A SOUTH Stockton couple have told of their trauma after being evicted from their home, despite having a required mortgage payment at the ready.

Paul Normington, 51, and Christine Fearns, 48, lost their home on Simonside Grove, Ingleby Barwick after falling badly behind with their mortgage repayments.

However they were told that if they paid £1,403 by 11am on Tuesday morning they would have a reprieve.

The couple, currently being put up by friends who own a Yarm B&B, went to pay the money which they had borrowed from a friend at a branch of the Halifax in Middlesbrough as instructed but it was closed.

They went on to the Halifax on Stockton High Street on time and say they were on the phone to the bank’s The Mortgage Business (TMB) team but were put on hold. By the time the money could be processed it was too late and the couple were told they were t o be evicted.

Mr Normington, the mortgage holder, appealed but the court upheld the Halifax’s decision to evict.

Ms Fearns, a shop worker, accepted they had a poor payment history, owing more than £10,000, but said there was a plan to repay the arrears. She had lost a previous job through ill-health and other out-goings had increased while their income had declined. All their clothes and property had been locked up in the home.

“We have such great lovely, fantastic friends and it has kept us going,” she said. “Paul has lived there 20 years and I have been there 12. It was like they held us up before we could process the money. We feel like outcasts.”

Mr Normington, a sales manager, who at one point collapsed with stress, said he was due inheritance money imminently which would have cleared all the arrears and meant their monthly bank payment would have almost halved. Other outgoings had been reduced. The arrears repayments were actually ahead for the year.

“If they had just given us a chance we could have sorted all this out,” he said.

A spokesman for the Halifax pointed out the decision to evict was upheld by a court and said Mr Normington’s financial situation had not changed.

He said: “We always take our customer’s concerns very seriously and so were sorry to hear of Mr Normington's issues about the recent repossession and eviction from 42 Simonside Grove.

“The Mortgage Business is a responsible lender and the last thing we ever want is for a customer to lose their home.

“There was an attempt to make a payment on the morning of the eviction but this did not take place. We do not believe there was any evidence of obstruction on the part of our staff.”