With so many property repossessions occurring in UK, the Government is providing extra funding for free legal advice at courts. The fund which currently stands at £750,000 has been doubled to £1.5 million.
This means that all courts in England now provide free legal advice for people who attend repossession hearings in court. Legal services previously funded the repossessed homes desks at court, but this injection of government money has helped double the number of desks in English crown courts.
The government claim that in that four out of five cases these desks help stop immediate repossession or avoid evictions, and that even at this late stage in the repossession process there is hope that a person can avoid losing their home.
This extra funding comes amid recent figures showing huge increases in the numbers of people whose properties were repossessed in the first quarter of 2009. The Council Of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have also released figures which illustrate a 50% increase in repossession levels in the same period.
The announcement comes as the Financial Services Authority is expected to publish figures showing an increase in the number of people who had their homes repossessed during the first quarter of the year. The CML have stated that a record 75,000 homes have been repossessed already this year.
The UK government have introduced a new range of schemes in order to aid people and help avoid home repossession. This includes the Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme which allows people to defer 70% of their interest payments for up to 2 years. Another scheme, the Pre-Action Protocol restricts courts from only issuing repossession orders when there is no other alternative. However, figures show that only 2 homeowners have actually benefitted from this initiative.
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