Preventing Mortgage Repossessions
Workshop A outline – North West event – 25th February 2014
General introduction:
North West pipeline stats – as at the end of Jan 2014 there were 135 live case reported to HCA
LA areas in NW with most cases in the pipeline are:
Liverpool – 14
Sefton -12
Knowsley – 11
Tameside – 10
Followed by Bury, Oldham and Rochdale (9)
There have been 736 MRS two referrals in the North West since it started in April 2011
LAs from not from the NW region at the event are:
Wolverhampton (9) Dudley (1) High Peak (2)
Some information for discussion in groups – example feedback from Lucy Graham at Plumlife received as part of the MRS two lessons learned consultation:
Plumlife plans for successful completion of pipelines cases:
· Will be keeping a close eye on grant spend from December onwards , every new referral received will be added to the IMS and internal spreadsheets to ensure they can keep LA’s up to date with what grant is left to spend.
· Plumlife have asked the LA’s to complete a proforma to confirm cases in the pipeline and have encouraged Las to send referrals in a timely manner to avoid a situation in March 2014 where Plumlife may not have the grant allocation to facilitate completions.
· Plumlife will be asking for extra grant if we feel it is required to cover the pipeline expected.
· Post March 2014, although a member of the team may be lost they will still have enough staff to ensure completions take place in a timely manner. As new cases will not be arriving from April 2014 the MRS team will have much more time to concentrate on the remaining cases.
· Plumlife do however still require help and support from their LA and money advice partners as they will be information required that Plumlife cannot obtain directly
· Plumlife also believe that post MRS completions households will still require the advice and support post rescue.
· Plumlife envisage at the end of March 2014, they may experience problems with LA engagement as team members will be relocated or even redundant, this will pose a massive issues as LA support is vital.
Barriers experienced by Plumlife in MRS 2 delivery
· The decent homes works cap, when this came into play Plumlife the cancellation rate doubled. 80% of cancellations are down to the works being over the agreed cap.
· Plumlife have several ways of getting around this one including contributions from LA PRF which has helped in a number of cases. Plumlife have also asked the first mortgage lender to take a ‘hit’ for the amount of money the works sometimes over £3-4k.
· Recently there have been problems with relationship breakdown cases, whereby the partner that has moved out can be difficult to contact and sometimes are not willing to go ahead with MRS. To date we haven’t identified a specific solution other than contact from ourselves and the local authority.
An example of how a barrier was overcome by Plumlife working in partnership
An MRS case where there was a £50k shortfall on the redemption figure and the lender was not willing to accept a monthly payment proposal, the Plumlife team along with the help of the local authority were able to offer the lender a final settlement payment of £5k from the PRF in exchange for the releasing the charge and write off the remaining shortfall.
There was a lot of perseverance involved from the Local Authority and Plumlife, with many negotiation telephone calls to the lender.
Plumlife believe partnership working with the local authority and the lender being on board with MRS was key to this type rescue being successful
Some feedback around practice from Michele Russon at Warrington council:
Case Handling Issues
The authority feels they could have utilized Mortgage Rescue Scheme more and assisted more clients if Warrington Housing Association had been the zone agent for our area or syndicated partner. The process would be less time consuming and as a result less stressful for the clients if the process was more localised.
Warrington could have had more success if been able to allocate dedicated resources e.g. a full time MRS Officer. The MRS role was carried out as part of an Officers normal caseload.
Warrington Good Practice example
Set up an Interest Free Loan Scheme managed by Warrington Housing Association. They use the loan scheme for the MRS shortfalls and to prevent homelessness by paying mortgage arrears. The Loan Scheme has enabled the authority to assist more clients because the funds are recycled. Warrington plan to continue to assist households using this option once MRS closes.
During the MRS process Warrington have built up a strong working relationship with Warrington Housing Association. This has included joint visits to negotiate with clients partners, to ensure the MRS completes and to ensure that MRS was the most suitable option
Some of successful MRS clients were so thankful that they are now volunteers for Warrington Housing Association, helping other households through the process.
