In the first half of 1999, while the housing market was booming for many, 16,410 households went through the traumas of repossession: over 630 a week or over 90 households every day. These households (the majority containing dependent children) joined a pool of almost 500,000 other households - almost one and a half million adults and children - who have lost their mortgaged homes during the last decade.
A new study from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation looks at the experiences of these housing market losers by examining what happened to parents and their children who have had their mortgaged home repossessed. The report - by Sarah Nettleton, Roger Burrows, Jude England and Jenny Seavers of the University of York - shows how a range of factors have conspired over the 1990s to generate high levels of repossession:
"The public seem to have regained their appetite for home ownership and the press is getting into a frenzy about the prospects of another housing boom", said Roger Burrows, one of the report's authors. "But less publicity has been given to the large numbers of households who are housing market 'losers' - families whose experience of home ownership has been a nightmare, often leading to impoverishment, ill health and emotional trauma."
The report notes that at the same time as the vulnerability of home owners has increased, state safety nets (eg Income Support for Mortgage Interest) have been weakened and the much heralded private insurance alternative has proved problematic both in terms of levels of take-up and the coverage provided.
For all the people interviewed in the study, the experience of repossession was immensely stressful.
"A complete nightmare - stressful. Words cannot say what we went through."
"Apart from the death of someone close to us, we found that repossession was the most traumatic experience that we have ever been through. We would not wish this experience on anybody …"
The stress was often compounded by the protracted administrative processes and procedures of lenders, the courts and local authorities. Although there is never such a thing as a "good repossession" there was great variability in how damaging the actual process itself was on the lives of family members. In particular people described how high levels of uncertainty and a feeling that they lacked any control over events amplified what was already a traumatic life event.
"What is going to happen to me? When I go into court are they going to suspend it again or are they not going to suspend it again? If they don't, what am I going to do? Where am I going to go? Am I going to end up on the street? Am I going to come back from somewhere and find my furniture in the garden? What's going to happen to you? It's the fear of the unknown."
The consequences for family members were often both dramatic and overwhelmingly negative. At a personal level people felt that their social status, identity and sense of self-worth had all be damaged. "I felt a complete failure" was a phrase used by many people, and they described how they had felt they had "let their family down".
Depression was common and some men had even contemplated suicide. The physical health of many people was also affected. Personal and family relationships were also disrupted and in some cases shattered. Parenting was made more difficult.
Children living in these families also suffered. They were often worried about having to change school and many lost contact with friends. All felt that they had no control over the situation. One child said:
'I did feel it was being taken away from me and I didn't really have any control over it, and I was ill and there was absolutely nothing that I could do about it...I felt Gutted really. Gutted that my Dad had allowed it to happen...I just wished that there was something, some difference or some way, that I could have helped my Mum to prevent it from happening.'
Some young people had their confidence and their social horizons altered dramatically. One young man said:
"I've always been a confident person. But it was a knock back, a reality strike you know, hits you straight in the face: Ooch! It was like I'd lived in that house before in like a middle class area all the time and suddenly I moved to the lowest of the low areas you know. And it is like a bit of a reality shock, because it's like a different culture, there's no people like mowing the lawns or anything like that; its sometimes just cars being burned out and joy riders screaming past and stuff like that and you get pulled up by coppers. It's a bit of a reality shock."
Sarah Nettleton, the lead author of the report, said:
"The prevention of repossession must be a priority. The number of people still going through this awful experience is far higher than it needs to be. Mortgage repossessions is not just an issue for housing policy. The consequences of the experience have implications for areas like social security, health, employment and family policies."
She added: "Women with dependent children who were left in the family home following divorce or separation are especially vulnerable. Women caring for dependent children are less likely to be mobile than their ex-partners. After the men had "disappeared" it is often the women who are being chased by lenders for the outstanding debts."
Roger Burrows, one of her co-authors, added: "The right of lenders to pursue outstanding debts associated with repossessed homes, for up to 12 years after the event, is another issue which should be looked at closely. Some families are just getting "back on their feet" when they receive letters demanding what can be tens of thousands of pounds with no real hope of ever repaying it."
