What to do if you can't afford your mortgage
You have more time and more options than the letters make it sound. Here is what to do, in order. Free advice, right now, from people who aren't us: StepChange 0800 138 1111 · Shelter 0808 800 4444 · Citizens Advice 0800 144 8848 · MoneyHelper 0800 138 7777.
Get a Free Cash Offer Call us nowDo these in order. Free advice first. Your lender's legal duties second. Government help third. Selling only if there is no realistic way to keep up the payments. The protections around you are stronger than the letters make them sound.
Quick answer: Ring your lender, ideally before you miss a payment. Under FCA rules and the Mortgage Charter they have to consider help, such as a short interest-only spell or spreading the mortgage over more years. Missing a payment doesn't mean losing your home. Repossession only comes at the end of a long, regulated process. Free advice numbers are at the top of this page. Selling, cash sale included, is one option, not the first one.
Three steps, if selling turns out to be the honest answer
Make the free calls at the top of this page first. This is what happens if you still decide to sell.
Step 1
Tell us where you standFill in the form at the bottom of this page. Two minutes. Say if you're in arrears or if court papers have arrived.
Step 2
Get your offer the same dayIn writing, valid for 14 days. Our best offer, first time, priced on the house itself rather than a formula.
Step 3
You pick the completion dateYour solicitor gets the redemption figure from your lender. Most sales complete in 7 to 28 days, or later if you need longer.
Get free advice tonight if you're in trouble
Before anything else on this page, make two free phone calls. They are open into the evening, they aren't selling anything, and they will help.
- StepChange Debt Charity, 0800 138 1111. Monday to Friday 8am-8pm, Saturday 8am-4pm. The UK's largest free debt advice charity, FCA-authorised. They will do a full income and expenditure assessment, identify benefits you may be entitled to, and tell you whether your position is recoverable through lender forbearance or whether something more is needed.
- Citizens Advice, 0800 144 8848 (England). Free, impartial, in person or by phone. Local offices in Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley with debt-specialist caseworkers.
- MoneyHelper (the Money and Pensions Service, statutorily funded), 0800 138 7777. Webchat and WhatsApp also available at moneyhelper.org.uk.
- Shelter, 0808 800 4444. The housing emergency line, particularly relevant once court letters arrive.
- National Debtline, 0808 808 4000. Monday to Friday 9am-8pm.
Saying nothing is what makes this worse. Debt puts people in real danger, and the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute has found that creditor letters and silence at home are what tip people over. Phone someone today. Tell a partner, a brother or sister, a friend. It only gets harder to say, and the money gets worse while you wait.
Then make the second call, to your lender's mortgage support team. Ask for "the team that deals with customers in financial difficulty". Under the Mortgage Charter and the FCA's MCOB 13 rules, asking for help doesn't affect your credit file. It puts you inside the protections set out below.
Work out where you actually stand: mortgage payment calculator
See your real number before you read anything else. Put in what you still owe, the rate you're on (or dreading), and the years left. It also shows what your payment becomes if rates rise again.
Mortgage payment calculator
Enter your loan, rate and term. Numbers update as you type. No data leaves your browser.
If your rate rises at renewal
Honestly, does that monthly figure work for your household?
Good. Keep that buffer, and read the rest of this page anyway.
If the figure works, your priority is staying ahead of any rate change at renewal. The Mortgage Charter (next section) lets you lock in a new rate up to six months before your current deal ends without penalty. The forbearance options below also exist for short, unexpected shocks: illness, redundancy, divorce, even when the underlying mortgage is affordable in normal times.
You're in the zone the Mortgage Charter was built for.
The Charter lets you switch to interest-only for six months, or spread the mortgage over more years. Either one cuts your monthly payment. There's no affordability check and no mark on your credit file. Read the Charter section below before you do anything else.
If the sums still don't work after that, selling on your own terms beats waiting for a forced sale. You still have equity and time now. That route is further down the page.
You're not alone, and the order of what to do next matters.
Make the two free calls at the top of this page first. StepChange and your lender's hardship team. Both are free, neither will judge you, and asking the lender for help is not a credit-file event under the Mortgage Charter. They have legal duties to try forbearance, term extension and interest-only switches before any repossession step.
