Over 150 housing associations signed up to deliver mortgage rescue

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has announced that 153 RSLs have signed up to the network to implement mortgage rescue support.

They will work with the 22 Mortgage Rescue Scheme Syndication Agents distributed throughout the country. The agents take the lead in a defined area on behalf of all RSLs operating the mortgage rescue scheme in their region and their role is to provide a one-stop-shop service to manage mortgage rescue cases from point of referral, from local authorities or the Communities and Local Government fast track team, through to completion. This includes managing all relationships and negotiating with home owners, lenders and syndicated RSLs.

Sir Bob Kerslake said: “Regional syndicates of housing associations are vital to the delivery of mortgage rescue ensuring that support is provided by local organisations who understand the needs of the people they are helping.

“Up to December 2009, 276 Mortgage Rescue cases were completed, helping households in financial difficulty. Now that we have this established network of housing associations, many more people will have access to the scheme.”

The aim of mortgage rescue, wherever possible, is to keep people in their homes and living in the community where they can continue to benefit from existing support networks, including family, friends and work colleagues. The scheme has been designed to provide a vital support to vulnerable homeowners who are facing difficulties in maintaining their mortgage payments and offers two options.

The first is Government Mortgage to Rent, where a homeowner sells their home to a housing association and rents it back from them at a rate lower than private rent. The second option is shared equity and involves a housing association offering the home owner an equity loan in order to reduce their monthly mortgage payments.

To help ensure organisations are able to deliver the mortgage rescue scheme a toolkit for RSL partners will be published on the HCA website shortly. It will contain process maps that outline how the process should work from start to finish, a set of standard documents for providers to use in mortgage rescue cases and a collection of useful information and tips.