Revival Repossession Solutions, a not for profit community interest company, said it has recently seen "a real shift in lender attitude" towards forbearance and has urged advisers to familiarise themselves with all the support options available to their clients who are facing repossession.
Luke Memory, Revival's chief executive, said: "These changes are having a major impact on borrowers. It is clear that many lenders are simply not prepared to consider all the remedies available under PAP (Pre Action Protocol)."
And he added that there were wide regional variations.
He said: “Recent research broadly reflects what we are seeing in terms of enquiries.
“We have many clients from the south of the country who generally have more to protect in terms of equity.
“It’s far from an exact science but usually when we get a call from a southern client the equity is higher, their earnings are normally higher and conversely their arrears are higher, so the pressure is greater all round.
“Moreover, if people have a good degree of equity, this could be massively diminished should they get repossessed.”
There is more of a tendency with enquiries from the north for clients to have low or negative equity and to be experiencing significant affordability issues in relation to their mortgage payment, he added.
And he said: “This certainly isn’t the case for all our northern clients, and we see a wide range of cases across all geographies, but it’s more of a trend in the north than the south.”
Memory said that in light of the growing demand for repossessions advice the adviser market needs to prepare itself to support clients who may find themselves in a repossession situation.
He added: "Advisers need to be in a position to direct people to the right information as quickly as possible and understand what options their clients have from organisations such as the CAB, Shelter and Revival.”
Revival, which recently launched a broker proposition, provides urgently needed advice and instructs legal representation for borrowers facing repossession proceedings in court.
Revival has helped over 1,000 people stay in their homes over the past two years.
