Cork Circuit Court
You may recall a post from Monday.
It was about an item on Today with Seán O’Rourke, in which journalist Brian O’Connell reported on repossession cases that were heard last Wednesday at Cork Circuit Court.
On that day, there were 52 cases before the court involving a family home.
Today, there are 40 such cases listed in the Cork Circuit Court – also all involving a family home.
Specifically, on Wednesday, Mr O’Connell spoke to a mother of five in Cork who appeared in court without the knowledge of her family.
The woman’s house is back in positive equity, and it was reported that her debt amounts to around €30,000.
Her repayments are €800 a month but she can only afford €500 a month.
She was just after receiving an adjournment until May when Mr O’Connell spoke to her.
Very distressed, she told Mr O’Connell:
“I don’t have Christmas decorations up, I don’t have any Christmas shopping done, I actually, I love Christmas, but I can’t think. You don’t think about anything else, when this is going on.”
“My youngest, the other day, he wanted change for a collection for Focus and he said, ‘Mum, at least we’ll help some homeless person’ and I’m actually thinking ‘that could be you’. And it’s so tough and it’s so hard…”
“I can feel my whole body crumbling. I’m so tired, so weary all the time. I’d give anything just to sleep, sleep, just to actually not be thinking constantly, not be worrying constantly.”
Further to this…
Mr O’Connell spoke to the woman last night – after she received a call from an unidentified woman who said they wanted to pay €10,000 towards her arrears.
Mr O’Connell said, in total, some €15,000 in donations have been made to the woman in the past two days.
She told Mr O’Connell:
“I cannot believe the reaction to this. I have just spoken to a woman who wants to pay off some of the arrears on my account. A substantial amount of the arrears. What amazes me is people’s generosity. But the thing is, going through all of this, you feel so worthless. I actually feel quite bubbling inside at the moment.”
“I feel, I’ve got a chance, I actually have got a chance for the first time in years but now I’m crying again and I, but for a totally different reason. I don’t want to name the woman, in case she doesn’t want to be known but she knows we’ve just been speaking. Thank you so much, thank you and please, please know that what you have done is just I feel I can walk a little taller again.”
“I cannot honestly put into words what I feel at the moment…I want to thank them so much, every single person that got in touch…people are so good. [I’ll have] a completely different Christmas. Honestly, I’ve put up my decorations. I’m smiling a bit more, I am definitely a lot more cheerful, I actually think I’m going to make it through this. I have had no hope for so long. All I’ve been thinking about ‘how long, how long more can I hold on?’ ‘Can I make it through this occasion, can I just make it through this occasion?”
Previously: ‘I’d Give Anything Just To Sleep…To Not Be Thinking Constantly, Not Be Worrying’
Great news and hope it brings relief and sleep, please stop voting for the clowns from the two major parties who cause this to have happened to people
W*nkin bankers. We bailed them out for this?
The poor woman.
€300 in arrears building every month to €30,000 in total arrears suggest some sort of long term, 5-10 year arrears build up here. So if you’re saying we bailed the banks out in order to let people live in their houses for 5-10 years despite difficulty in meeting their mortgage payments, then yes, that’s probably why we did do it. The social democratic utopia of Denmark didn’t bail out their banks, but does kick people out of their houses within 6 months of non payment. That was the other option we had i suppose.
“So if you’re saying we bailed the banks out in order to let people live in their houses for 5-10 years despite difficulty in meeting their mortgage payments, then yes, that’s probably why we did do it.”
We did no such thing. The bondholders were bailed out. No Irish mortgage holders were given bail outs.
“€300 in arrears building every month to €30,000 in total arrears suggest some sort of long term, 5-10 year arrears build up here”
It does. It suggests that the 62.5% of the mortgage amount that she’s paying isn’t going anywhere, due to the interest payments.
What should happen for a person in this scenario, and I’ve heard of some banks who have done it, is the 37.5% of the mortgage approx. should be ‘parked’ (set aside, and interest not build up on it) and the payment that she is making would therefore make a dent off the principle amount owed.
Then down the line, the other 37.5% of the mortgage can be added back on.
200 a night for a room in a hotel x 365 is 73,000 euro PA by the way.
