# Possibility of mortgage after Personal Insolvency?



## Mousey27 (3 Jan 2019)

Hi there

I hope someone might be able to help. I know Personal Insolvency is a very new area and this seems to be causing me some major issues when trying to get answers. I will try to make this story as short as possible.

Purchased a home with my *then* partner in 2007 for 315k. Unfortunately we split up in 2008, and neither could afford to keep the home ourselves and so we started by renting it out, but as rental market was crashing also, we had to supplement the mortgage payments along with the rent, which each trying to pay rent in other properties ourselves. It was unsustainable and the mortgage fell behind despite my best efforts to sustain it. Queue head in the sand for few years, fearful of everything, until I found what I thought was the solution in 2015. I decided on the opinion of a financial advisor to opt for a personal insolvency arrangement. As part of this deal, both myself and my ex agreed to hand over the property to the bank which they would put up for sale, I would pay a sum of money to the bank (a once off lump sum), and have just a 3 month personal insolvency arrangement. I was declared free of debt and insolvency arrangement in August 2016.
Last year I applied for a copy of my credit report and it looked as if Ulster Bank were still reporting missed payments every month on my mortgage. I queried this with the bank and was passed from pillar to post, but eventually established it might be because they hadnt finalised the sale of my old property yet. As recently as this December, they had another excuse as to why my account wasnt closed off - they said they never recieved "completion letters" from my PIP. I contacted my PIP immediately who was able to prove these completion letters were in fact sent in 2016, but he sent them again immediately and cc'd me in the email, which was also sent to WatchPortfolio Management.

My query is, does anyone know how or if I can go about sorting out my ICB report? Surely if I was discharged as such in 2016 and have paperwork to prove that, the timer should run from then and my credit report should clear by 2021? 

My second query is as follows and is the most important one. I am now happily married. My husband has a good income and potentially could secure a small mortgage on his income alone. He has never owned a property. However, I am majorly concerned I will hold him back and be a huge issue in all this. If the banks know he is married which he will have to declare, wont they refuse him based on my ICB check? We are in a desperate scenario. Currently in Cork(city and county)  there are less than 24 houses for rent for 1500 or under - and they are all what I consider substandard, damp, miserable properties that have seen years of wear and tear, and some a long commute from our work. We are currently renting for close to 1500, but each rent increase or house move pushes us further and further out from achieving our deposit goals for a mortgage.
We are not unreasonable people and dont expect or want a huge mortgage, as I said even if they would consider lending soley to my husband on his income he could expect to qualify for in and around 250k, which would be just about enough for us to purchase a small semi in Cork.

Do you think we have any hope with my credit issue?
Any advice?


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## eyesgreen_1 (4 Jan 2019)

Hi, In terms of resolving your ICB report there are at present two main credit check organisations in Ireland - (i) The Irish Credit bureau and (ii) The Central Credit Register.

*Irish Credit Bureau* - This organisation can only change your information when asked to do so by your relevant lender. Therefore the best approach here is that you must write to your lender (Ulster Bank) informing them that they have filed erroneous credit information in regard to your account and that if they do not correct this immediately you will write to "the financial services and pensions ombudsman". Give them a reasonable time frame in which they must respond in writing to you outlining a satisfactory response and if they do not offer a satisfactory response within your time frame ( I'd say 21 days) then you will forward your complaint to the ombudsman.

*Central Credit Register* - This is the new credit register. It is crucial that you request your credit report from this organisation also as there is no guaruntee it will be the same as the ICB and it's not uncommon for it to hold different information.

However if you make a complaint and ask this organisation (CCR) to amend incorrect details they will write to your lender on your behalf and then inform you of your lenders written response. Then you can write the same letter to your lender as above. Or you can send one letter to your sender outlining that they have sent misinformation to both credit organisations and they must correspond with both organisations and correct the error.

As you said yourself this is a new area in which the banks and the credit organisations are negotiating so is not uncommon for mistakes and misinformation to exist especially in regard to time-frames and understanding of insolvency and bankcruptcy concepts. If you carry out the above advice it will at least get the ball rolling in attempting to get your credit information corrected. Keep a record of all your written correspondence and only correspond in writing. The bank will not want you to write to the ombudsman as they will be sanctioned and penalised if they have sent misinformation to the relevant credit organisations as this is against financial rules.

I hope you find this helpful and I wish you the best of luck.


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## MikeL2007 (9 Jan 2019)

Hi Mousey,

The other area I would suggest you look into is lodging a complaint with the Financial Services Ombudsman against Ulster Bank for incorrectly reporting your credit status - they tend to be more responsive when the FSO are on their case.

Wrt your mortgage application with your husband, if you can't get your ICB report cleared up - my only advice is to meet with someone senior in the bank you're applying to directly to explain your situation rather than simply the person processing your application so they get the story behind the credit issues.  Worked in our application process.

Best of luck, not a nice situation you find yourself in.
Mike


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## Bjohnpatrick (9 Feb 2019)

Hi Mike this is so helpful and delighted to hear you got your mortgage it gives us hope  cheers, I got released in 2016 as well and I’m currently looking to apply for a mortgage at the minute,my broker  just sent in an application to Ptsb and got as far as the under writer but they didn’t want to proceed with the application because of the Ccr, the guy dealing with the case said everything was perfect about the application as my wife has a strong credit score only I was showing up on the ccr as owing EBS. This as we know  is false I have contacted EBS yesterday to get this amended and they said they will proceed to fix it I mentioned the fianicial ombudsman to the lady and she changed her tune to dealing with me. Looking at your thread I’m probably best write as well , in the meantime  my broker who is dealing with my case, has a good contact in BOI and is willing to lodge an application while I’m still getting this amended, do you think this is wise from your experience, and did you use a broker to deal with your mortgage? Im currently banking with BOI, so I was pleased to hear they engaged with you, and was wondering did you get the Ccr amended before or during the application? Look forward to your reply thanks Mike


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## Mousey27 (6 Aug 2020)

Bjohnpatrick said:


> Hi Mike this is so helpful and delighted to hear you got your mortgage it gives us hope  cheers, I got released in 2016 as well and I’m currently looking to apply for a mortgage at the minute,my broker  just sent in an application to Ptsb and got as far as the under writer but they didn’t want to proceed with the application because of the Ccr, the guy dealing with the case said everything was perfect about the application as my wife has a strong credit score only I was showing up on the ccr as owing EBS. This as we know  is false I have contacted EBS yesterday to get this amended and they said they will proceed to fix it I mentioned the fianicial ombudsman to the lady and she changed her tune to dealing with me. Looking at your thread I’m probably best write as well , in the meantime  my broker who is dealing with my case, has a good contact in BOI and is willing to lodge an application while I’m still getting this amended, do you think this is wise from your experience, and did you use a broker to deal with your mortgage? Im currently banking with BOI, so I was pleased to hear they engaged with you, and was wondering did you get the Ccr amended before or during the application? Look forward to your reply thanks Mike



Did you manage to get mortgage approval?


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