If you've already had those conversations and it can't be fixed, selling on your own terms is usually better than waiting for the court. You still have time, equity and a clean title now. We charge no fees, you're under no obligation, and we can give you a written offer the same day so you know what's on the table.
Get a no-obligation cash offerFor illustration only, not financial advice. Your actual payment depends on your lender's product terms, any product fees, and any arrears already on the account. Get personalised free advice from StepChange or MoneyHelper.
What the law says your lender must try first
Your lender has to try everything else before it can repossess. That isn't goodwill, it's the rules. Lenders call it forbearance, which just means giving you room to recover instead of taking the house. The duties come from three places: the FCA's MCOB 13 rules, the Pre-Action Protocol for mortgage possession claims in the Civil Procedure Rules, and the Mortgage Charter on top. Nearly every UK lender is covered.
The FCA's MCOB 13 rules
Your lender must talk to you early, publish its options, and treat repossession as a last resort. That isn't goodwill, it's the rules.
PS24/2 strengthened them
Since November 2024, the rules also require lenders to consider writing off interest or capital in real hardship.
The Pre-Action Protocol
Before court, your lender has to put the arrears to you in writing and consider any sensible offer you make.
Your own sale counts
The protocol treats selling yourself as a proper way to clear arrears, so a realistic sale can pause court action.
The Consumer Duty
Principle 12 covers how arrears are handled. If a lender treats you badly here, the FCA can act on it.
A free solicitor at court
The judge checks the protocol was followed, and a duty solicitor is there for you at the hearing, with no means test.
Not sure where you stand?
Tell us about the property and we'll come back the same day with a written offer, valid for 14 days. No obligation, and no pressure either way.
Get my free cash offerThe Mortgage Charter, in plain English
The Mortgage Charter is a Treasury code that nearly every UK lender has signed. It isn't law. Hundreds of thousands of households have already used it to cut their monthly payment.
The four commitments that matter most for someone struggling to pay:
- You can contact your lender for help and guidance with no impact on your credit file. Picking up the phone isn't a credit-file event. This is the most important Charter commitment and the most under-used.
- You can switch to interest-only for six months, with no affordability check. Your monthly payment drops a long way. At month seven you switch back, with no penalty and nothing on your credit file.
- You can spread the mortgage over more years to cut the monthly payment. No affordability check, and you can switch back within six months. Useful when you could just about cope, but this payment is too steep.
- You won't be forced out of your home in less than 12 months from your first missed payment, except in exceptional cases. That is stronger than the FCA rules on their own, and it gives you real time to plan.
Be clear about one thing: the Charter is a promise, not a law. You can't take a lender to court over it the way you can over MCOB 13, though the FCA does take breaches into account. In practice it is widely honoured. Signatories include Barclays, Lloyds (Halifax, Scottish Widows), HSBC (First Direct), Santander, NatWest, TSB, Virgin Money, Nationwide, Skipton, Yorkshire and Coventry Building Societies. Check the current list at gov.uk before you assume it covers your lender. A few specialist lenders aren't signed up.
What other forbearance options exist if the Charter isn't enough
Your lender has more options behind the Charter ones. They go further, but they involve an affordability check and they usually do show on your credit file. Ask about them if the Charter measures haven't fixed the real problem.
- Adding the arrears to the mortgage. What you're behind by gets rolled into the loan. You're no longer in arrears, but you owe more and the monthly payment is worked out again.
- Reduced monthly payments for an agreed period. Typically 3-6 months at a level the lender judges sustainable.
- Payment holiday. A complete pause of 1-3 months. Interest still accrues.
- Waiver of capital and/or interest. Introduced as a named option by PS24/2 from November 2024. Rare, but now formally available in genuine hardship. Requires substantial documentation.
Two things worth knowing. Your lender has to tell you how each option will show on your credit file before you agree to it, so ask. And if the first answer feels thin, ring back. The first person you speak to is often junior, and a second or third call often gets a better answer. Ask politely for someone senior on the arrears team.
Get any agreement in writing. Oral arrangements with call-handlers are common but the lender's written confirmation is essential.
