NI Repossessions 'To Be Highest In UK'

The Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service has today published statistics for writs and originating summonses issued in respect of mortgages in the Northern Ireland High Court.

During the third quarter of 2010, 825 writs and originating summonses were issued. The comparable figure for the third quarter in 2009 was 807 showing a 2% increase in the number of mortgage cases received in Chancery against the same period in 2009. However, not all writs and originating summonses lead to eviction or repossession.

UK repossessions as a whole are set to fall during the first half of 2011 (15,557 to 01 July) and rise during the second half of the year (17,700) - but Northern Ireland is expected to experience the worst rate in the UK (0.83% - 2,540), with repossession rates significantly higher than other regions.

This reflects the 10.2% fall in house prices that have occurred in the region in the last year combined with the region's links to the troubled Republic of Ireland economy.

That's according to the first regionally-based forecast which has been produced by financial outsourcer HML.

Based on an analysis of 320,000 live mortgage accounts HML predicts 33,257 houses (0.3% of all mortgaged properties) will be repossessed across the UK during 2011.

On the UK mainland, repossession rates are likely to be above average in Wales (0.37% - 1,914), London (0.34% - 4,159), the West Midlands (0.33% - 3,406) and the North East (0.33% - 1,557)

The South West (0.18% - 1,829) is forecast to see the lowest proportion of repossessions in the UK, by a considerable margin.

HML Chief Commercial and Finance Officer Neil Warman said: "Despite the challenging economic environment, the downward trend in repossessions we saw last year is set to continue for the first half of this year.

"However repossessions will then begin to rise during the second half as a number of macroeconomic factors start to impact on homeowners and influence lender behaviour.

"Of particular concern this year will be the impact of rising inflation and interest rates on hard-pressed homeowners and the effect of continuing job losses.

"However, these are unlikely to feed through into increased repossessions during the early part of this year.

"Looking at 2012 we see increased affordability pressures for borrowers who are in work together with the lagged effect of job losses in the public sector and benefit cuts. We forecast this will lead to a slight increase in repossessions during the year to a total of between 35,000 and 40,000," he said.

A plaintiff begins an action for an order for possession of property. The court, following a judicial hearing, may grant an order for possession. This entitles the plaintiff to apply to have the defendant evicted. However, even where an order for eviction is issued the parties can still negotiate a compromise to prevent eviction.

See: Numbers In Mortgage Arrears Rise By 5,000

(GK)