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All mortgage help

Payment difficulties

Mortgage payment difficulties

Managing finances can be difficult at the best of times and with the added challenges we’re all facing because of coronavirus, meeting your monthly mortgage payments might be a big concern for you at the moment.

There are a number of options available that could reduce your mortgage payments – or stop them for a short while. It’s important that you know what these options are but also that you fully understand the implications they might have for the future. You can use our calculator to help you understand the impact of some of these options to your overall mortgage and monthly payments. This link will direct you to a third party website.

You’ll find information here about what we can do to help and what your next steps should be. We’ve also given details of other organisations that can offer free financial help and support. Take a good look through and when you’re ready to talk to us, fill in our mortgage help and support form and we’ll call you within 72 hours (excluding weekends and Bank Holidays), it would be helpful if you had a copy of the budget planner with details of your monthly income and outgoings handy for when we call. 

New mortgage payment holidays

If you’re struggling to meet your mortgage payments, you haven’t already applied for a mortgage payment holiday and you’re eligible, you can request a full mortgage payment holiday. There’s no need to call us – just fill in our online form and we’ll action your request as soon as possible. If you would like to apply for a partial mortgage payment holiday please fill in the mortgage help and support form.

Remember – if your next mortgage payment is due within five days of your request, you’ll still need to make that payment. The mortgage payment holiday will start from the following month.

You’ll find everything you need to know about payment holidays in our mortgage payment holiday FAQs.

FAQs

If you've come to the end of your mortgage payment holiday

If you’ve taken your full mortgage payment holiday and you’re still concerned about meeting your monthly mortgage payments, there are a number of other options we can look at that could make things easier for you.

Whatever you decide to do, it’s important to talk to us if you can’t make your payments. If we don’t know what your situation is, a missed payment could impact on your credit record. But if we’re aware that you’re struggling, we can review your circumstances and explain how we may be able to help you.

What can we do to help?

All of the following options could help to relieve the pressure of your mortgage payments, but they do have implications and you’ll need to take these into account. 

Extend your mortgage payment holiday

If you think you will still struggle to meet your mortgage payments after taking a mortgage payment holiday we may in some circumstances be able to extend it for an additional three months, just fill in our mortgage help and support form and we’ll be in touch. This option is currently available until 31 March 2021.

Extend the term of your mortgage

If you have a repayment mortgage (where you pay part of the loan + interest back each month), spreading the repayments over a longer period of time will reduce your monthly payments.

However, it means that you’ll have a mortgage for longer and pay more interest than you would have done originally. But you can always reduce your term again in the future if things improve for you.

Switch to a new mortgage product 

If you can afford to make part of your payment each month, changing the type of mortgage product you have could change the rate of interest you pay. This could reduce your monthly payment. But remember, your mortgage product may have Early Repayment Charges that still apply.

If you choose to do this, we can look at the mortgages we have available and their interest rates and see if changing to a new one could help. 

Take a partial mortgage payment holiday

We could arrange for you to take a partial mortgage payment holiday (temporarily make underpayments) – for up to three months. You can do this online by filling in our mortgage help and support form. This option is currently available until 31 March 2021.

Temporarily switch to an interest-only mortgage

We may be able to arrange for you to transfer to an interest-only mortgage in the short term.

This will reduce your payments but it’s important to remember that you won’t be paying back any of the original amount borrowed and it will have to be repaid in the future. However, if you can afford to keep paying back the interest each month, this may give you the time you need until your circumstances improve.

Your next steps

If you’d like to speak to a member of our specialist team about your options first, fill in our mortgage help and support form as the information you provide will help to choose the right option for you, and we’ll call you within 72 hours (excluding weekends and Bank Holidays). Please don’t cancel your mortgage payment until we have spoken to you.

We recommend you fill in a simple budget planner beforehand with details of your monthly income and outgoings – this will give us (and any other creditors you speak to) a good understanding of your financial situation.

Mortgage help and support form
If you’d prefer to call us

We’ve made a lot of information available online for you as we expect our phone lines to be busy so please use this information and the relevant forms where possible.

However, if you’d prefer to, you can still call us on 0800 121 8765. But it may take a while for us to answer your call.

When you call, it would be helpful if you could have the following information to hand:

  • Your account number
  • Your income and expenses

This will give us a good understanding of your financial situation when we speak to you.

Other help and support available

Unsecured personal loan accounts
If you have an unsecured personal loan you are able to apply for a payment holiday. Please call us on 0800 121 8899 to discuss this. This option is currently available until 31 March 2021.


Government-backed schemes
There are various government schemes offering financial and income support for people affected by coronavirus. Whether you’re working, self-employed or not currently working, you may be eligible for some support. Find out more at www.gov.uk/coronavirus

 

Free debt advice
The following organisations offer debt advice, help, guidance and budget planning. It won’t cost you anything to get advice from them and they’ll look at your situation as a whole – with all of your creditors, not just us.

If you don’t feel ready to speak to anyone just yet, they also have lots of useful information online. 
 

Check your insurance policies
If you have payment protection, income protection or critical illness cover, your insurance policy may help you cover your payments for a while.

if you miss payments under normal circumstances


We really hope that the guidance we’ve given is useful and that we can find a way of helping you. But if we don’t get to speak to you to make arrangements and you start to miss your monthly payments, then we need to make you aware of what could happen: This doesn’t apply if you have an arrangement with us due to the coronavirus situation.

  • Missed payments will be reported to Credit Reference Agencies and this will have a negative impact on your credit rating.
  • If we have to write to you about unarranged arrears, we’ll charge you administration costs.
  • We may ask an independent organisation to visit you at home to discuss your financial situation. Any costs will be added to your mortgage account.
  • Ultimately if arrears continue, we will have to consider recovering our balance through the courts. This is always the last resort and one we rarely have to take but it will incur a significant cost and this will impact on any equity you have in the property.

If the worst happens and we have to repossess your home 
Currrently all repossession procedures are paused during the coronavirus pandemic

  • We’ll sell the property within a reasonable timescale for the best price we can reasonably get.
  • Any surplus funds will be passed onto you or second charge holders.
  • If there’s a shortfall, that is, the sale of the property doesn’t cover the balance outstanding, we’ll contact you to arrange a payment plan with you. We’ll take into account your income and outgoings to make sure it’s reasonable and that you can afford it.
  • If we can’t arrange a suitable plan, we may have to go to court to get our money back – if we do this, you’ll be liable for any court costs and your credit rating could be affected in the future.

It’s never too late to talk to us

We can make an arrangement with you at any time so if you’re struggling to make your payments, or you’re worried about missing a payment, please contact us as soon as possible.

Fill in our mortgage help and support form and we’ll call you within 72 hours.

We’ll do our very best to help.

Mortgage help and support form

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Coventry Building Society is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (firm reference number 150892). Coventry Building Society. Principal Office: Economic House, PO Box 9, High Street, Coventry CV1 5QN.

For all enquiries call 0800 121 8899

Calls to 0800 numbers are free when made from the UK. You may be charged for calls to all other numbers, please contact your service provider for further details. We may monitor, record, store and use telephone calls to help improve our service and as a record of our conversation.