Government help: Support for Mortgage Interest and local hardship schemes
If your income has dropped because of redundancy, illness, separation or a similar event, two government-funded routes can help bridge the gap.
Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) pays the interest on your mortgage while you're on a qualifying benefit. It's a loan, not a benefit, so it's paid back with interest when you sell or die. It's secured on your house. It covers interest on up to £200,000 of mortgage, or £100,000 if you get Pension Credit. On Universal Credit there's a three-month wait before it starts, so apply early. There's no wait on Pension Credit, and you can be working and still get it. More at MoneyHelper and Shelter.
Most people don't claim SMI, because it's a loan and because of the wait. But if your income will recover, say after an illness or a redundancy you expect to come back from, it's a real help. Ring the DWP now. That call starts the three-month clock.
Apply for Universal Credit as soon as your income drops, even if you think you won't get it. More households qualify than expect to, and the application also starts the SMI clock.
Each South Yorkshire council also runs hardship schemes that can help with the wider household budget while the mortgage piece is being sorted:
- Sheffield City Council. Discretionary Housing Payment and Council Tax Hardship Scheme; cost-of-living guidance at sheffield.gov.uk.
- City of Doncaster Council, Discretionary Housing Payment until 31 March 2026, replaced from April 2026 by the Housing Payment via the Crisis Resilience Fund; Council Tax Reduction up to 100%; Household Support Fund.
- Rotherham MBC, Discretionary Housing Payments (increased funding for 2025/26); Council Tax Reduction; Household Support Fund.
- Barnsley MBC. Discretionary Housing Payments; Council Tax Support; Local Welfare Assistance. Money and debt advice at barnsley.gov.uk.
Ring the council too, don't let council tax slide while you sort the mortgage. Councils chase harder and faster than lenders do. They can get a court liability order within months, and bailiffs follow quickly.
What happens if you do nothing
Want a real figure rather than an estimate?
Two minutes on the form is enough. We price on the property itself, not to a set percentage, and it's our best offer first time.
See what we'd payThe pattern is always the same. Once you're in arrears, the arrears grow. They very rarely shrink on their own.
If your position genuinely can't be recovered, waiting is the most expensive thing you can do. At that point the answer isn't "wait and see". It's a planned sale, in your own time.
When selling is the honest answer
For most people reading this, selling isn't the answer. If the problem is temporary, a fixed rate ending, a short spell out of work, an illness you'll recover from, the lender route works and it's the right one. The Charter, MCOB 13 and SMI exist for exactly that.
Selling becomes the honest answer when the underlying position is structurally unrecoverable. The signs:
- Your remortgage payment is permanently higher than your household can sustainably afford, even after Charter measures and SMI.
- An income event (redundancy, separation, illness) has changed the household balance permanently, not temporarily.
- You have already used most of the available forbearance and the arrears are still growing.
- The lender's letters have moved from "support" tone to formal default notices.
- You are eroding savings, pensions or relationships to keep the position going.
By then the choice isn't selling or staying. It's selling now on your terms, or being sold up later on your lender's. There is usually a lot of money between those two.
If court papers have already arrived, read our selling before repossession page and our how to stop house repossession in South Yorkshire guide instead. This page is for the stage before that.
Selling: your three real options compared
There are three honest ways to sell: an estate agent, an auction, or a cash buyer. The more you want for the house, the longer it takes and the less certain it gets.
Estate agent (open market)
The best price and the slowest. Four to six months here, commission of 1% to 1.8% plus VAT, and conveyancing of about £900 to £1,500.
Auction
Six to twelve weeks, roughly 2% plus VAT, and under the modern method the buyer pays a 4.2% to 5% reservation fee on top.
Cash buyer (us)
The lowest of the three, and the fastest and most certain. 7 to 28 days, and nothing comes off the figure you accept.
Working to a deadline?
Tell us the date. Most sales complete in 7 to 28 days, and if we can't work to your timescale we'll say so straight away.
