HI,
I am hoping for some advice, or just views on how to move forward and apologies for the downbeat tone...
I have a family home, we are three schoolchildren and my wife in Dublin, I work full time as the sole earner currently.
The house is in positive equity, in theory we have enough monthly income to pay our mortgage off on 20 years when I'd be almost 70.
Also, if we sold tomorrow we would be debt free, though not have enough for a deposit on any new home.
Despite this, I find us trapped and unable to move forward as follows:
History:
As a result of reduced payments during the recession (approx 2009-2015 for us) we have approx 35k of arrears on the mortgage.
In addition to the mortgage, we have the unsecured loans: a bank loan and credit card debt of 22k.
After a period of reduced payments and threats of repossession and other unpleasantness with our mortgage lender, about 5 years ago I got back to full time work and could pay the mortgage.
I tried to restructure, but found the bank just terrible to deal with, so we engaged a PIP to negotiate a deal with the bank.
After multiple rounds of offers, counter offers and appeals that went to court over and over there was no agreement.
So, after 4 years of that mess I negotiated a proposed restructure on the mortgage with the main bank last year, I wasn't happy with it and it did nothing to tackle other debt, but I needed some sense of order.
However, they sold our mortgage off to a vulture fund anyway and I have just gone through the same restructure proposal process again.
Today:
Currently we pay our mortgage in full with a small over-payment.
A proposed restructure will increase the monthly payments and add a couple of years to our mortgage, so we we can just about afford to live.
As with the bank, I find that the vulture fund have zero interest in considering how to tackle the unsecured debt in any new restructure.
As I understand the figures, in any restructure we are paying hundreds a month more than we should in order to own this house (interest rate is 4.5%)
We don't want to live here and very much want to move, but have been unable to do that during this protracted situation.
I want to get out of the situation and move forward, so I suggested most recently that we sell the house and downgrade to a cheaper property.
This could for example generate ~40k, after costs, this could halve the arrears and provide some payment to the unsecured debts, perhaps even some agreed write down.
The vulture fund advises however that they cannot transfer the property on the loan to any other property, but are happy for us to sell and pay them off :-|
So, in this respect we have to stay where we are. Or, if we do sell, we may never get another mortgage on another property even if it is affordable, due to our age, bad credit rating etc.
It appears our option now is that I can work until I am 70 paying all disposable income to own a house I do not want to live in, and in an area where I don't want my children to remain. Additionally, the unsecured debts will continue to hang around and we have no other savings or holidays etc.
I prefer a restructure that downgrades the home to something more affordable than living by the skin of our teeth until we die in a place we don't want to be, but this doesn't appear on the menu of options.
I am talking to another PIP, but they appear to be following the old same path that lead nowhere in the past, (unless the vulture fund are more reasonable than the bank). I also fear this will go on for years again and I want to get out of it now.
I am currently considering renting somewhere further out of Dublin - as far as I can manage for work and a reasonable life for the family, and sell, or rent the current mortgaged property,
I really really don't want the hassle of renting out this property - the tenants, the additional costs incurred when things go wrong etc - and I fear for my children's mindset if we just rent somewhere outside of the Dublin with no definite plan of where we can ever set roots down again.
I also fear that selling up leaves us wide open to the unsecured debts.
I feel trapped, powerless and wonder why I bust my ass working all the time with no change in my financial situation.... but I feel I need to do something radical, or we'll be here, miserable and directionless for another 20 years.
I am hoping for some advice, or just views on how to move forward and apologies for the downbeat tone...
I have a family home, we are three schoolchildren and my wife in Dublin, I work full time as the sole earner currently.
The house is in positive equity, in theory we have enough monthly income to pay our mortgage off on 20 years when I'd be almost 70.
Also, if we sold tomorrow we would be debt free, though not have enough for a deposit on any new home.
Despite this, I find us trapped and unable to move forward as follows:
History:
As a result of reduced payments during the recession (approx 2009-2015 for us) we have approx 35k of arrears on the mortgage.
In addition to the mortgage, we have the unsecured loans: a bank loan and credit card debt of 22k.
After a period of reduced payments and threats of repossession and other unpleasantness with our mortgage lender, about 5 years ago I got back to full time work and could pay the mortgage.
I tried to restructure, but found the bank just terrible to deal with, so we engaged a PIP to negotiate a deal with the bank.
After multiple rounds of offers, counter offers and appeals that went to court over and over there was no agreement.
So, after 4 years of that mess I negotiated a proposed restructure on the mortgage with the main bank last year, I wasn't happy with it and it did nothing to tackle other debt, but I needed some sense of order.
However, they sold our mortgage off to a vulture fund anyway and I have just gone through the same restructure proposal process again.
Today:
Currently we pay our mortgage in full with a small over-payment.
A proposed restructure will increase the monthly payments and add a couple of years to our mortgage, so we we can just about afford to live.
As with the bank, I find that the vulture fund have zero interest in considering how to tackle the unsecured debt in any new restructure.
As I understand the figures, in any restructure we are paying hundreds a month more than we should in order to own this house (interest rate is 4.5%)
We don't want to live here and very much want to move, but have been unable to do that during this protracted situation.
I want to get out of the situation and move forward, so I suggested most recently that we sell the house and downgrade to a cheaper property.
This could for example generate ~40k, after costs, this could halve the arrears and provide some payment to the unsecured debts, perhaps even some agreed write down.
The vulture fund advises however that they cannot transfer the property on the loan to any other property, but are happy for us to sell and pay them off :-|
So, in this respect we have to stay where we are. Or, if we do sell, we may never get another mortgage on another property even if it is affordable, due to our age, bad credit rating etc.
It appears our option now is that I can work until I am 70 paying all disposable income to own a house I do not want to live in, and in an area where I don't want my children to remain. Additionally, the unsecured debts will continue to hang around and we have no other savings or holidays etc.
I prefer a restructure that downgrades the home to something more affordable than living by the skin of our teeth until we die in a place we don't want to be, but this doesn't appear on the menu of options.
I am talking to another PIP, but they appear to be following the old same path that lead nowhere in the past, (unless the vulture fund are more reasonable than the bank). I also fear this will go on for years again and I want to get out of it now.
I am currently considering renting somewhere further out of Dublin - as far as I can manage for work and a reasonable life for the family, and sell, or rent the current mortgaged property,
I really really don't want the hassle of renting out this property - the tenants, the additional costs incurred when things go wrong etc - and I fear for my children's mindset if we just rent somewhere outside of the Dublin with no definite plan of where we can ever set roots down again.
I also fear that selling up leaves us wide open to the unsecured debts.
I feel trapped, powerless and wonder why I bust my ass working all the time with no change in my financial situation.... but I feel I need to do something radical, or we'll be here, miserable and directionless for another 20 years.
Last edited:
