If you can no longer keep up with your mortgage payments, at some point a letter will arrive. What happens next is largely laid down by law. What you can still influence depends almost entirely on how early you take action.
The bank may sell your home without involving a court, on the basis of its mortgage right. The condition is that you are in default. You can ask for a private sale, which almost always brings in more. But that requires the bank's cooperation and the court's permission, and the longer you wait, the smaller that chance becomes.
Article 3:268 of the Dutch Civil Code gives the bank the right of summary execution (parate executie). This means the bank may sell your home without a court being involved first. That right arises as soon as you are in default on interest or repayments.
As long as you keep paying, the bank can do nothing. There has to be more going on.
A forced auction can also be started by a creditor other than the bank, provided that creditor has seized the property and holds an enforceable title.
Paragraph 2 of the same article offers the way out: a private enforcement sale (onderhandse executoriale verkoop). The home is then simply sold through an estate agent, with viewings, with photos, with buyers who are given time to arrange their financing.
This requires the court's permission and the bank's cooperation. Often you are first given the opportunity to sell privately yourself, precisely because the proceeds are then usually higher. The bank has an interest in that too.
Here we need to set something straight. Many websites state that a forced auction yields 30 to 40% less than a normal sale. That figure comes from research from around 2008, from the days of auctions held in a room with a closed audience of property dealers.
That market no longer exists. Research by brainbay, the research agency behind the NVM, looked at around 140 auctioned foreclosure properties and found that on average they were auctioned at 6% below the estimated market value. A third of the properties actually sold above market value. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the realised auction value averaged around 100% of the WOZ value (the municipal property valuation).
The reason is online auctioning. More buyers, better information, more transparent pricing. NHG has decided that from 1 January 2026 all forced auctions involving an NHG guarantee must take place online, precisely because online auctions yield more on average.
What does that mean for you? That the real problem with an auction is no longer the price. It is the costs deducted from the proceeds, the loss of any form of control, and the residual debt that remains. If that remains, you still owe it and the bank can continue to collect it.
This is the part other sites do not tell you, because it is uncomfortable.
The courts rarely intervene. In 2024 the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled that a bank is not obliged to accept an owner's proposal to sell the home through an estate agent of their own choosing. The bank may opt for a forced sale, even if a private sale might bring in more.
And the court will not grant permission for a private sale if it is plausible that an auction will yield more. The law is geared to maximising the proceeds, not to your interests.
If the arrears are already too large, or if there have already been several failed attempts to reach a solution, the bank can refuse. Then the room to manoeuvre is gone.
The difference between someone who calls at the first payment arrears and someone who calls when the auction date has already been announced is not a matter of degree. In the first case we can simply sell the home. In the second, to be honest, there is little more we can do.
The bank may ask you to sign a power of attorney at the notary, allowing the bank to sell the home on your behalf through an estate agent of its own choosing.
As soon as you sign it, the home can be sold at any price. If a residual debt remains, it is yours. You then no longer have any control over the price, but you do get the bill.
That is no reason never to sign. It is a reason to know what you are signing, and to first have someone calculate what the home is really worth.
We are estate agents, not lawyers. We do not advise on summary proceedings, debt restructuring or objection procedures. What we can do: tell you within one day what your home is really worth, and whether a private sale is realistic in your situation.
Yes. Under the mortgage right, the bank has the power of summary execution (parate executie). The condition is that you are in default on interest or repayments.
Less than is often claimed. The figures of a 30 to 40% discount date from the days of room auctions. Since auctions moved online, the proceeds are on average close to market value. The real disadvantage lies in the costs, the loss of control and the residual debt.
No. In 2024 a court of appeal ruled that the bank is not obliged to accept your proposal to sell through an estate agent of your own choosing. Cooperating is often in the bank's interest, but it is not a right.
At the first payment arrears. If the arrears are large or there have already been failed attempts, the bank can refuse to cooperate with a private sale.
First read what it says. With that power of attorney the bank can sell the home on your behalf at any price. Any residual debt remains yours. First have someone calculate what the home is worth.
If the proceeds are lower than your debt, the difference remains. The bank can continue to collect it. If you have NHG, the residual debt can be waived under certain conditions.
Yes, if that creditor has seized the property and holds an enforceable title.
Honestly: very little. Our role is big if you call early and small if the process is already under way. At that stage you need a lawyer, not an estate agent.
We are the estate agent of Helmond and we do things just a little differently. We take a look with you, run the numbers and tell you honestly what we would do. Even if that means you should hold off for now.
Your language. We speak English, German and French. Write to us in Polish by WhatsApp and we reply in Polish.
No surprises in the contract. The purchase agreement is in Dutch and comes with an English translation, so you understand every clause.
Selling from abroad. We guide the whole sale remotely and arrange the paperwork with the notary.