Warrington have explored the option with Warrington Housing of maintaining a local MRS if funding was available.
Other good practice examples – use of Preventing Repossessions Fund in Bolton from Carole Jackson
Bolton have used Repossessions Prevention Fund to utilise staff working to prevent repossessions.
Bolton PRF Money Advice/ Mortgage arrears
The authority funded a P/T Money Advice Development Officer (MADO). The cost for this in 2012/13 was £22,165 which prevented at least 60 homeowners losing their homes this equates to an amount of less than £370 per home saved.
The MADO Works closely with the Home Ownership service (HOS) to help those with mortgage arrears negotiate affordable payments with lenders to prevent escalation of court action and arrears
The MADO also undertakes the following activities:
· Together with the Senior Home Ownership Advisor co-ordinates the court duty rota at Bolton County Court for mortgage arrears
· Provides Advice and representation at court as part of the court duty rota
· Provides money advice for Mortgage Rescue cases to ensure housing is sustainable following rescue
· Provides money advice for PRF loans / grants to look at the best option and ensure loans are affordable
· Provides debt awareness training for housing officers whose tenants have rent arrears
· Provides support and advice to housing advisors and homeless welfare officers
In 2012/13 MADO has
· prevented repossession for 44 cases at county court
· provided money advice for 14 MRS cases (6 of whom have completed)
· provided money advice for 2 PRF loan/grant cases
In addition MADO trained 20+ key staff in debt awareness and dealing with debt which would have helped an indeterminate number of tenants deal with their rent arrears.
Bolton Money Mentor Support
The PRF has also funded 17 hours of a Money Skills Development Worker (SMSDW) to co-ordinate the activities of 6 Community Based Money Mentors. Five hours of a Senior MSDW is also funded to supervise and manage this work.
The cost for this in 2012/13 was £19,024 which has helped 86 customers maintain their housing costs.
Our Money Mentors have been trained to level 3 and are working in communities helping customers with:-
• Budgeting
• Completion of DHP forms and Local Support applications
• Completion of United Utility applications
• Help with online claims for benefits (where available)
• Finding ways to reduce expenditure and maximise income to meet shortfalls through changes in housing and council tax benefit
• Changing their budgeting from weekly/fortnightly to monthly
• Signing up to gmfairenergy.com
• Signing up to HOOT (Bolton’s Credit Union)
Between May 2012 – to the present - the work undertaken by Bolton Money Mentors includes:
• 116 face to face budgeting appointments
• 57 customers have received targeted support
• 29 customers have received other assistance
• 24 frontline staff / volunteers have received awareness / support
The demand for this service is increasing and will continue to do so as welfare reforms impact on customers.
Loans/Grants
Bolton has also given a few grants and a couple of loans from the PRF in 2013/14.
Examples as follows:
· Mrs S - a grant of £1,400 was used as the case was over the cap for decent homes standard in MRS with £90 to cover costs relating to insurance needed in respect of covenants.
· Mrs L – a loan of £236.00 was used to help her pay her contractual monthly mortgage of £256.00 on time and therefore allow sale of property to proceed. She repaid us in full.
Workshop A – group discussions – 20 mins – MRS two close down and case completions
1. Completing the MRS two programme any major issues faced – discuss suggested solutions
2. Communications plans - internally, with partners and the general public regarding the close down of MRS two
3. Discuss the ideas proposed from NW examples - making things work locally
4. Supporting the pipeline pre and post MRS closure – any case handling issues e.g. HB under-occupation issues, universal credit and other welfare reform considerations
5. MRS lessons learned/good practice /partnership working – will this continue and who will lead?
6. What will you do with those MRS cases that don’t complete other PRF schemes such as Breathing Space/loans/grants – share ideas and practice
7. Examples of plans of local replacement MRS provision
Plenary session
Sub-groups return to main group and facilitator pulls together issues/concerns raised on flip chart.
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