As the recession deepens, the number of people losing their homes is rising to record levels. However, if you make any effort to service your mortgage the bank will be extremely reluctant to put you out of your home.

In a single day, the High Court has just granted 13 repossession orders to lenders, the highest so far this year. And there is almost certainly more to come.

With unemployment having almost doubled over the past year, and property prices continuing to fall, we certainly haven't seen the peak of the repossession cycle. These are worrying times for hundreds of thousands of homeowners. After paying excessive amounts for their homes, many of them have now either lost their jobs or are worried about the prospect of being laid off.

By some calculations up to 200,000 homeowners are now in "negative equity", where the amount that they owe on their mortgage exceeds the value their home. So how real are these fears? Very real. However, homeowners shouldn't despair. In virtually all of the cases heard yesterday the borrowers had made no effort to contact their banks.

Many of the borrowers seem to have quickly decided that they were in over their heads and walked away from their mortgages.

If you get into financial difficulties through losing your job or some other set of circumstances, such as marital breakdown, which was a factor in at least one of the cases heard yesterday, then don't ignore it. The important thing to remember is that you must act quickly.

Arrears

The first thing you must do is to contact your bank as soon as possible. Don't leave it until the arrears have reached unsustainable levels and it is too late. While banks are hard-headed commercial organisations, it is because they are hard-headed commercial organisations that they don't want the hassle, expense and bad publicity that comes from putting families out of their homes.

In fact, so far as the banks are concerned, repossessions are bad for business. If you are up-front with your bank and try to meet it half way, then it will generally be reasonable.

Borrowers also need to realise that the courts also hate putting people out of their homes. In fact judges will go to almost ridiculous lengths to avoid granting a repossession order. Whatever the letter of the law might state, if you are making any effort to repay your mortgage, then no judge will grant a repossession order.

That's the good news. The bad news is that with unemployment having already almost doubled to more than 400,000 over the past 12 months, it will smash through the 500,000 barrier either later this year or early next year.

When people first lose their jobs they will typically have either savings and/or a redundancy lump sum. However, unless they can find another job quickly, this money is quickly exhausted and financial problems mount.

Worst

What this means is that, with joblessness continuing to mount and no sign of property prices bottoming out, the worst has yet to come. Over the next 12 months the number of cases being brought by banks and building societies against homeowners who can no longer repay their mortgages is likely to increase dramatically.

Making matters worse is the Government's inexplicable delay in bringing NAMA on stream. We are now expecting the draft legislation to be published in mid-September, almost a year after the banking crisis first erupted. It is only when NAMA is up and running that it will be possible to put a floor under property, including house, prices.

Instead of shedding crocodile tears for hard-pressed homeowners the Government should get the finger out and get NAMA open for business as soon as possible. Until it does so, more and more homeowners will find themselves facing repossession orders.