If your mortgage lender or landlord contacts you because you are in arrears you should not ignore them. If you feel you cannot deal with the problem it is essential that you get a trusted friend, your local Mind association or your carer to contact them. Your home may be repossessed (if you have a mortgage) or you may be evicted (if you rent your home).
Quite often you may have to deal with unsympathetic staff who do not understand your mental health problem. If you are prepared for this and don't take it personally but explain your difficulties to them in a calm way this may work better for you. Alternatively, as mentioned it might be easier to get someone else who is not emotionally involved to contact them for you.
Your mortgage lender or landlord cannot evict you without a court order. Even a lender or landlord who has been given the legal right by a court to repossess the property in which you live may still be happy to negotiate with you to repay the arrears.
If your mortgage lender or landlord starts action against you, it is important to get advice as quickly as possible. Shelter or Citizens Advice or other sources of free independent, confidential advice will be able to help you. If you need to contact a solicitor it might be worth checking if they offer advice under the Legal Aid scheme so that you might be able to receive some or all of the advice from them at no charge.
The Shelter website is a good source of information about keeping your home, eviction, homelessness and other housing issues.
Someone you owe money to, a company or an individual, can apply to a court to get you to repay the debt. The court to which they apply and the action they can take against you will depend on the type of debt owed.
A County Court Claim is one of the most common types of court action. Once a claim is made the Court will decide whether the money is owed and whether and how you should repay it.
If it decides that you owe the money and should repay it, then it may issue an order against you telling you to repay the money. This is called a County Court Judgment (CCJ).
If you do not pay within one month of the date of the order, your CCJ will be added to the Register of County Court Judgments. Banks, building societies and credit companies use this Register to decide whether they will give you credit, loans or a mortgage so it is better to avoid being on the Register.
If you receive a letter from a court telling you that someone has made a claim against you then you should not ignore it. You should make sure that you return any response forms to the court by the necessary date.
Remember that you can get help with this by contacting Citizens Advice, National Debtline or another organisation that provides advice.
To find out more about County Court Claims and Judgments you can go to the government's information website Directgov.
If a court makes a judgment against you and you do not repay the debt, then your creditor may apply to get the judgment against you enforced. A court judgment can be enforced in a number of ways including:
Remember you can get help with this by contacting Citizen's Advice, National Debtline or another organisation that provides advice.
More information about County Court Claims and Judgments is available on the government's information website Directgov.
Not paying certain debts may eventually lead to prison. These include council tax, income tax and VAT and maintenance to an ex-partner or your children. In most cases people are only threatened with or sent to prison for non-payment of debts in the most severe cases. If this happens to you, seek advice from a solicitor or another advice provider.