Property Rescue Blog

When a family is facing the possibility of having their home repossessed the focus is very much on how they will survive the financial impact and get themselves back on the road to economic stability. It’s clear that such a period of stress will affect every member of the household, so here we take a look beyond the financial situation and ask what the emotional affects are likely to be?

Lifestyle Changes

The possibility, and certainly the reality, of losing your home will bring with it some very marked changes in the way you live. It is likely that you will have to tighten your belt financially and make sacrifices that will probably involve your family as well as yourself. If you do have to move house, your family will need to engage with a new social environment; you will have new neighbours and need to ‘start over’ in many ways.

Many people see this as a ‘step down’ the property ladder and for some this change of social status can have far reaching implications. Giving up your home does not only mean giving up something that you had desired and achieved, it also requires a readjustment of your future aspirations – at least in the short term.

Health

Losing your home can damage your health! The stress caused by repossession can lead to both physical and mental ill health. This might be manifested by taking up smoking again years after they’d managed to kick the habit, or it may be a period of depression, headaches, allergies or other ailments that are brought on or aggravated by emotional imbalance. Remember that there are counselling services available and your GP will be able to put you in touch with these. Don’t think that you are over-reacting or need to ‘simply pull yourself together’. The threat of losing your home rates highly on life’s ‘stress indicator’ scale and you owe it to yourself and your family to take the problem seriously.

A Child’s View

Depending on their ages, your children may not be fully aware of what is going on in their family but they will be aware of their parents’ emotional state and might be concerned about the happiness of their mum and dad. Instability can be hard to deal with, especially if the child is having to move away from their friends and their school mates. Talk to your children about what’s going on and try to explain that although the situation isn’t great, the family will stay together. It’s often the unspoken issues that concern children the most and if you can help them to express their fears, then you can start to offer reassurance.

Avoidance

Studies conclude that repossession is so damaging for families that all the options should be explored before this course of action is taken. The financial problems that led up to the threat of repossession may have been inevitable, but repossession is not. Property Rescue offers you the chance to stay in your own home. They act quickly to stop repossession and can even buy your house from you and allow you to remain there as a tenant. Ask for more information.