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OUR INSIGHTS

Mortgagee Sales

Jeremy Callander

Roger* came to us in a bit of a pickle.


Roger had purchased his own home about three ago, with the assistance of a bank loan – a loan which was secured by a mortgage. Up until about a year ago, Roger had been making all of his mortgage payments – in full and on time.

But then Roger’s fixed-term employment came to an end. Despite commencing his job-hunting several months prior to his employment expiring, Roger had not had any luck finding a new job.

Fortunately, Roger had some savings, and so he was able to keep up with his mortgage payments……until his savings ran out.

Roger eventually got a new job – permanent and full-time – and so he immediately began making his mortgage payments again. Roger was about six months behind and could not afford to make his current payments as well as repay the arrears. But he had been open and honest with the bank about his predicament, and he had managed to get approval to use some of his KiwiSaver (on grounds of ‘hardship’) to cover the arrears……and the bank knew this.

So it came as a shock to Roger when he received a letter from the bank which said that in a couple of weeks the bank was going to foreclose on him and initiate a mortgagee sale – i.e. the bank was going to sell his home from under him.

The bank’s actions simply didn’t make any sense -

a) Roger was back in permanent and full-time employment;

b) He was making his payments; and

c) He had organised for the arrears to be paid up as well.

But despite the fact that the bank knew all of this, it was pushing ahead with a mortgagee sale

and doing so in a depressed housing market.


First, we listened to Roger. Then we set about making things make sense. It took a month or so for the dust to finally finished settling, but the immediate threat of being homeless was sorted within a week.


If you should find yourself in a similar situation, give us a call 03 477 8080.


*Name changed.

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