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Is there a specific word or expression for this process?

When a family doesn't have enough money and has to move out because their house is now owned by the bank, what's the word for what happened to the house?

The house was ____ by the bank

Or when you mortgage valuable items to borrow money and you can't pay the debt, what happens to your golden watch or your car, for example?

My car was ____ by the bank

If these are not the correct sentence structures for the situation, what's the best way to express the idea?

Thanks in advance

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  • 3
    They are repossessed.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 20:51
  • Thank you very much!
    – rubiks28
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 20:51
  • 3
    For houses, you can also say foreclosed on.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 20:57
  • 2
    If a mortgage is taken out on a property (either to buy the property or to raise money for another purpose) and the customer defaults on the payment the bank will, eventually, foreclose on the property. If someone has a debt which is not related to an asset but the asset is taken under a court order in order for it to be sold to pay off the debt the asset is seized. Only assets where a loan is taken out through the seller in order to pay for the asset is the asset repossessed.
    – BoldBen
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 21:02
  • @BoldBen thank you for the clarification, it was very helpful.
    – rubiks28
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 21:06

1 Answer 1

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repossess

to take back possession of something, especially property that has not been completely paid for:

-Cambridge

The house was re-possesed by the bank... the mortgage was

foreclosed.

(especially of banks) to take back property that was bought with borrowed money because the money was not being paid back as formally agreed:

With vehicles, it is sometimes said

repo-ed

From Repo as a business.

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    The option you do not have, and which the OP specifically mentioned, is where you put up a valuable asset which you own outright as security for a loan which is not a mortgage. In this case the bank can't foreclose on the asset because the loan us not a mortgage. Also it can't repossess the item since it never possessed it in the first place. The process by which a financial institution takes possession of an asset so that they can sell it and recover the unpaid money is, in the UK at least, called seizure and the asset is said to be seized by the institution.
    – BoldBen
    Commented Nov 15, 2020 at 1:43

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