar sale. Thus they may obtain a depressed sale value further eroding the funds available to close the loan plus cover refinancing costs.
Do you need advice or help with your mortgage arrears? Contact Loan Saver Network for confidential assistance.
Q: What are the common causes of mortgage arrears in Australia?
A: There are many causes for non-payment of a home loan which all generally come under the term 'capacity to pay'. A diminished capacity to pay causes delays or stoppages in payments.
The capacity to pay a home loan or debts can be reduced in a variety of ways with some listed below:
- Initially, mental incapacity or illness by means of depression or other illness.
- Secondly, physical incapacity – such as an injury or the inability to work is permanently or temporarily affected.
- Thirdly, gambling – When gambling is present, the applicants can usually hold down a job and generate income. Through gambling losses, the capacity to service a loan can be severely diminished.
- Also, loss of a job.
- Income issues caused by cancer; or other serious illness. Also, other illnesses can cost a large amount of income reduction. If normally two people work to bring income into a household and one falls sick, it can have multiple effects. The second person may also have to reduce their hours to assist the other party, which means potentially one wage is lost, and another is halved or even reduced.
- Finally, economic changes are affecting work and hence income.
Once the underlying casue is identified a solution to refinance an arrears and consolidating debts can proceed.
Do you need advice or help with your mortgage arrears? Contact Loan Saver Network for confidential assistance.
Q: Will banks refinance when I have bad credit?
A: We have home loan lenders that can cater for most bad credit issues including paying out a bankruptcy, court judgements and writs, credit defaults and credit score problems. Therefore, the bad credit needs to be understood by the lenders, not attempted to be hidden. Indeed, we understand the requirements of the various lenders, the underlying causes of credit issues, and debt collection processes intimately to enable a smooth finance process from enquiry through to approval and settlement.
Q: Can I refinance only the mortgage arrears amount?
A: Usually, no.
A lender would need to take security against the property for the new loan amount. Therefore, if you are seeking a second mortgage behind your existing mortgage in arrears, the first mortgage lender will not approve the second mortgage because the first mortgage had issues.
Q: Can I just get some mortgage arrears advice?
A: Yes, we are here to help. However, at times a refinance is not possible to clear arrears. Therefore, we are happy to advise on other options, and our loan proposals are free of charge.
Do you need advice or help with your mortgage arrears? Contact Loan Saver Network for confidential assistance.
Q: What types of mortgage arrears fees can a lender charge?
A: Here is a list of fees that may be charged to your loan:
-
- Firstly, default interest
- Secondly, payment reversal fees
- Also, default fees
- Court costs
- Legal fees including repossession costs
- finally, there is, your standard interest rate & cost which accrues to your home loan until the property is sold, and the loan closed.
Q: What are the Mortgage arrears statistics in Australia?
A: As of May 2017, Moodys Investors Service, indicated arrears on home loans reached a five year high. Moodys recorded 30+ days in the arrears delinquency rate of 1.62% of all mortgages. The rise was determined as being related to the weakening of the mining sector, higher underemployment, and a less than favourable housing market in some arrears.
Q: What is mortgage hardship assistance? What is the benefit over a full refinance?
A: Mortgage arrears hardship assistance is a regulated governmental policy that all consumer mortgages must offer. It is an internal process to assist consumers in rectifying home loan arrears. Some solutions might be to add the arrears to the end of the loan or make higher payments over a short term to help bring the home loan out of arrears.
The benefit is cost-saving. Mortgage arrears default hardship policy is driven by the lenders, and there are no set-up costs. Not all cases of financial hardship are granted. At times the requirements for higher payments cannot be met, hence the next viable option would be a full refinance.
In most cases, the expected repayment to bring the loan out of arrears could be much higher than the payment on a new loan; even with higher interest rates. We would need to assess your new loan repayment, which we would provide as a result of our loan arrears assessment. This is included in our free loan arrears proposal.
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