Do the maths Owen C, which is the cheaper option there?
“We did no such thing. The bondholders were bailed out. No Irish mortgage holders were given bail outs.”
There is no country in the Eurozone (the world?) where arrears levels have been allowed to build up to the levels that they have in Ireland. This was a specific element of the banking sector measures included in the EU/IMF bailout, as a quick rate of foreclosures was deemed both financially and socially unsustainable. So trust me when I say that plenty of Irish mortgage holders have been given bailouts, either via long term arrears situation or via debt writedowns received on their mortgages after agreements with the banks. Unless you deny the latter, in particular, exists???
“What should happen for a person in this scenario, and I’ve heard of some banks who have done it, is the 37.5% of the mortgage approx. should be ‘parked’ (set aside, and interest not build up on it) and the payment that she is making would therefore make a dent off the principle amount owed.”
This would require engagement with the bank, which we do not know has actually happened in this situation. All of her comments would seem to suggest she is not engaging with the bank at this moment in time. Almost no situation has occurred where entirely uncooperative or non engaging mortgagees have received mortgage restructurings.
“200 a night for a room in a hotel x 365 is 73,000 euro PA by the way.”
I did the maths on this, and it does seem particularly unsustainable to put someone in this situation up in a five star hotel for an entire year, which i assume is the point you were trying to make, right? Because only an idiot would suggest that the minimum price for any hotel room in Cork is 200 quid a night.
“There is no country in the Eurozone (the world?) where arrears levels have been allowed to build up to the levels that they have in Ireland. ”
So trust me when I say that plenty of Irish mortgage holders have been given bailouts”
Trust you?
A build up of arrears is not a bailout.
“as a quick rate of foreclosures was deemed both financially and socially unsustainable. ”
Yeah, financially unsustainable as a lot of houses would have been in negative equity. Better to squeeze as much out of the person living there while you can, then take it off them when the market rises, and the ‘asset’ is back in positive equity.
“Unless you deny the latter, in particular, exists???”
I think I read of one case where a woman received a write off of a big portion of remaining debt of her mortgage after the bank repossessed her house and sold it on for a pittance at an auction, denying her the opportunity to sell it herself for a better price.
Other than that, not too much debt write off Owen C.
It’s funny how you ask a question, you already know the answer to !!!
A build up of arrears is not a write off. Interest only payments is not a write off.
Restructuring the payments of a mortgage isn’t really a write off either.
And the 200 euro figure is what the woman said would be paid by the government, per night in emergency accommodation. I presume it’d be a family room, or possibly two rooms.
Anne: “No Irish mortgage holders were given bail outs”
Followed by
Anne: “Other than that, not too much debt write off Owen C.”
Lets add on to this with the AIB annual report for 2015:
“AIB wrote off €604.3 million worth of residential mortgage loans in the Republic last year, an increase of 35 per cent on 2014. It wrote off an additional €214 million in other personal loans here last year, down from €385 million in the previous 12 months.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/aib-wrote-off-almost-605m-in-mortgages-in-2015-1.2559166
So there were in fact debt write offs and bailouts of mortgage holders. As long as we’re agreed you initially made stuff up and were spouting nonsense, thats ok.
I’m not convinced that Irish residential mortgage customers saw the benefit of that 605 million there.
“As long as we’re agreed you initially made stuff up and were spouting nonsense, thats ok.”
Ha ha.
Stop projecting onto me now Owen C. I made nothing up.
Wasn’t it yourself yesterday saying that people were only mislead by the banks, and that they weren’t entitled to go back onto their trackers – when even one bank released a statement saying contractually customers were supposed to go back onto their tracker mortgages, but they ‘failed to communicate’ this.
You backtracked then of course saying you only said many customers weren’t entitled to go back on their trackers. Many fupping were.
Many were also made homeless because of it.
“No Irish mortgage holders were given bail outs” Yes. Bondholders were ‘bailed out’.. Not mortgage holders. They were/are harassed like this poor woman.
