Facing financial difficulty

If you’re having trouble paying your mortgage, there’s a variety of options available that may ease your situation and ultimately help to resolve the issue. This section explains the things that you should consider.

Please remember that, although your mortgage is known as a C&G mortgage and Cheltenham & Gloucester plc administers it, Lloyds TSB Bank plc is the lender. So this section also explains the steps Lloyds TSB will take to help you if you are having difficulties paying your mortgage, how they will treat you fairly, and what steps you should take to help yourself.

First and foremost – don’t ignore the problem. Call the appropriate phone number on the right as soon as possible if you’re having problems paying your mortgage or you think that you may experience difficulty doing so in the near future.

Steps you should take to help

If you’re struggling with your financial commitments you should pay all your essential bills first, such as your mortgage, utility bills (electricity, gas, water), insurance, council tax and housekeeping. You should ensure that you pay these essential bills before making any payments towards credit cards or loans.

• • Check whether you can get any state benefits or tax credits that could help to increase your income.
   
• • If you have an insurance policy, such as income protection insurance, check whether this could help with your 
    payments.
   
• • Seek debt advice, such as from Citizens Advice, if you would like help with managing your finances.
   
• • Make sure you keep all joint mortgage holders, and anyone acting as a guarantor on the mortgage, up to date with
    what is happening.
   
• • Get back to Lloyds TSB quickly if they try to contact you to discuss your mortgage.

If you’ve fallen behind with your payments
 

Lloyds TSB will:
 

• • Try to contact you as soon as possible to discuss your circumstances
   
• • Give you a reasonable period of time to pay back the debt
   
• • Talk to an agency that gives debt advice, such as Citizens Advice, if you would like them to
   
• • Offer to send a debt counsellor to see you to discuss your financial circumstances, the fee for which may be added
    to your mortgage account
   
• • Try to arrange a new payment plan with you – taking both your interests and their responsibilities as the lender
    into account – with you agreeing to tell Lloyds TSB immediately if there is a change in your circumstances that may
    affect the arrangement 
   
• • Offer to change the method by which you make your payments or the date on which you make them
   
• • See whether they can allow you to pay back your mortgage over a longer period of time to reduce your monthly 
    payments, however this will likely result in repaying a larger sum overall.
   
• • See if a change to the type of mortgage you have is available to you and whether this will reduce your monthly
    repayments.

If Lloyds TSB cannot offer you any of the options above, they will tell you why. If they are able to offer one or more of them, they will explain how each option would work and give you time to consider it.

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

Costs and charges

If your mortgage goes into arrears, Lloyds TSB may charge you for reasonable administration and, more importantly, legal costs. They will tell you the amount you will have to pay.

Legal proceedings

If Lloyds TSB cannot agree a solution with you to clear your arrears, they may go to court to start proceedings to repossess your home. If proceedings take place, it is strongly recommended that you attend the court and that you seek independent debt advice.

The commencement of court proceedings does not necessarily mean that Lloyds TSB will repossess your home. They will keep trying to solve the problem with you. Repossession is a last resort.

If your home is repossessed, Lloyds TSB will give you advice about getting in touch with your local authority to see if they can find you somewhere else to live.

If your home is repossessed
 

• • Lloyds TSB will sell it as soon as possible and for the best price they can reasonably achieve.
   
• • They will give you reasonable time to take your possessions from your home.
   
• • They will use the money raised from selling your home to pay all loans and charges secured by your mortgage.
   
• • If there is any money left over, they will pay it to you.
   
• • If there is not enough money from the sale to pay off the entire mortgage, you will still owe Lloyds TSB the amount
    that is left over (a shortfall debt). They will tell you what this is as soon as possible.
   
• • If you bought your home with other borrowers, each of you will be responsible for all the money borrowed. This is
    true even if you normally only pay part of the mortgage.
   
• • Lloyds TSB will take account of your income and outgoings when trying to arrange a suitable payment plan for this
    shortfall debt with you.
   
• • If Lloyds TSB cannot arrange a plan, they may go to court to recover the money, and you might have to pay 
    additional court costs.
   
• • If a shortfall debt is not paid, it would affect whether you are able to get credit in future.

How to complain

Our promise

If you do have a problem we’ll do our best to resolve it there and then. Where we can’t, we’ll ensure you have the name and contact details of the person or team dealing with your complaint.

Tell us if there’s a problem

If you have a complaint or just want to tell us about something we could do better, there are a number of ways you can let us know: By Telephone: Call us on 0800 783 8581. By Post: Write to us at Cheltenham & Gloucester, Chief Office, Barnett Way, Gloucester, GL4 3RL.

If you’re still not happy

We’ll do our best to sort things out but if we can’t put things right to your satisfaction, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to look at your complaint – provided you have tried to resolve the matter directly with us first.

We hope you won’t need to contact the Financial Ombudsman Service but if you do, we’ll tell you how to do this.

General consumer information

We hope that the information in this website has been helpful. Our staff can provide more detailed information and answer your questions about other products and services we offer. The Consumer Financial Education Body publishes useful guides on choosing a mortgage. These are available free through its website at www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk, or by calling 0300 500 5000. The website also provides Comparative Tables to help you shop around.

The FSA have a wealth of helpful information on a wide range of financial areas. However, they can only provide general information and cannot give specific advice or recommend any company’s products, investigate individual complaints or contact firms on behalf of individuals.

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 your keys over to Lloyds TSB or to us. If you do this, you will still owe Lloyds TSB any outstanding debt, and we would advise you to discuss this option with Lloyds TSB or us before taking such action.

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I need to talk to someone

If you think you may be facing difficulties but haven't fallen behind with your mortgage payments, please call us on
0845 6031 637.

If you have already fallen behind with your payments, please contact us on
0800 3894 020.