Talk to us todayA worked example, a Sheffield Hillsborough terrace
Take a real South Yorkshire situation. A three-bedroom terrace in Hillsborough (S6), bought for £180,000 with a £162,000 mortgage. The cheap fixed rate ended, and the monthly payment went from £582 to £839. About £148,000 is still owed, and the house is worth roughly £210,000 today. One earner took a lower-paid job after redundancy, and one mortgage payment has been missed.
Four options and how they honestly compare:
- Option A. Charter interest-only switch for six months. The payment falls to about £583. That's six months of breathing space, with no credit-file hit. The problem comes back at month seven. This is the right answer if the income drop is temporary.
- Option B. Estate agent sale at £210,000. About five months. After the agent, the solicitor and five more mortgage payments, the household is left with around £53,500. That's if the sale holds together, and plenty don't.
- Option C. Auction at £177,000. About eight weeks. After the auctioneer and the solicitor, the household is left with around £21,900.
- Option D. Cash sale to us. Completion in 7 to 28 days. We'd price this house on what it actually is and on what the owner told us, not on a formula, so we won't put a figure on it here. It would be below the agent route. It would also be our best offer at that point, not an opening number we work up from. We can cover your legal fees if you use our panel solicitor. Barely any more mortgage payments, and near-total certainty.
Read honestly, Option B leaves the most money if it completes, and it normally beats a cash sale comfortably. Option A is the best first move if your lender can hold things together long enough for B to happen. Option D only wins in three cases: the lender's patience has genuinely run out, a chain has already collapsed, or money in four weeks is worth more to you than a bigger figure that might not arrive for six months. If your lender has given you room and no court action is looming, take Option B.
Compare options end-to-end on our cash buyer vs estate agent page.
Selling fast to a cash buyer, what it actually looks like
If a cash sale is the right answer, the practical timeline is:
- Initial enquiry (form on this site or phone call). We ask about the property, your situation and the timeline. No fee.
- Assessment and offer (same day). A written offer, priced on what has actually sold in your postcode and on your house itself, not off a formula. It's our best offer at that point, based on what you've told us. We don't open low and work up. The offer is valid for 14 days.
- You take advice. Say yes, say no, or say you need a few days. We won't push you. If you haven't rung StepChange yet, do it now. Get a local estate agent out for a valuation too, so you can check our figure. Agent valuations are free.
- Solicitors instructed. Your own solicitor remains your right at any stage; we cover legal fees only when you use our recommended panel solicitor. Anti-money-laundering ID checks happen here, not before.
- Conveyancing. The solicitors check the title, get the payoff figure from your lender, and exchange contracts. This takes 7 to 28 days, and the fastest cases finish in 7. If you owe more than the house is worth, your lender has to agree to the sale, which adds 2 to 4 weeks.
- Completion. The outstanding mortgage, including arrears and fees, is paid to the lender directly from the sale proceeds at completion. Any balance comes to you.
Three principles that should be true of any cash buyer you deal with, including us:
- You have an unqualified right to use your own solicitor. A buyer who pressures you to use a specific solicitor named only by them is showing you a red flag.
- You should never pay an upfront fee. "Valuation deposits", "admin fees", "refundable holds" are scam patterns. A legitimate cash buyer's costs come out of the sale proceeds at completion, not from your pocket beforehand.
- You should be encouraged, not discouraged, to take independent advice. StepChange, Citizens Advice, a debt solicitor: a buyer who tries to talk you out of any of these is signalling something.
Verifying any cash buyer, the six-check playbook
Some cash buyers are not to be trusted, so check any of us properly, us included. If anyone offers to buy your house and let you stay on as a tenant, walk away. The FCA has prosecuted several firms for running illegal sale-and-rent-back schemes aimed at struggling homeowners, most recently in 2026. Here are six checks you can do yourself.
- Companies House. Look the company up at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Check it exists, is active, has been going at least two years, files its accounts on time, and lists the same directors as its website.
- FCA register (for any activity that touches regulated services, such as sale-and-rent-back). At register.fca.org.uk. A straightforward cash purchase from a willing seller is outside FCA regulation, but anything beyond it should be on the register.
- The Property Ombudsman membership. All legitimate residential property buying companies should be TPO members. Verify at tpos.co.uk.
