If your home is repossessed and you can’t delay or stop the eviction, you will need to find alternative accommodation. If you lost your home because of mortgage arrears or other debt problems, it may be more difficult to find a place to rent or buy.
Get help from Shelter Cymru. An adviser can discuss your options with you and give you details of your local council’s offices, in case you need to make a homelessness application.
Even if you may be able to stay with family or friends for a while, you will also need to find long-term accommodation that you can afford.
Your options may include:
If you are on a low income and you move into rented accommodation, you may be eligible for housing benefit or universal credit housing costs.
If you buy another property while you still have an outstanding debt to your previous lender, it may be able to put a charge on your new home and claim part of the proceeds when it is sold. If the court made a money judgment when your previous home was repossessed, there is no time limit for when your previous lender can do this.
You will have to tell any lender that you apply to that your last home was repossessed, so getting a new mortgage may be difficult. It may be worth applying to a few different lenders, but you will have to tell them if your previous application was refused. A specialist mortgage broker may be more likely to find a lender who is willing to give you a mortgage. However, in many cases you will have to provide a larger than normal deposit, and may be charged higher than normal interest rates.
Alternatively, you may be able to get a smaller mortgage and/or buy a place through a home-ownership schemes. These include :
Ask a housing association or local council about the schemes that are available locally.
You can also take a look at the information on the Welsh government’s website about buying and selling a home.
Local councils have legal duties to help and advise people who are homeless or about to lose their homes. They may be able to help prevent you from becoming homeless, provide emergency accommodation and, in some cases, help you find longer term accommodation.
The rules on what sort of help the council must give you are complicated. Your rights depend on your personal circumstances. Read our pages on homelessness for more information.
If the council tells you that you are intentionally homeless because you didn’t pay your mortgage, the council will only have to help you for a limited time. If this happens get help from Shelter Cymru immediately.
An adviser may be able to help you persuade the council that you did everything you could to keep your home. Most councils are more likely to accept this if you had difficulty paying your mortgage because you lost your job, split up with your partner or became ill.
In some circumstances, where your household includes children or young people, the council may also have a duty to secure accommodation even if they have decided that you are intentionally homeless. For a full description of the circumstances when the council have to provide this help even if you are intentionally homeless, please see our advice here.
Some people can get help from social services, even if the housing department won’t help them. Get help from Shelter Cymru to check whether this applies to you.
Privately rented accommodation varies widely throughout Wales. In some areas it is cheap and plentiful, and it may be possible to find a suitable place and move in quite quickly. In other areas it can be difficult to find, and may be in poor condition. Rents can also be expensive. There is no legal limit concerning how much landlords can charge to begin with, but there are rules about how often they can increase the rent.
Many private landlords run credit checks on prospective contract-holders. If your home was repossessed because of mortgage arrears, it may be more difficult to find a landlord who is willing to rent to you.
If you find a place, you will probably have to pay rent in advance and a security deposit. If you are on benefits or have a low income, you might be able to apply to the social fund for a budgeting loan to cover any rent in advance.
All landlords of privately rented properties must be registered with Rent Smart Wales. They must also obtain a licence, or if they use an agent to manage their property, the agent must have a licence. You can check the Rent Smart Wales register to see if your property is registered and who is licensed to manage the occupation contract.
For more information about renting from a private landlord in Wales, click here.
In most areas, you can only get a community landlord place through a waiting list (the housing register). Some people are not eligible to apply, including some people from abroad, or people who are guilty of serious unacceptable behaviour (for example, anti-social behaviour).
To apply to go on the waiting list you’ll need to fill in an application form, which you can get from the council’s housing department, and provide ID and other documents. If you have problems applying, get help.
Waiting lists are often very long. How much priority your application is given will depend on your circumstances and how much accommodation is available in the area. In some areas there is a lot of accommodation available, but in other areas you may have little realistic hope of being offered a place at all. You will probably need to look at other options, such as renting from a private landlord, particularly if you need to find somewhere quickly.
For more information about applying for a community landlord home in Wales, click here.
You may want to consider other accommodation options such as supported housing or living in a housing co-operative. You can get help from Shelter Cymru to find out what is available in your area and how to apply.
You can find more information on all of your accommodation options in our section on finding a place to live.
If you have a housing problem, call our expert housing advice helpline
If you have a non-urgent problem and would like to speak to an adviser
email us
We are sorry that we cannot provide this information in Welsh, however if you would like to speak to an adviser in Welsh please contact 08000 495 495.
This page was last updated on: June 12, 2023
Shelter Cymru acknowledges the support of Shelter in allowing us to adapt their content. The information contained on this site is updated and maintained by Shelter Cymru and only gives general guidance on the law in Wales. It should not be regarded or relied upon as a complete or authoritative statement of the law.
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