The economy has made it tough on most consumers with the high interest rates and real estate owners are the ones who seem to be getting hit the hardest. With the combination of increasing interest rates and high inflation rates, many home owners are having a difficult time affording their monthly bond payments. Some are hit so hard that they’re facing a potential property repossession. They feel ashamed and hopeless, not knowing which way to turn. The good news is that there are ways to avoid and stop repossession of your home.

When you have a bond with a bank for the purchase of a home, two parties are involved: you and your banker. When you have trouble making this payment, the same two people are involved: you and your banker. If you feel as if there is no help you can give yourself, contact your bank to see what type of assistance they have to offer. Some of the help they may offer can be:

- A “holiday” or “grace” period of 3 to 6 months where you don’t have to make your monthly bond payment. This period can be used to reevaluate your financial situation to see where changes can be made, to pay off other debts and just “catch up”.

Read the rest of this entry

Having financial difficulties and not being able to make your bond/mortgage payment is nothing to be ashamed about yet many people are both humiliated and ashamed when they have this problem, which could ultimately lead to repossession. Rather than bury your head in the sand and pretend the problem doesn’t exist, you need to get it in the open and talk about it at the very start of your financial difficulties.

The longer you ignore this unfortunate repossession setback, the harder it’s going to get for you and the bank. Also, if you wait too long to deal with the problem the bank is not going to be quite as willing to help you and stop repossession of your home. Banks do not like repossessing homes because it is a hassle for them and it costs them money but they will be more willing to help you in the beginning of your difficulties rather than waiting until you are in serious trouble.

Financial advisors or accountants can often be very helpful during this difficult time in your life. If you know of an accountant or financial advisor, don’t be scared to talk to them about your problems and don’t feel embarrassed to do so. They are educated in helping you and can look at your financial situation and come up with ideas that may help you or they can suggest someone who is able to give you free assistance with your financial situation in order to help you prevent repossession of your property. Not only can they help you with your financial predicament but they can also do it very quickly before too much time goes by.

Read the rest of this entry

What seemed at one time almost a sure certainty that you would keep your home no questions asked, unfortunately has turned around into quite the opposite for many financially distressed homeowners. The high interest rates and increasing inflation rates have made it very difficult for people in good financial shape to stay on top of their bills. Those that find themselves suffering from catastrophes and circumstances beyond their control like redundancy, illness, divorce or separation are having a difficult time meeting their financial obligations each month and fear they may suffer from a home repossession. The good news is, it is most certainly possible to stop repossession.

Homeowners have every reason to fear losing their homes as the rate of repossession  in South Africa has almost doubled in the past 3 years and this started when the interest rates were not near as high as they are today, adding to the troubles homeowners have in making their bond payment.

Despite the home repossession rate, it can be alot simpler than anticipated to hold on to your property and prevent repossession completely. Something common that many home owners tend to do is to literally give up and ignore the problem hoping it will fix itself. All that eventually happens is that the arrears continually build up as well as penalty charges. By facing their problem head on, they’ll realize that they can prevent repossession from happening.

Read the rest of this entry

Facing repossession can be a very emotional time in our lives. At the end of the day, as emotional as it is, it needs to be dealt with in the early stages. It is no myth that a dliemma as serious as this won't simply vanish into thin air if action is not taken. Many home owners unfortunately do tend have this attitude as they are unaware of how to deal with the situation at hand and it’s a lot easier to just run away from the problem. It is natural to think that we are doomed either way when the bank informs us that they are about to step in and repossess our property. Emotional situations like this can be very hard on one's personal life and can even effect one's health quite singificantly. It need not necessarily be this way though, the good news is that repossession can be avoided.

It is important to remember that there is no reason to be embarrassed of your situation if facing repossession. These things tend to happen in life and are often caused by no fault of our own. Rather than burying ourselves in our own self-pity, the best thing to do in a situation like this is to take action, and take action immediately in order to stop repossession of your home.

It is natural for most home owners to feel like giving up and simply handing the keys over to their bank, however this can have extremely negative repercussions down the line such as obtaining a bad credit record. This typically means that the home owner’s name  will be black-listed. Once a home owner gets a bad credit record they will typically be banned from the credit industry for the next 5 – 10 years. Having a bad credit record would also mean that something as basic as renting a property in future may prove to be difficult as most landlords perform credit checks before signing a tenant up. They will also be declined for basically any type of credit application that they apply for. This would include applications for credit cards, shopping accounts, cellphone contracts etc.

Read the rest of this entry