mortgage

"I'm a bit older, my mortgage is paid, my kids are grown up," he said.

Clarke now warns that too many people are having to "mortgage themselves up to the hilt" for homes on new estates that are not always well built and with poor access to local services.

She was due a lump sum pension payment on 1 September, which she had arranged to use to pay off her mortgage on that day.

But, she says: "It should be easy for you to get a mortgage - it's a legitimate career."

Legislation that allows victims of the Jan. 7 fire storms to receive up to a year of mortgage relief was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom as an urgency measure that takes effect immediately.