Northern Rock follow RBS move on repossessions

03 December 2008

Nationalised bank adopts six-month waiting period

Northern Rock has followed the lead of RBS by adopting a policy where it will wait six months before starting repossession proceedings on a borrower in mortgage arrears.

RBS NatWest is now under majority state control and Northern Rock is fully nationalised after it got into difficulties a year ago.

However, even though Northern Rock has adopted the six-month policy, it said that it usually took 15 months to repossess a property anyway.

Gary Hoffman, chief executive of Northern Rock, said: “We continue to work with customers facing repayment difficulties to try and agree an acceptable debt management solution and avoid repossession.

“In the vast majority of cases, where repossession regrettably does take place, we have been working with the customer for well over six months.

“We will now formalise our policy and agree not to repossess a property for a period of at least six months from the point of arrears,” he added.