In a continuation of the positive figures to come out of the housing industry of late, Northern Ireland has posted some good results with a fall in repossessed homes over the second quarter of the year. The Northern Ireland Courts Service said 929 writs were issued between April and June 2010 compared to 954 for the same quarter in 2009.

FIgures looked good quarter on quarter as well with repossession orders down from 1,088 in the first 3 months to 704 in the second quarter of the year. Not everyone’s convinced though, Lucy Cochrane, information and policy officer for Citizens Advice, said her team dealt with over £5.5m in mortgage arrears in 2009-2010 and reaffirmed the fact there is still a large number of people facing repossession.

Property fund company Residential Property Solutions (RPS) has come out and claimed the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have underestimated the number of house repossession numbers in the UK throughout 2010. As we recently documented, the CML lowered its forecasts earlier this month from 53,000 to 39,000 but managing director of Residential Property Solutions, Pete Thomson, claimed the CML’s downgraded figures are not correct.

Speaking to the FT, he said: “Citizens Advice has reported that 25,360 people sought its advice between April and June this year regarding mortgage payment problems and has said that it believes the numbers can only escalate. Speaking about the forecast for 2011, Bernard Clarke, communications manager at the CML, said the outlook was uncertain.

Throughout the recession, the Government made available several financial measures for home owners who lost their jobs but now, with the economy picking up, some of this support is being reduced. One such payment is Support for Mortgage Interest, which is paid to those on income-related benefits and is being cut by 2.3%.

Support for Mortgage Interest is paid in full every month regardless of how much a borrower actually pays on to their lender. It is this potential loophole that has prompted the Government to announce that it is cutting back the support to the average BoE rate of just 3.75 per cent from October 1. The cut will leave those who rely on it up to £202 worse off a month and has been blasted by charities as a move that will increase repossession order notices across the UK.

Good news: The number of house repossession orders in the UK has fallen, from 9,800 cases in the first quarter of the financial year to 9,400 in the second. Compare that second figure to the 11,800 repossessions recorded in the same period last year and you can see we’re going in the right direction. The figures encouraged the CML to reduce their estimated number of repossessions for 2010 from 53,000 to 39,000.

Now for the Very Bad News: Only last week we had a powerful reminder of the damage repossession can do to a family, if you missed the reports, we’re talking about Barry and Amanda Harrison whose house in Coventry was repossessed last year. After both losing their jobs, debt and depression took over and culminated in Mr Harrison apparently taking his own life after killing his wife. The death of the pair leaves their 3 children, Aiden, five, and Owen, three, orphaned.

Now, we’re under no illusion, this is an extreme sequence of events and has to do with more than repossession but it does add fuel to the aguement that lenders do not do enough to help struggling people. The issue is especially difficult to comprehend when you consider that the lender that repossessed the Harrison’s home went on to sell it almost certainly at a loss, according to Land Registry figures.