Support
Sources of support and advice from us and impartial organisations.
Worried about your mortgage payments?
Whether you’re behind on your mortgage or worried you might miss a payment, you’re not alone. We’re here to help. Simply speaking to us won’t affect your credit file. You can reach our team of experienced agents by calling 0330 159 7152. Our phone lines are open Monday to Friday 8:00am – 8:00pm.
We know that it can be tough to admit you have money problems and asking for help can be hard, so we’ve put together this step-by-step guide to let you know what to expect when you speak to us.
Step 1
We’ll understand your circumstances
We’ll ask you some questions to help us understand what’s changed. It’s best to be as open and honest as you can as this will help us to understand how we can help. If your circumstances (for example, a health condition or a recent life event like a bereavement or divorce) are affecting your ability to manage your account, you should tell us about this as we may be able to adapt our service to better support you.
If you have debts with other companies or want independent advice, we might recommend you speak to a debt advisor. A debt advisor will look at your overall financial position and recommend ways to deal with your debts. They won’t tell anyone you’ve spoken to them unless you instruct them to act on your behalf and speaking to them won’t affect your credit score. Many people say they had their first good night’s sleep in months after speaking with a debt advisor*. You can find details of the debt advice organisations we work closely with under the Independent Resources tab on this page.
*Source – StepChange Debt Charity – June 2023
You may be eligible for Government support
If you’re on a low income or certain means-tested benefits, you may be able to get government help with your mortgage payments. This is called Support for Mortgage Interest or SMI. You can find out more information about how the SMI scheme works here.
Step 2
We’ll ask for your financial information
We’ll need some financial information to understand your current situation. This helps us understand what options and support may be suitable for you. We’ll usually ask you to complete an income and expenditure (sometimes called an I&E) form, to give us a clear picture of your financial position.
The quickest and easiest way to give us this information is by providing it online. We’ve partnered with Paylink to help make it as easy as possible for you to do this. Simply click on the link to set up an account and then follow the step-by-step process to create your personal budget. Once you’ve finished, Paylink will tell us and we’ll use this information to understand how we can help you.
If you don’t want to provide this information online you can call us on 0330 159 7152, and complete it over the phone or ask us to send out a paper form for you to complete at home and post back to us.
Important information when completing an income and expenditure form:
- Have information like payslips, bank statements and how much you spend on your household bills ready when you start. The more information you can give us, the better.
- Be as accurate as possible. This is so we can be sure that any arrangement we agree is affordable for you.
Step 3
We’ll explain your options
We’ll use the information from your I&E to work out what options may be suitable for you. We’ll then talk you through them, explaining what they mean to you, whether they’ll affect your credit file and if you’ll be charged more interest.
Step 4
We’ll agree a solution
We’ll work with you to agree the most appropriate solution that’s tailored to your needs. This may be a short-term solution to help you get back on your feet, or a longer-term solution to pay back any arrears.
Our priority is to support you in remaining in your home, but sadly this isn’t always possible. Either because you can no longer afford your monthly mortgage payments or to pay back any outstanding arrears by the end of the term. If this is the case, we’ll work with you to give you the time you need. This might include allowing you to remain in your property whilst you put it on the market and wait for it to sell. From 7 July 2023, we won’t take possession of your property for at least 12 months from the date of your first missed payment (unless you ask us to, or we’re told that it’s empty).
Interest Only Mortgages
The end of your mortgage may seem like a long way off, but we know that time flies. We want to be sure that you’re in the best position to pay back your interest only mortgage by the end of the term. That’s why we’ll contact you regularly to find out about your plans.
Why you need a plan
When you have an interest only mortgage, the monthly payments you make only cover the interest. This means you need to pay off the amount you borrowed by the end of the mortgage term.
It’s important you have a repayment plan in place to repay your interest only mortgage when it ends. Your latest mortgage statement will tell you exactly how much you owe and when it needs to be paid back.
If you have a repayment plan, you need to check it regularly to make sure it’s on track. We recommend that you do this at least once a year. If you don’t have a plan or you’re worried that it might not be enough, we can help. Call our dedicated team now on 0330 159 7153. Phone lines are open Monday to Friday 08:30am-6:00pm.
What happens if I can’t pay back my interest only mortgage?
If you’re concerned about paying back your interest only mortgage, it’s best to talk to us. Call our dedicated team now on 0330 159 7153. Phone lines are open Monday to Friday 08:30am-6:00pm.
If you can’t afford to pay back your interest only mortgage at the end of the term, you may need to sell your property. If you plan to do this, we recommend that you place the property on the market six months before the end of the term to allow time for it to sell.
If the term of the mortgage ends and the balance remains outstanding, we’ll try a number of ways to contact you. This may involve writing to you, calling you and sending out a field agent to visit your property. This is to help us understand your plans to pay off the mortgage.