- NAPB code of practice. The National Association of Property Buyers requires its members to follow TPO's Code of Practice for Residential Property Buying Companies.
- AML registration. Cash-buying activity is in scope of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017; the buyer must be AML-registered, either as an estate agency business or by HMRC. Ask for the registration number.
- ICO registration. Any business handling personal data must be on the ICO register.
Four more warning signs to watch for. Ask for proof of funds, meaning a solicitor's letter on letterhead, dated within the last 14 days, confirming the money is actually there. A real cash buyer can send that within a couple of days. Check the company buying your house is the same one named on the website and at Companies House, because a different name turning up at exchange is a bad sign. Never pay a fee upfront, for anything. And a verbal offer isn't an offer, so get it in writing, with how it was worked out and how long it stands. Ours stands for 14 days.
South Yorkshire specifics, what your house is worth and where to get help
National guides skip the local detail. Here is what matters where you are.
Average house prices (Land Registry HPI, February 2026):
- Sheffield, about £222,000. Higher in S10 and S11 (Hallam, Crosspool, Nether Edge), lower in S2, S5, S6 and S9.
- Doncaster, about £170,000. Lower in the town centre and the ex-pit villages, higher out in the rural north-west.
- Rotherham, around £197,000. Big spread between Wickersley/Bramley (£250k+) and Maltby/Eastwood (£120k).
- Barnsley, about £174,000, and rising fastest of the four.
Local employers. A lot of South Yorkshire households still depend on one big employer. Liberty Steel's troubles at Stocksbridge and Rotherham have put well over a thousand jobs at risk, and many workers have been on reduced wages for months. If your income has dropped because of that, or any other big local employer, tell your lender exactly why. That is the kind of change the Charter and SMI were built for. Ask for the lender's vulnerable customers team.
Local Citizens Advice contacts, with debt-specialist caseworkers:
- Citizens Advice Sheffield & Law Centre, The Circle, 33 Rockingham Lane, Sheffield S1 4FW (also Spital Hill, London Road, Chapel Street, Duke Street). Phone 0114 275 5376 or the national line 0800 144 8848. citizensadvicesheffield.org.uk
- Citizens Advice Doncaster, Highfield House, 9-13 Highfield Road, Doncaster DN1 2LA. Phone 01302 217777.
- Citizens Advice Rotherham, The Rain Building, Eastwood Lane, Rotherham S65 1EQ. Phone 0344 411 1444.
- Citizens Advice Barnsley, 1st Floor, Wellington House, 36 Wellington Street, Barnsley S70 1WA. Adviceline 0800 144 8848. barnsleycab.org.uk
If court paperwork has arrived, you can get a solicitor for free. The Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service gives free legal advice from the day you receive a written possession notice. It also gives you a free duty solicitor at every county court possession hearing, including Sheffield Combined Court Centre, Doncaster County Court, and Rotherham and Barnsley County Court. There's no means test for the in-court help. Call Civil Legal Advice on 0345 345 4345 to be put in touch with a solicitor.
The law on a lender's duty to obtain a proper price
Your lender can't just dump the house at any price. In Cuckmere Brick Co Ltd v Mutual Finance Ltd [1971] Ch 949, the Court of Appeal held that a lender selling under its power of sale must take reasonable care to get the true market value on the day. Silven Properties Ltd v Royal Bank of Scotland plc [2003] EWCA Civ 1409 confirmed and widened that. So if a lender forces an auction and gets far less than a proper private sale would have raised, you can sue it for the difference. Hardly any cash-buyer page mentions this.
So a written cash offer in your hand isn't just a number, it's evidence. A lender that ignores a credible offer and then sells for less at auction is on weaker ground than it thinks. That gives you something to push back with if your lender drags its feet on agreeing to a sale, or rushes to start court action.
Frequently asked questions
Make two free calls. First a debt charity: StepChange on 0800 138 1111, Citizens Advice on 0800 144 8848, or MoneyHelper on 0800 138 7777. Second, your lender's mortgage support team. Under the Mortgage Charter, which nearly every UK lender has signed, asking for help has no effect on your credit file. Tell a partner, brother, sister or friend the same day. Saying nothing makes it worse.
