Losing your home – for £1,500?!

Scottish Churches Housing Action has called on MSPs to drop a proposed new way of recovering debt which would, we believe, increase homelessness and insecurity.

As part of the Bankruptcy & Diligence Bill, the Scottish Executive proposes to introduce land attachments.  These would enable a creditor to obtain a right over property, including someone’s home, in security for any debt over £1,500; and after 6 months the creditor would be able to apply to sheriff court for authority to sell the property.

As the Enterprise & Culture Committee considered Stage 1 of the Bill, Churches Housing Chief Executive Alastair Cameron said: “This sounds to us like a recipe for making people homeless.  At precisely the time when the Communities Minister is looking for innovative ways of preventing homelessness, here is an Executive Bill introducing a new way of making people less secure in their homes.  A store card can easily take you over £1,500; we’re not saying people shouldn’t pay off their debts, but this measure is way out of proportion.”

The purpose of the Bill is to achieve a better balance than before between the interests of creditors and debtors.

“We are calling on the Committee to ditch this provision,” Cameron added.  “But if they won’t do that, they should at least exempt people’s home from the rules, and make creditors try other methods of recovery first.  And if they won’t do that, they should increase the limit on the debt the rules apply to, to something closer to the value of the property to be sold.”

If you agree with us that this is the wrong approach to take, contact your MSP to say so.  Scottish Churches Housing Action can provide back-up material, and we would be delighted to have a copy of any correspondence you have with MSPs.