If we can’t get in touch with you, we may have no choice but to tell our solicitors to take legal action. This could result in you losing your property. Taking legal action is always a last resort and something we’ll only do when all other options have been exhausted.
Switching to another lender
You may be able to get a cheaper mortgage with a new lender if your mortgage is up to date, you’ve made your last 12 payments in full and on time, and you’re not looking to borrow any more money (except to cover product or adviser fees). This is because new rules allow lenders to carry out a more relaxed affordability assessment, where all they have to do is demonstrate that your new mortgage is more affordable than your current one.
Finding out if you’re eligible
To see if you can switch to a cheaper mortgage visit www.moneyhelper.org.uk and complete the simple questionnaire.
To help you complete the questionnaire as accurately as possible, it would be useful to have your latest mortgage statement to hand. The questionnaire takes five minutes to complete and when you get to the end you’ll receive an indication of whether you may be able to get a cheaper mortgage elsewhere. There’ll also be information on where you can get advice on the options available to you.
Further information
You can get advice from an independent mortgage adviser. Although some advisers provide free advice, some may charge a fee so you should always check this first.
Alternatively, you can contact StepChange Financial Solutions who provide free, impartial, whole-of-market mortgage advice tailored to your individual circumstances.
This doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to in the future, there’s lots you can do to help yourself get ‘mortgage ready’.
- Check your credit file
You can check your credit file with one or all of the three main credit reference agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. This will tell you if you have any defaults or missed payments that may be affecting your credit score. Make sure your record is accurate and up to date. You can dispute anything you don’t agree with. - Check that you’re registered on the electoral roll.
Lenders use this to confirm who you are. Not being on it could lead to you being turned down.
To check you need to contact your local Electoral Registration Office. - Get debt advice
If you have unsecured debts like loans and credit cards, you may benefit from speaking to a debt advisor. They can look at your entire situation and provide individual support to help you. You can find details of the debt advice agencies that we work closely with here. - Review your budget
You can use our online budget planner to see how much you’re spending and what you’re spending it on. This might help you spot things like subscriptions you’re no longer using or things you may be able to get cheaper, like mobile phone contracts or tv packages. - Overpay your existing mortgage
If you can afford to, overpaying your mortgage means you can save money on the interest you pay. It will also increase the amount of equity you have in your property, which means that you may benefit from a better rate with a new lender. We don’t charge any early repayment charges, so there’s no limit to the amount you can overpay by. Check out our Overpayments Section to see how much you could save.
Making a complaint
We’re sorry if we haven’t got things right. Sometimes we get things wrong, but telling us about it gives us the chance to fix things for you. It also helps us try and stop the same thing happening again in the future.
- Calling us on 0330 159 7152.
Phone lines are open between 8.30 am and 6.00 pm Monday to Friday. - Emailing us through our online complaint form
- Writing to us at:
Landmark Mortgages, PO Box 115, Skipton, BD23 9FE. - Sending us a message through our online self-service facility.
To do this you must be registered to use the service.
What we need from you…
To help us deal with your complaint as quickly as possible, we need the following information:
- Your name and address
- A phone number we can contact you on
- Your account number
- A description of your complaint and how it’s affected you
Complaints
If we can deal within your complaint within three working days, we’ll call you to make sure that you’re happy with our decision. If you are, we’ll send you a letter to confirm this.
- If we can’t deal with your complaint within three working days, we’ll send you an acknowledgement letter within five working days to let you know that we’ve received your complaint.
- We’ll give you a reference number in case you need to contact us about your complaint.
- We’ll keep you updated of our progress throughout our investigation.
- Once we’ve completed a thorough investigation, we’ll give you a final response. This will outline the details of our investigation, how we reached our decision and what we’re going to do to put things right.
We have eight weeks to resolve your complaint, but we’ll do everything we can to deal with it as quickly as possible.
If we can’t complete our investigation within eight weeks, we’ll send you a letter to let you know and tell you what steps you can take. This will include letting you know that you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if you’d rather not wait for us to complete our investigation.
Financial Ombudsman Service
If you’re not happy with the outcome of your complaint, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to look at it for you. This is a free, independent and impartial service that helps resolve disputes.
Although you can refer your complaint to FOS at any time, they’ll ask our permission to investigate complaints where:
- You haven’t complained to us first, to give us the chance to put things right.
- You have complained to us, but we haven’t given you a final response and we’re still within our eight week timescale.
We’ll give you information about your right to refer your complaint to the FOS in our final response. If you do so, it should be within six months of the date of our response.
- By phone
Call them on 0800 0234 567. - Online
Send an email to [email protected] or visit their website. - By post
Write to them at: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR.
Independent Resources
Whether it’s coping with one of life’s upsets, managing health problems, dealing with money issues, or getting support with being a carer, we all need a little help from time to time.
We’ve put together this useful list of organisations to help make getting the support you need as quick and easy as possible.
These links take you to third-party websites which open in a separate tab
General Support
Financial & Debt Support
Health & Wellbeing Support