“You backtracked then of course saying you only said many customers weren’t entitled to go back on their trackers. ”
I said “many” at the very start. You highlighted that some had different experiences. These are not mutually exclusive outcomes. Some can have one thing while many can have another. Your failure to understand basic English then means you continually, even right now, mix up the words “many” with “some”. Its becoming embarrassing. You’re showing yourself up in front of all the other children.
They didn’t have different experiences..they had the same experience whether they were mislead by the banks into signing up for a fixed term mortgage and contractually were not being able to revert to their tracker, or contractually should have been allowed to revert to their tracker but were refused this.
In both experiences they were gouged by w*nkin bankers…Many many of them. 15,000 in fact.
I’ll ignore the rest of your nonsense.
Trot along now. You’re repeating yourself and it’s very boring.
I think you assume too much, Owen C. The article says that the mortgage is €800 pm, and that the lady can only pay €300 pm. It does not say if she has been paying the €300 to date. From your interpretation of the ‘facts’ you extrapolate that the mortgage arrears stretch back at least ten years.
What sanction will apply to the lenders who robbed at least 15,000 people? They won’t be homeless.
Happy Christmas to you, Owen C.
I spelled my name incorrectly!
Kerryview
you got everything else wrong though. :)
Her repayments are €800 a month but she can only afford €500 a month.
She paid 500 a month.
Thanks Anne, you are correct – €500 pm. She can only afford €500 pm – that doesn’t mean she actually paid €500 pm. All I wish to say is that the lenders are getting away almost scot-free whereas their clients are constantly being dragged through the courts.
Im not sure how this would strengthen her story though – she can afford to pay off 500 per month, but isnt? So instead of a 5-10yr case of partial payment, we have a 3yr case of complete non payment? And this gives bigger moral backing to her being allowed stay in the house?
A kind act of charity and nice to see.
Everyone else with a variable rate mortgage is also charitably paying extra interest each month to reimburse the banks for those that have been defaulting on payments for years. This Irish cloud cuckoo land needs to end ASAP in the interest of all of us.
Same anology for the insurance cartels ripping off Irish customers.. that we’re paying exorbitant premiums due to claims, some fraudulent..when in fact it’s just wide scale profiteering.
We’re paying higher interest rates to boost bank profits you, and they’re very profitable. No other reason.
The profiteering insurance companies that aren’t making profits?
Nice one, Anne. You’re on a roll.
Insurance companies have put the cost of creating safety nets for their own companies (so that they don’t require government bail outs next time the econmomy crashes) directly onto their customers. As well as legal costs in Ireland, due to insurance fraud cases. If they aren’t making profits then maybe they should pull back on their gigantic ad campaigns. No other industry advertises so much incessantly.
Thats a hopeful news story which is nice for a change. People need to realise whose side the political parties are on. With Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, they would both sell the land under your feet for the right price, they ARE the corrupt banking sector. We the tax payer bailed them out and then the first thing they do is turn the screw when they are back to normal. We need to ban Vulture funds too, again Fine Gael are happy to see foreign companies come in and buy up all of the housing and then turn the screw on the Irish people when they feel like it and help ruin our Housing market. We need a political revolution. STOP voting for FF and FG!
So are you actually doing anything about it, Comrade, or just spouting guff on the internet?
Well I voted Social Democrats and volunteered a bit for the last election. I’m not a comrade either, I’m not a communist if thats what you are implying. So if you are against the type of ultra capatalism which is wrecking lives in modern Ireland, making the housing crisis worse, and making millionaires richer suddenly you are a communist? There’s nothing in between?
I believe we should have capatalism with socialist policies also, like they do in northern Europe. A society with a conscience and far less corruptuion. It can actually work as long as you are not run by a bunch of greedy pigs.
What are you doing about it? Do you like the state this country is in?
haha – I voted Social Democrats
hooray for christmas spirit! May we be serving the heads of our TDs for dinner next christmas.
But what about MORAL HAZARD?!
Will some one please think of the children.
i think he’s being sold to burnley in the january transfer window.
His brother is having an excellent season at Chelsea under Conte
This woman can afford rental accomodation of €500/month and people are giving her free stuff.
Well played woman
She’s not renting. No one gave her “stuff”
What bank is that woman dealing with? Btw- only the Irish banks got bailed out