Seconds out

Sub-prime lenders, credit card companies, debt collection agencies and even some local authorities with council tax outstanding are threatening to evict homeowners as a result of debts as little as £1,000.

It’s a crisis that’s happening daily in courts around the country but has gone relatively undetected at a national level. High on the list of victims are shared owners and former council tenants who exercised the right to buy.

Although the number of repossession claims by high street lenders at county and district courts has fallen in the past few months, sub-prime lenders and loan companies have not let up in their pursuit of people who have got into arrears, often as a result of unemployment or long-term sickness.

Case workers are expecting a deluge of repossession cases in the coming months as a result of second charges as unemployment begins to bite.