Mortgage Possession:
Preventing Homelessness and

Protecting Homeowners

The National Conference

The effect on home owners of the so called ‘credit crunch’ is plain to see. The rise in repossessions speaks for itself. The implications for local authorities and others providing help and advice to the homeless are dramatic. The number of home owners in mortgage default, including those whose fixed term special interest rate deals have ended or will end in the near future, with the consequential rise in monthly mortgage repayments, gives real cause for concern.

Missed mortgage repayments, and increases in other monthly outgoings can, all too easily, lead to escalating arrears and raise the spectre of loss of the family home. The Government has stressed the importance of the role of those working in housing advice in assisting borrowers to overcome short term difficulties and ensuring that
home owners are fully aware of the full extent of the support and array of options available to them.

This important conference has been specially designed to meet the needs of advisers within local authorities, RSLs, advice agencies, and charitable organisations whose
responsibility it is to help and advise those who face the these housing problems, including those who will inevitably lose their homes.

By combining the very latest best practice guidance with examples borne of experience at the front line, the speaker panel will meld their knowledge and expertise to offer guidance to those advisers on what help is available and how best to handle these difficult cases.

The multi-disciplinary speaker panel, made up of policy makers, policy implementers, lawyers, professional advisers and a member of the judiciary, will address the host of matters that impact on home owners faced with losing their homes.

This holistic approach is intended to offer insights into what can be done to prevent homelessness and to steer borrowers to the best possible outcome for themselves
and their families.

London
Friday 3rd October 2008
Cavendish Conference Centre,
22 Duchess Mews,
London W1G
Click for venue details
Click this link for directions

Fee
£295 + VAT for top quality training from some of the country’s leading experts.
 

SPECIAL THIRD AND SUBSEQUENT DELEGATE HALF PRICE OFFER (see booking form for details)

CPD: 5 hours 30 minutes

Who Should Attend?
An unmissable event for all:

• Housing Advice personnel within Local Authorities and RSLs

• Homelessness Managers and Advisers

• CAB Managers and workers

• Other independent advice workers

• Lawyers in Local Authorities and RSLs and Solicitors in private practice

• Housing Advice agencies

09.15–10.00
Registration and Refreshments

10.00–10.10
Chairman’s Introduction
Jan Luba QC

10.10–10.40
Keynote Address: Overview of the Problem and the Right Measures to Tackle it
Terrie Alafat

10.40–11.10
Implementation of the May 2008 Housing Advice Strategy
Bob Lawrence

11.10–11.25
Refreshments

11.25–12.25
Advising the Struggling Mortgage Defaulter
Dawn Devaney and Sarah Carter

• Maximising income

• Benefits entitlement – including mortgage interest payments

• Disputes over benefit entitlement

• Re-financing the loan

• Raising money from the home (e.g. lodgers)

• Help from an RSL or local authority with keeping the home

• Exploring alternative housing

• Referrals at the possession claim stage

• Housing options for cases where the house cannot be saved

• Pitfalls of buy-back schemes

12.25–13.00
Discussion Forum
Panel and Delegates

13.00–14.00
Lunch

14.00–14.50
Possession Proceedings: Defend or Delay?
Derek McConnell

• Providing legal advice and representation

• Relying on the Mortgage Arrears Protocol

• ‘Technical’ defences

• Substantive defences

• Inviting creative use of the Court’s powers

• Securing more time to pay or sell

14.50–15.30
Mortgage Possession Proceedings: The View from the Bench
District Judge Wendy Backhouse

• Legal and procedural requirements

• What evidence will the judge want?

• How defaulting borrowers can maximise the chances of a favourable exercise of judicial discretion

• What the court can and cannot order

• The extent and limits of judicial discretion

• Last minute reprieves – suspending warrants for possession

15.30–15.45
Refreshments

15.45–16.30
Repossession and the Interface with Homelessness
Jan Luba QC

• ‘Approach for advice’ or ‘Homelessness Application’?

• Is the borrower ‘Homeless’?

• The scope for ‘Homeless at Home’ borrowers

• Intentional Homelessness and mortgage default

• Discharging the homelessness duties when there is equity in the home

• The interface with housing allocation

16.30–16.50
Case Study
Using a fictitious example, the panel, will explore in open forum the ways in which a family faced with possession of their home can, by a combination of
self-help, advice and assistance and support from advice agencies and local authorities, maximise their prospects of securing their position to best advantage in the circumstances.

16.50–17.05
Discussion Forum
Panel and Delegates

17.05
Close of Conference
Programme

Bob Lawrence, Special Adviser, Department for Communities and Local Government.

Terrie Alafat, Director, Housing Strategy and Support Directorate, Housing and Planning Group, Department for Communities and Local Government.

Derek McConnell, Solicitor, South West Law, Bristol, specialist in housing law. Derek enjoys a national reputation for his expertise in housing law. He has many years’ experience in all aspects of housing work including mortgage possession cases. He is also the co-author of the leading work Defending Possession Proceedings (Legal Action Group).

District Judge Wendy Backhouse, Woolwich County Court. Prior to her judicial appointment, Wendy was a solicitor in private practice where her specialism was Housing Law.

Dawn Devaney, Housing Advice Manager, Brighton Housing Trust. Dawn has over 17 years' experience as a housing adviser and is a very experienced housing law trainer.

Sarah Carter, Specialist Housing Adviser at West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice Bureau. Sarah has 10 years of experience working in housing advice. She was formerly an adviser at Oxford Housing Rights Centre providing a court desk service at Oxford County Court.