Your credit rating (if your name is on the house) will take a nosedive into the depths & stay there for a few years.
Owning a house is good for your credit rating, losing one by repossession is very bad.
My ex cleared out all our accounts after running up a few tens of thousands in debts then disappeared when I fell pregnant & we owned a house together which I ended up having to have repossessed.
I literally woke up one morning to find he'd vanished along with all the valuables in the house & he's never been seen or heard from since.
I was not able to sell it myself as the house was in joint names & a number of companies had put charging orders on the house (for more than it was worth in total) in his name which meant I needed their agreement to sell, which they would only give if they all got all their money back.
I actually went to court - the meeting was not in a public court but in a small private office, with just the judge, myself & a solicitor representing the mortgage company sitting at a desk.
We had to wait an hour to make sure my ex didn't turn up, then we basically had a very reasonable chat in which I explained I couldn't keep up the payments alone, the charging orders problem etc...
I found it very distressing & ended up sobbing in a heap - they must be used to it as they had a box of tissues & were very civil about it.
After the repossession was granted, I was 'supposed' to move out within 30 days, but was told that I could stay longer (would have been moving at Christmas otherwise) as long as I understood this would mean they would have to apply for an eviction notice.
I actually moved out around the end of February.
I think in large part because of my honesty & the circumstances the mortgage company decided after selling the house (which they could not have got back what was owed on, as my ex had taken out a loan for about a sixth of the value on top of 100% mortgage & house prices had fallen) not to pursue for the outstanding amount.
I thought I would have to go bankrupt, but got a debt charity involved & on my credit record the debt was listed as settled.
They never contacted me again.
I ended up being rehoused by the council, so I was fortunate, although I did have to live in a house full of teenaged junkies & dealers for a while (councils definition of safe housing) until I had my son - got back from the hospital to discover they had stolen everything I owned while I was in there)
With help from my midwife & shelter I was finally housed by myself when my son was about 6 weeks old - at which point we moved into an empty shell with concrete floors with the following second hand items forced on us by the council - 1 bed, 1 3 piece suite & 1 fridge freezer (bizarre, but apparently that is the councils definition of furnished & they were not allowed to house me away from the furnished bedsit in the house of junkies without these items) & a bill for said items.
Finding a private landlord with a repossession hanging over you is difficult.
Some ask extortionate amounts (such as 6 months paid in advance & 3 months as a deposit) or require a guarantor who has good credit.
Trying to do something as simple as get a phone contract or ordinary everyday bank account is no longer easy, although you won't lose any you already have.
Companies like Next who regularly credit check customers will suddenly change your credit limit to 0 even though you've never missed a payment & been with them for years.
There are certain jobs you cannot hold if you have CCJs etc.., but I don't work in an area affected by it so don't know any details.
Emotionally I found it devastating, but it was probably a combination of all the events not just the repossession.
Although I knew intellectually that the repossession was the only reasonable course of action, I felt like my home had been stolen.
I am still unable over 3 years later to go past the end of the street I used to live on.
I think it's because it wasn't a move I chose to make, but one forced on me after spending a few years pouring my heart into making 'our first house' a beautiful home.
It is also something I feel ashamed of, as though it is a personal failure on my part - I'd never had an unpaid debt in my life before.
I certainly don't mention it to people I know out in the real world.
I now live completely without credit or lines of borrowing, with the exception of my gas, water, electricity & telephone bills which I pay quarterly.
Now that I'm used to it, I've discovered I'm actually better off than I've ever been & I like living this way.
I am still unable to get a normal current account however (I stupidly closed mine down when I thought I would have to go bankrupt & changed to a basic account. Big mistake, because now the same bank won't give me back my old account even though I never went overdrawn in over 30 years banking with them)
I closed down all my lines of credit - something I do regret doing with hindsight because if I'd kept my credit cards they wouldn't have been taken away & using them would actually have helped me rebuild my credit.
Now, I am unable to qualify for even the ones that say they are for bad credit, partly because my income is not high but mostly because I have no credit.
It's not that I want to use the credit, I just hate not being able to have a normal bank account, or a cheque book (I have to ask my parents to write a cheque if I need to post one somewhere), or decide to change utility companies without worrying I'll fail their credit check.