Is there any way of challenging paying negative equity shortfall on sold by-to-let?

Yet you state that you can afford to pay them back 50k plus interest over 7 years!!! You are considering bankruptcy which in my view is totally unnecessary. before taking any action against you in the UK they will need to get an Irish judgment. In my view a 25k offer would be very attractive and you should look more closely at this option before dismissing it. i.e. Borrow some from bank and look to friends relations if possible. I would also tend to stick to this lump sum and ignore any threats as 25k on an unsecured debt of 50k would be a good return for them. Find a good advisor who can put more time into your case than Steve Thatcher appears to have (no reflection on Steve but you need someone who will take full responsibility from you and give you the right advice & encouragement.)

Thanks 44brendan. Steve has been always 100% available and his advice has always been incisive and we'd never be where we are now without him, so I have to stick up for him, but in the end it is my problem and my decision.

So, 25k. We did offer them 10k. My parents could afford to offer us that and the bank rejected it. Because we've just moved to the UK 12 months ago, I don't have enough of a credit rating yet for my new UK bank to loan us money. I asked. I don't have anyone else who could afford to loan me 25k, unless you wouldn't mind ;-)
 
Love to oblige but..........:(

Well, no harm in askin ;-)

If AIB do get a payment order of some kind from the court, can they enforce it in the UK? I've no assets here or back home. We sold everything before my partner's bankruptcy to pay as many debts as we could. Would it just be a meaningless but threatening piece of paper as Bronte put it?
 
Technically yes they can use an Irish judgment to take action in the UK. based on my own experience Irish banks rarely do this unless they can see a clear benefit in doing so. I.e. You have unencumbered assets other than a PDH in the UK or you are earning a very high salary.
To a certain extent a lot of this is like a game of "who blinks first". We are looking at a 50k potential outlay here and in my view it's worth putting up a fight to get this debt down to an acceptable level. I think Steve T's response is a good one. He is an acknowledged expert and you should send them a response in line with his recommendation. 10/15k might work but you will need to play hardball first! 1st offer will always be refused if the bank thinks there might be more funds available.
 
All the letter says right now Bronte is "Upon further consideration I have decided to reject your Letter of Agreement" and a reference to that letter in the header.

Come on breadandjam we're talking serious money here you can do better than this. Upon further consideration I have decided to reject your Letter of Agreement because ....

Steve Thatcher the expert has told you to negotiate hard, 44brendan who is in a bank has told you the same, me, I've seen loads of posters like you but so far not one that I recall actually got chased by a bank to the UK or America. They don't go after people for 50k. 50k is nothing. And the costs of pursuing it outway the chances of getting it from you as:

a) you can go bankrupt
b) you have no assets
c) you can quit your job
d) you can exaggerate your spending and thereby prove you have nothing to pay them with

Your letter should be about how broke and poor you are. How stressed you are. You wouldn't believe the letters people write to banks.
 
Come on breadandjam we're talking serious money here you can do better than this. Upon further consideration I have decided to reject your Letter of Agreement because ....

Steve Thatcher the expert has told you to negotiate hard, 44brendan who is in a bank has told you the same, me, I've seen loads of posters like you but so far not one that I recall actually got chased by a bank to the UK or America. They don't go after people for 50k. 50k is nothing. And the costs of pursuing it outway the chances of getting it from you as:

a) you can go bankrupt
b) you have no assets
c) you can quit your job
d) you can exaggerate your spending and thereby prove you have nothing to pay them with

Your letter should be about how broke and poor you are. How stressed you are. You wouldn't believe the letters people write to banks.

Thank you everyone for your advice and encouragement.
 
The bank will quite happily take your money and know you have no savings/safety net ..... Put up a fight and negotiate a deal. If it was me I would tell them where to go!! I'd walk and tell them to stick the residual!!!
 
So, I'll give y'all an update. I agreed to pay. Decided that my peace of mind was more important than a long fight I expected to lose.

So I sent them the signed contract back and details of my UK account for paying the money off. They wrote back and said my other half had to OK this in writing as they were co-signees on the debt. I told them they were wrong, my partner is bankrupt so the debt is just mine.

Then they wrote back and said they didn't recognise the IBAN I sent them. I sent them a copy of a statement to prove it was the right IBAN.

Think about that: a bank that doesn't know what an IBAN is.

Can you believe these muppets have to much power? I'm actually fighting these incompetent idiots to pay them a chunk of my income for 10 years!

It is like being mugged by someone so stupid you are trying to help them rob you.
 
Another update, they've figured out how IBAN's work and have given us only 1.1% interest to pay on the balance. It saves us about 5k over the 10 years. Overall, we survived this. I think it has had some longer term psychological effects: I find if there's a problem of any kind I have to solve I go from relaxed to panicky in 5 seconds. I'm guessing this will level out as normality resumes. Thanks again this forum, it really got us through some tough times.
 
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