It will only take seven minutes for the judge to decide whether or not 33-year-old Nighet Shaheen will be allowed to keep her home. That’s less time than she says she usually spends on hold on the phone trying to get through to her mortgage lender and only a little more than it takes to boil an egg.
In September 2023, Nighet lost her job in a Morrisons warehouse and, until March this year she was looking for other work. She says all that was available to her was zero hours agency work., the number of homeowners in significant arrears is rising. While it may not be on a scale like that seen during the 2008 financial crisis, this is still significant.
“You’ve done the right thing showing up here today,” Tasleem says. “You’re facing this head on and we can help you.” Mary, Bradford Combined Court’s clerk, appears at the door of the room we are in. The district judge is ready for ‘Nationwide v Nighet’ so we make our way into the courtroom along with the bank’s representative.
A Nationwide spokesperson said: “We would encourage any customer in financial difficulty to speak to us as we offer a range of tailored support for anyone struggling.” “Lenders are becoming more aggressive and seeking repossession,” Tasleem says to me quietly. There’s no time for her to take a break. Next, she has a social housing tenant who faces eviction because of rent arrears. That case is over quickly. Again, the judge agrees that nobody should be made homeless and calls for a payment plan.
Ali’s interest rate was around 3.5 per cent before mortgage rates first soared under Liz Truss in the autumn of 2022. Last year, he says it hit a high of almost nine per cent. It is now 7.6 per cent. “It’s crazy,” Ali says. “Absolutely crazy. This is such a huge burden to heap on top of the common person.”
On an average day, Tasleem can see between 10 and 12 clients through the duty housing advice scheme. Today is “unusually quiet,” she says. It’s now 1pm. Nobody else turns up. Labour has promised to build 1.5m homes across their first term if elected in this month’s election. The Conservatives have pledged 1.6m.