One of the most difficult situations for anyone to face is that of potentially losing theirhome. This is especially difficult if you have lived in your home for several years and have children who have never lived any place else. The stress is often more difficult for the children who must leave their friends, and it can be traumatic if there are household pets who will not be able to come along with you are forced to leave.

Is there a way to avoid home repossession, or foreclosure as it is commonly called? The best way to avoid it is to contact the lender as soon as you find out that you are unable to make the payments. If it's a matter of reduced income, the lender may be willing to reduce your payments and accept only the interest portion until you can work something out with your income issues. The key is to keep the lender informed ? don't just skip the payments or short pay without contacting the lender. Avoiding speaking with your lender makes it appear as though you are trying to avoid your obligation or are irresponsible enough to think it will go away on its own. Your lender cannot help you work out a solution unless you contact him to let him know that you have a problem.

What happens if you have a lender who just refuses to work with you? Unless you have had a history of late payments, you will not usually find that happening, but that doesn't mean that there are no lenders out there who don't care about anything but getting their money. When you do run across those who are not willing to work with you, you have to know other ways to work through the problem of being unable to make payments on your home. Although you don't want to make threats that you are unable to keep, if you have a lender who is truly unsympathetic to your needs, he will change his mind if he feels that you are a candidate for bankruptcy. After all, even a Chapter 13 will give you up to five years to bring your payments current, and the lender cannot override the decision of the court as long as you make your payments every month.

Debt management is another way to avoid losing your home when you have an uncooperative lender. Unlike filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the lender is not obligated to accept the terms that a debt management counselor offers. In most cases, they are more than willing to help you work through a program that will allow you to keep your home, but you do sometimes find lenders who are unwilling to bend at all to help you. If you are unwilling or unable to file bankruptcy, and your lender is unwilling to work with you or a debt management counselor, you may have no alternative but to locate a lender who is willing to pay off your current mortgage and allow you to start fresh.