Why loans not filling on FS?

I don't know how much of FS's apparent 'sympathy' toward borrowers results from their need to treat customers fairly.  If they don't, they can get sued by borrowers who lose money when security is enforced and sold at 'fire sale' prices.  That risk will tend to make lenders err on the side of caution/leniency.  Whether they've overdone it is, of course, something we can debate ad infinitum!

Yes, that is a significant factor for loans which are (sort of) only 6 month term - the effective interest rate is cut by I guess about one % point if a loan is in limbo for a couple of weeks.

If only it was 2 weeks locked up. Nothing lost though as interest accrues whilst in limbo. I would like to see accrued interest paid out at the go live date to encourage early bidders and make the sm less variable for a given loan.

Possibly some investors are finding that money goes in but often may not come out again for a long time and even loans with a low LTV do not guarantee that you will get your money back when you originally expected.

Reading the updates on loans more than 100 days overdue does not inspire confidence, for example:

2891725647 (LTV 37.5), 1029913142 (LTV 52.53), 1960999217 (LTV 71.43), 1861817905 (LTV 17.39)

Various obviously meaningless terms are used repeatedly, such as "No change" "As before" "Awaiting funds" "Ongoing" etc.

However, many more superficially promising statements prove to be just as meaningless in terms of real progress to return of funds, for example:

"funds should be available this month" "progress has been made" "signs remain positive" "view to taking more immediate action"
"expected to be completed within" "hopefully finalise" "we expect repayment within" "evidence that funds are in place"
"expected to be resolved imminently" "evidence of refunding" "confirmation from solicitor" "refinancing will complete shortly"

It seems that the only truly meaningful update is the email confirming that one of your loans has completed and closed.

Clearly, when loans are allowed to become this overdue the accumulation of interest and potentially increased costs of realising the value of the security seriously add to the likelihood of lender losses.

It appears that the pawn lending model is not ideally suited to large loans such as property, particularly when the loan recovery process becomes so protracted.

Site statistics for October to December show that defaults and overdue loans are increasing in value month on month but remaining level or decreasing in percentage terms.

Let us hope that we do not see a significant worsening in 2017.

Good question.

What is becoming clear is that 6 months is a very notional timescale for FS loans.

In the event of non-payment it seems that with property one can expect an average delay of 3-6 months before firm action is taken and a further 6-9 months before the firm action leads to a return of funds. Therefore, assuming 18 months interest, say 10% recovery costs, and 10% reduction in value for a "quick sale", as was suggested earlier in the thread, in the absence of special conditions, 60% LTV is not so much safe but is perhaps a guideline sensible maximum.

IIRC, the longest is the Whitchurch Land loan (2998063902) that was activated on Friday.  I don't know if I invested on the first day the loan appeared, but I had 115 days of accrued interest when it was activated.

The loan is showing a maturity date of 8/July so -- in this case, anyway -- the loan term is six months starting at activation.