Britain's Financial Regulator, the Financial Services Authority has recently warned that as many as one million families could be in danger of losing their property over the coming 18 months. Fears are mounting due to high levels of secured debts that many homeowners have over their property coupled with high levels of unsecured consumer debts. These two factors combined with the global credit crunch crisis that is currently gripping the market could prove a lethal cocktail for large numbers of homeowners across the country.

As Banks and Building Societies have become ever more wary and cautious, the cost of remortgaging has seen to have risen dramatically to reflect this. Lender arrangement fees in particular are often increased to allow for their eye catching rates. Many borrowers who have recently come out of their fixed rate term have found that they cannot switch to an equally cheap deal as was once available as recently as a couple of years ago.

The nail in the coffin for many may even come in the form of increased utility bills which has seen some gas suppliers raise prices by as much as 20%! According to the Financial Services Authority (FSA), even the slightest increase in bills or monthly repayments will be enough to tip some homeowners over the edge.

In this depressing new forecast from the FSA, it stated that as much as one-fifth of those borrowers who took out a mortgage between the months of April 2005 and September 2007 risk having their home repossessed. This amount which is in excess of one million people includes those first time buyers who took out their first mortgage and those existing homeowners who remortgaged from one deal to another.

Many critics would argue that lenders and brokers alike have during this time acted irresponsibly as not enough care would have been taken when assessing the customer's affordability relating to directly after the special offer rate. Whatever the reasons behind this, the Financial Services Authority has some big changes to make within the mortgage industry with ‘responsible lending' being at the core of their work as the financial watchdog.

Fixed rate mortgages can leave many borrowers paying the lender's standard variable rate after the fixed rate period which is usually a much less attractive rate if a new deal isn't secured in time. Even in the case where a new special offer rate is arranged in time; there is of course no guarantee that this is going to keep the monthly payments at around the same level! The increased payments can leave many in financial turmoil which in turn can lead to missed monthly mortgage and secured loan repayments. If the situation is allowed to escalate then the lender may initiate court action which can ultimately lead to repossession.