Repossessing a house isn’t very nice. Someone loses their home. It costs a lot and you lose money. It’s also bad publicity. So why do it? Well, sometimes lenders don’t have a choice.
There are lots of people who, through no fault of their own, just can’t pay their bills.
You know who they are because they’re trying. They’re desperate to resolve things. When they get help from family, the government or even us, it feels good. You want them to turn everything around.
There are also some people out there who appear to have wandered off the set of Shameless. Feckless, unabashed, defiantly unwilling to confirm to society’s conventions; such as paying for things. Of these, my particular favourites were the Fordhams.
Mr Fordham had died 8 years ago. Mrs Fordham was left with her wheelchair bound son and she wasn’t paying her mortgage. We eventually requested an eviction. Mrs Fordham told us she’d had a brain haemorrhage. We asked for some proof. Nothing came, so we requested another eviction. Mrs Fordham’s sister told us she had terminal breast cancer. We asked for some proof. Another eviction and this time the message was it was a severe stroke. On the day of the next eviction Mrs Fordham’s mother died in the house.
The sister said probate was delayed because there were murder charges against a family member. Another eviction notice was served but unfortunately Mrs Fordham’s funeral was the same day, nearly two years after she died. Her body had just been released after an inquest.
An agent went to the house. He met Mrs Fordham’s sister who was waiting for probate and looking after her wheelchair bound nephew.
Our man bumped into a neighbour who said that Bob and Barbara Fordham worked at the Home Shopping Channel and they’d waved hello that morning. A quick phone call to their work confirmed that thankfully they were alive and well.
Photographs were faxed to the Bailiff. Mrs Fordham’s sister turned out to be Mrs Fordham. She’d hung bereavement cards in the window for the funeral, although her mother actually died 20 years ago in France. She didn’t have a wheelchair bound son. At the eviction Mr Fordham collapsed and was taken away by ambulance and immediately released upon arrival. Mrs Fordham finally admitted who she was when shown her photograph.
They hadn’t paid a penny to their mortgage for over 6 years.
