Building societies 'help struggling mortgage holders when possible'

Date:Wednesday 18th March 2009
Author: Susanna Kavka

Building societies help consumers who are struggling with their mortgage repayments whenever it is possible.

This is was the claim made by Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage policy at the Building Societies Association, who said that such lenders have an "unrivalled track record" of assisting homeowners to remain in their properties.

He made his comments in response to figures released by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which suggested that balances in arrears at building societies are running at 0.8 per cent of outstanding mortgages.

This compares with 2.27 per cent for the home loan industry as a whole.

Mr Broadhead said: "Every repossession represents an individual tragedy, but borrowers with building society mortgages can be confident that their lender will, if they contact their lender as soon as possible, develop an individual plan to help them get back on their feet."

Meanwhile, the FSA figures also revealed that the value of outstanding mortgages over the last quarter of 2008 was £1,200 billion.