I have just recieved a summons for possession of property from my county court. i have fallen behind by #1,500 but i have the amount now should i write a letter to the societys soliciters explaining this and ask if they want to settle out of court and me continue with my payments as normal. if they don't accept will i lose my house .please help.

-- neil watts (nelwatt@cwcom.net), July 27, 1999

Answers

I assume that you want to keep your house?? Then pay in the money to the building society branch (not the solicitor they have a habit of sitting on money and not advising the lender they've got it) and make sure you get a receipt and written confirmation that the possession hearing will not go ahead. Also write to their solicitors and get confirmation from them.

With the summons there will be a "reply to possession summons" form. This is your chance to defend yourself. Even though you've paid up the arrears, a formal court document has been served and you should complete it, as it is in your favour. In part 4, you can you can say that you have paid money to the lender since the summons was issued, and in part 5, how much and when. Parts 6 to 9 assume that you want to pay your arrears off by instalments.

Personally I would leave out the other sections about how much money you earn etc because I don't think its none of their business now that you have paid your arrears. But complete part 27, giving details of circumstances which led to you being in arrears and say that this was a one off etc and you *can* afford the repayments on your mortgage. (Assuming that you can!!) Because you have paid off your arrears, the court are highly unlikely to grant a repossession order.

Keep chasing up the society if you do not get confirmation that the possession summons has been cancelled. Make sure you check with the court also. If you are told verbally by the solicitor/lender that they are not going ahead with the hearing, that is not enough, you want the court to tell you the same. I cannot emphasise this enough. In my case, the solicitor told me it was nothing to do with them anymore and I couldn't get any sense out of the lender, but according to the court record, the hearing was still going ahead, I went to the hearing myself and told the court what had happened, and the repossession was refused.

Good Luck.

-- denise cassidy (pendle@amun-ra.demon.co.uk), July 27, 1999.