When faced with prospect of losing your home it's difficult not to panick and rational behaviour goes out the window. If this is you then try to stay calm: there are positive steps you can take immediately to improve the situation. These steps will not only focus you properly on your situation, it will also provide important information to people in the financial services who can be of help.

• Sit down and work out your monthly budget.
  
  Be as detailed as possible. The more you know about your money the better. Doing this will also give you a much more accurate picture of what you can or can't afford every month.
  
  
• Make a single payment to your lender.
  
  You may not have enough the make good your arrears. You may not have enough to meet one month's payment. But making any payment, no matter how little, will certainly help your case, especially should you go to court.
  
  
• Talk to you lender.
  
  Now you have a clearer idea of your finances, communicate with your mortgage company. Just say you're assessing your finances and will come back to them with a plan/proposal in a couple of weeks. Hopefully this will give you much-needed breathing space.