No. Repossession is a last resort, not a first move. The FCA's MCOB 13 rules (strengthened by PS24/2 in November 2024) and the Pre-Action Protocol in the Civil Procedure Rules make your lender try every reasonable option first. Lenders that signed the Mortgage Charter have also promised at least 12 months from your first missed payment before forcing anyone out, except in exceptional cases.
The Mortgage Charter is a voluntary Treasury code that nearly every UK lender has signed, including Barclays, Lloyds (Halifax), HSBC, Santander, NatWest, TSB, Nationwide and most building societies. It lets you switch to interest-only for six months, or spread the mortgage over more years, with no affordability check and no mark on your credit file. Hundreds of thousands of households have already used it to cut their monthly payment. Check the current list of signatories at gov.uk before you assume it covers your lender.
Yes: under the Mortgage Charter, you can switch to interest-only payments for up to six months, or extend your mortgage term, without an affordability check and without it being reported as a forbearance arrangement on your credit file. Both are reversible. You will accrue more interest over the life of the loan, but you won't be marked down for using the Charter.
SMI pays the interest on your mortgage while you're on a qualifying benefit. It's a loan, not a benefit, so it's paid back with interest when you sell or die, and it's secured on your house. It covers interest on up to £200,000 of mortgage, or £100,000 if you get Pension Credit. On Universal Credit there's a three-month wait before it starts, so apply early. There's no wait on Pension Credit. Apply through GOV.UK once you're getting a qualifying benefit.
Yes. Arrears don't stop you selling. The Pre-Action Protocol requires your lender to hold off court action where you can show a realistic sale plan. The mortgage, including the arrears and any fees, is paid off out of the sale money at completion. A cash buyer can often complete fast enough to clear the arrears before the lender gets a possession order. Even once a claim has been issued, the court can suspend the order on condition that the sale goes through.
Selling yourself means you control the price, the timing and the solicitor. You avoid the county court judgment that comes with a repossession, and you almost always end up with more money. If the lender repossesses, it sells the house, often at auction and often below market value. It takes what it needs to clear the debt and its own costs, then chases you for anything still owed. The default stays on your credit file for six years.
You can, but it doesn't clear the debt. The lender still sells the house, takes its costs off the top, and chases you for anything left owing, plus interest and fees. A repossession default is recorded on your credit file for six years. Handing the keys back feels like a clean break, and in practice it is usually followed by a letter from a debt collector. A controlled sale, on the open market or to a cash buyer, is nearly always better for you.
Six years from the date the default or county court judgment is recorded. Formal arrangements with your lender, such as a payment plan or adding the arrears to the loan, usually show as a payment arrangement marker. That lasts as long as the arrangement runs, plus six years after. Mortgage Charter measures aren't reported at all and don't touch your credit file.
You can still sell, but only if your lender agrees. It will want a current valuation, proof the house has been marketed, a firm offer, and a written undertaking from you about the shortfall. The shortfall is the gap between what the sale raises and what you still owe. It stays your debt, and it can be chased for up to twelve years under the Limitation Act 1980. Negative equity doesn't make a sale impossible, it just adds 2 to 4 weeks while the lender agrees. Get free advice from StepChange or a debt solicitor before you agree terms.
Completion runs 7 to 28 days once a solicitor is instructed, and the fastest cases finish in 7 days. If you owe more than the house is worth, or there's a second charge still to clear, add 2 to 4 weeks. The offer is valid for 14 days from when it's made. It can only change if the legal work turns up something material, such as a genuine title or structural surprise.
You can get a solicitor for free. The Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS) gives free legal advice from the moment you receive a written possession notice, and a free duty solicitor at every county court possession hearing in England and Wales. There's no means test for the in-court help. Call Civil Legal Advice on 0345 345 4345, or Shelter on 0808 800 4444 for the housing emergency line. Shelter Legal's page on defences to mortgage arrears possession claims is the best free guide to what happens in court.
Not necessarily, but you need to move quickly. A sale that is already agreed, with a solicitor instructed, gives the court a reason to delay or suspend a possession order. Ring the free duty solicitor service through Civil Legal Advice on 0345 345 4345, and tell your lender in writing that a sale is under way. Then call us. We can give you a written offer the same day.
