Lenders and borrowers 'as bad as each other'
07 November 2007
Lenders and borrowers should both take the blame for next year's predicted rise in repossessions, it has been claimed.
The Repossessions Advice Centre (RAC) stated that many consumers have become used to paying bills with credit cards, building up debt that they then pay off by remortgaging their property.
The comments come as the Council of Mortgage Lenders predicted that the number of repossessions in the UK will increase to 45,000 in 2008, up from a current total of 30,000.
David Warnes, a director of the RAC, said: "An awfully big percentage of the country have been subsidising their lives through the value of their property. That doesn't just mean [people in] the sub-prime market, that's the whole [market].
"Had people decided that they ought to earn money for the petrol in their car rather than putting it on credit then maybe they wouldn't have got into the trouble they'e in," he said.
