If you are having trouble paying your mortgage, we will try to help you. This explains how we will treat you fairly, and what steps you should take to help yourself.

We will:

• Contact you as soon as possible to discuss the situation.
• Talk to an agency which gives debt advice (for example, Citizens’ Advice), if you want us to.
• Give you reasonable time to pay back the debt.
• Only start proceedings to repossess your home if we cannot solve the problem with you.

We might be able to:

• Arrange a new payment plan with you, taking your and our interests into account.
• Change the way you make your payments, or the date you make them.

If we cannot offer you either of these options, we will tell you why. If we can make one of these arrangements with you, we will explain how it would work and give you time to consider it. If we cannot offer any of these options, we might agree to you remaining in the property to sell the property yourself depending on your circumstances.

What you can do to help us:

• Tell us as soon as possible if you are having problems repaying your mortgage or think that you might experience problems shortly.
• Seek debt advice if you would like help with managing your finances.
• Contact us quickly, if we try to contact you.
• Make sure you keep any other people paying the mortgage, and anyone else responsible for paying the mortgage, up-to-date with what is happening.
• Keep to the payment plan we agree with you, or tell us if there is a change in your circumstances which may affect the arrangement. If you do not make the agreed payments, we might have to go to court to get back any money you owe us, or to repossess your property.
• Check whether you can get any state benefits or tax credits which could help to increase your income.
• If you have an insurance policy, check whether it would help with your payments.
• Tell us if you move to a new address.

You may want to talk to a professional advisor, such as a debt counsellor or a lawyer, before you change your mortgage arrangements. We would strongly advise that you seek independent, free, debt advice.

Costs and Charges

If you are in arrears, we may charge you for reasonable administrative and legal costs. We will tell you the amount you will have to pay, these are also detailed in our tariff of charges.

If we cannot agree on a solution:

• We may send a debt counsellor to see you to discuss your financial circumstances, and the cost of the visit may be charged to your mortgage account.
• We may go to court to start proceedings to repossess your home. If proceedings take place, we strongly recommend that you attend the court and that you seek independent debt advice.
• Starting court proceedings does not necessarily mean that we will repossess your home. We will keep trying to solve the problem with you. Possession is the last resort.
• Before we repossess your home, we will give you advice about getting in touch with your local authority to see if they can find you somewhere else to live.

If we repossess your home:

• We will sell it for the best price we can reasonably obtain, within a reasonable period of time.
• We will give you reasonable time to take possessions from your home.
• We will use the money raised from selling your home to repay all monies due to ourselves. If there is a surplus this will be passed to any company that has a further loan secured against the property.
• If there is any money left over after repaying the monies due to ourselves and there are no further secured loans or charges we will pay this money to you.

If selling your home does not raise enough money to pay off the mortgage:

• If there is not enough money from the sale to pay the whole mortgage, you will still owe us the amount that is left (a shortfall debt). We will tell you what this is as soon as possible.
• If you bought your home with other borrowers, each of you is responsible for all the money borrowed. This is true even if you normally pay only part of the mortgage.
• We will contact you within six years of selling your property (five years in Scotland) to arrange for you to pay back what you still owe.
• We will take account of your income and outgoings when we arrange a payment plan for this shortfall debt with you. If we cannot arrange a suitable plan, we may go to court to get our money back. You might have to pay additional court costs.
• If a shortfall debt is not paid, it could affect whether you are able to get credit in the future.

Complaints

If you do not think we have treated you fairly, please contact:

Compliance Department
Swift Group, Arcadia House, Warley Hill Business Park
The Drive, Brentwood, Essex, CM13 2BE

Telephone: 0845 072 9010

Email: complaints@swift.co.uk

If your complaint is not dealt with to your satisfaction, you may then take it to the Financial Ombudsman. The Financial Ombudsman Service provides a free and independent service for consumers, and can be contacted at:

The Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London
E14 9SR

Telephone: 0845 080 1800

Other Issues

Some companies may offer you new loans or even invite you to sell your property to them and then lease it back as a way of resolving your short term financial difficulty. Please be careful, as such actions may not be in your long term best interests. We would advise you to seek independent advice before entering into any arrangement of this type.

You may be thinking about handing in your keys to us. If you do this, you will still owe us any outstanding debt, and we would advise you to discuss this option with us before taking such action.

Other Useful Contacts:

Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB)
Website: www.citizensadvice.org.uk

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS)
Website: www.cas.org.uk

Northern Ireland Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux
Website: www.citizensadvice.co.uk

Look in the telephone book for your local bureau, or on their website.

National Debtline
Provides a free, confidential and independent phone service
Tel: 0808 808 400 (freephone)
Website: www.nationaldebtline.co.uk

Money Advice Scotland
Tel: 0141 572 0237
Website: www.moneyadvicescotland.org.uk

Consumer Credit Counselling Services (CCCS)
CCCS offers a structured programme on how to manage your money
Tel: 0800 138 1111 (freephone)

Credit Action
Provides information and guidance for people with debt or money worries
Tel: 0800 591 084 (freephone)
Website: www.creditaction.com