This after she lost her property in a mortgagee sale
An increasing number of homeowners are losing their properties in mortgagee sales as interest rates surge.
One of them is Janna Gilligan, an Auckland woman who recently lost the biggest investment of her life and is warning others that this could easily happen to them too.
“It’s heartbreaking when you try, because I tried, believe me, I begged,” Gilligan, whose Glen Eden property sold in a mortgagee sale earlier this month, told Newshub. “You get to the lowest of the low in your life when you’re living in a house that you're looking around, and you’re losing it.”
Gilligan has had it tough for the past years. After splitting from her partner in 2018, she took over the mortgage, but soon fell into arrears. Westpac shifted her onto a floating interest rate of 8.64%, more than double on what she started, and that’s what Gilligan said, “started the ball rolling.”
Making matters worse was a serious leg injury that saw her in and out of the hospital and left her unable to work and having to rely on Work and Income.
Gilligan did not contest Westpac’s right to sell the property but was disappointed in the bank’s communication with her. She now wants homeowners to realise just how fast things can spiral out of control.
“I don’t do the ‘woe is me’ act or claim anything like that, or it’s not fair, but in this case, it is not fair, because I didn’t have an accident on purpose,” she said.
Gilligan has been given just two weeks to leave the Glen Eden property that has been her home for more than 15 years.
A spokesperson from Westpac told Newshub the bank does not want to see anyone lose their home, and that they “empathise” with Gilligan’s situation.
The bank noted, however, that Gilligan “has not made any repayments for over two and a half years, resulting in substantial arrears,” adding that it has “provided her with a long period of time to sell the house herself, which she had agreed to do, but not completed.”
Roger Beaumont, of the New Zealand Banking Association, said mortgagee sales should be a last resort.
“More often than not, these situations occur when there has been a breakdown in communication,” Beaumont told Newshub.
Mortgagee sales are currently far from the level during the Global Financial Crisis, when they peaked at 772 in the third quarter of 2009.
In the second quarter of 2023, mortgagee sales numbered 27, an increase from 13 in the months prior, and up from just six in the fourth quarter of 2021.
But the figures are on the upward trend. Trade Me data showed a 180% surge in the number of properties listed as a mortgagee sale in June, compared to the same period the prior year.
And with half of mortgages rolling off fixed rates in the next 12 months, Gilligan hoped that by raising awareness, others could avoid losing their homes the way she did.
“It’s been pretty horrendous, and I know I'm not the only one in this position,” she said.
Gilligan will soon have to surrender the keys to what she believed would be her forever home, Newshub reported.
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