Whatever is left once your lender has been paid. There is no set percentage. We price every house on what it actually is and on what you tell us, so the only way to know your figure is to ask us for one. Your solicitor uses that money to clear the mortgage, the arrears, any lender fees and anything else secured on the house. The rest is yours. If you have a lot of equity and some time, the open market may leave you with more, and we will tell you if we think it will.
No law forces you to, but you should, and tell them early. Lenders are expected to hold off court action while a realistic sale is going ahead, but they can only do that if they know about it. Write to them with the buyer's name and the solicitor's details, and ask them to confirm in writing that any court action is on hold. Keep every letter they send you.
There is no repossession on your file if the house never gets repossessed, and selling to clear the debt is how you stop that happening. Be honest with yourself though. Any payments you have already missed have most likely been reported, and a default or county court judgment already recorded stays for six years. Selling stops the damage getting worse, it doesn't wipe the slate clean.
Not on your own. Everyone named on the title has to agree and sign. If your ex refuses, a solicitor can apply to the court for an order to force the sale, which takes time and costs money. Free advice from Citizens Advice on 0800 144 8848 is the place to start. Our offer stays open for 14 days, and we are happy to speak to both of you.
You need that answer before you complete, not after. Most people move into a rental, in with family, or on to the council housing register. Tell your council as soon as you think you may lose your home, because it has a duty to help sooner than most people expect. We can also line the completion date up with your move. We don't offer sell and rent back, and be wary of anyone who does.
Because we put the offer in writing and it stands for 14 days. It can only change if the legal checks turn up something genuinely new, such as a title problem or serious structural damage nobody knew about, or if the property turns out to be different from what you told us. We won't invent a reason. If any buyer cuts the price days before completion with no new information, that is your signal to walk away.
No, but some of it has to be paid out of the sale. Anything secured on the house, such as a second mortgage, a secured loan or a charging order from a county court judgment, must be cleared before the sale can go through, and that can add time. Unsecured debts like credit cards don't block the sale, but they don't disappear either. Speak to StepChange on 0800 138 1111 first.
Only if you have a real reason to expect them to, such as a job starting or a partner going back to work. Waiting isn't free. Arrears grow, the lender adds fees, and if it reaches court their legal costs can land on you too. If nothing in your situation is actually changing, waiting usually just leaves you with less money at the end of it.
Usually yes, if you have the time and the sale holds together. An estate agent will get you closer to full market value. We pay less than that because we buy quickly, with cash, in any condition, and we carry the risk. How much less depends on the house, which is why we price each one individually rather than off a percentage. If your lender has given you breathing room and no court action is looming, try the agent first. We will say the same on the phone.
Yes. Nothing is binding until contracts are exchanged, so you can walk away before that with no fee and nothing to pay us. We would rather you took our offer to StepChange or your own solicitor and came back than felt pushed into it. If you want a free estate agent valuation to check our figure, do that too. A fair offer survives a second opinion.
There is no For Sale board, no advert and no open market viewings, so it is a quiet sale. We can't promise total secrecy though. The sale is registered at the Land Registry and becomes public in time, and your solicitor has to do the usual identity and money checks because the law requires it. We don't tell anyone why you are selling.
Speak to us once you've had the free advice
If you've made the free calls, tried the Charter, and it still doesn't work, a sale on your own terms is the honest answer. We give you a written cash offer the same day, valid for 14 days, with no fees. We can cover your legal fees if you use our panel solicitor, or use your own if you'd rather. We're a small local team buying with our own money, and you deal with the same people from the first call to completion. We won't pressure you, and we won't be offended if you take the offer to a free adviser first.
Get Your Free Cash OfferGuides that might help right now
Selling a House With Mortgage Arrears
What your lender can and can't do once you're behind, and how arrears get cleared out of the sale at completion.
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How to Get Out of Negative Equity Without Selling
What to do when the mortgage is bigger than the house is worth, and which of those routes actually work.
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Sheffield Possession Claims: The Real Court Timeline
How long a possession claim really takes through the Sheffield courts, stage by stage, on 2026 figures.
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