Help - Negative Equity, Nightmare Neighbour & Want to Move

Hi All,

Would really appreciate some good advice for myself and husband.

History - We bought our house in 2006 with a 100% mortgage with PTSB. The mortgage is now at 358,000. I work part-time and Husband redundant since October last year, so far we have taken a 2 month mortarium & now we pay 800 per month off the mortgage (which was €1750 per month). Fortunately the mortgage interest supplement was given to us and they contribute 600 per month so as it stands at the moment we are paying our mortgage interest only with each month an arrears of 350 each month.


The problem we have is with our neighbour with anti social behaviour and has been going on and off for a couple of years now - the police are well aware and our lives are a misery - every weekend we are woken up with people coming for parties its like a doss house every weekend, all his mates come in their droves and get off their heads on drink & drugs every weekend, we have had broken beer bottles outside our door, people being sick on our drive and we have been verybally threatened - i genuinely could go on, our lives are hell living next door to it, even our young child is now clued up. We now want out for the sake our sanity and marriage - all our family & friends know of our plight and its just horrible - put it this away imagine being away for the weekend and dreading coming home cause its nice out and you think there will be a gang of them outside his back partying...

So what we would like to do is be able to sell the house and come to some agreement with the bank for the shortfall - we reckon we'd get no more than 200,000 for the house so will owe about 150,000 to the bank - we would really be grateful if anyone would have any advice how physically to do this - ie., what do we actually say and do to the bank. If the bank wouldnt agree to this - what if we said we would be handing the keys back and going back to the UK - how would this impact and in general terms just how exactly does this work? although thats not something I want to do.

We think in some ways its a good thing that my husband is not working just in terms of going to the bank but we just heard this morning that there may be an offer of his job back again albeit for 3 months or a year and we are afraid how this would impact with our proposal to the bank?

Would really appreciate some advice or if anyone knows if there are solicitors or organisations that we could bring with us to the meeting or just what we should do.

Many thanks

hi there sorry to hear about your situation. There are a group of solicitors dealing with reposession cases etc but not sure if they could help you. Couldnt hurt to contact them though as they may point you in the right direction. Their name is "New Beginning" If you google this you'll get the address.
Hope this is of some use and good luck

hi Sammish
thanks, we have tried them but they cant help us until we got to repossession stage but they were very nice and helpful if anyone else out there needs them... as im writing this post there is a group of them out the back with the nice weather and we are in with the windows closed to try and drown out the noise - its absolute hell living like this.

Sorry about your plight. See post further on down page, dated 13-07 title is "confirmed write-off of mortgage shortfall"

Fortunately the mortgage interest supplement was given to us and they contribute 600 per month so as it stands at the moment we are paying our mortgage interest only with each month an arrears of 350 each month.

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It is a condition of the MIS that the borrower is only paying the interest on their mortgage. If they are paying more, it means that the taxpayer is effectively helping you to pay down the capital on your mortgage. This could cause you problems. You need to change your mortgage to interest only while you are in this situation.

Your first priority is your mental and physical health. You have to get out of the house. You have two options
1) Hand back the keys
2) Sell it with the lender's approval

If you hand back the keys, the bank will repossess it and sell it for the best price they can. As it will be empty, it's likely to be squatted in by the lads next door and it will never sell. You will be stuck with the shortfall forever.

So you should try to get your lender's approval to sell. Explain the situation to them. Tell them that you will make every effort to pay the shortfall, but you want their approval in writing to sell the property at the best available price. They can nominate the auctioneer. Ask them nicely first.

If they don't agree, I don't think you have any option but to tell them that you will have to abandon the house and it will be impossible to sell. This does not suit you or them. They probably will agree at that stage.

The best result for all concerned is that your husband returns to employment and over time, pays off the shortfall. However, you might consider moving to the UK as you can then avail of debt settlement or bankruptcy. Not pleasant, but possibly better than having a €150k debt hanging over you for the next 30 years.

What's the story with your neighbour, is he renting or an owner? Is he impacting on just you & your husband or the estate as a whole?

Hi all,
Thanks for replies, Brendan we are going to try and get an app with the bank this week and approach them as you say as we definitely cannot continue living as we are - I just cant get my head around moving to UK - like how do you even physically hand back the keys - do you just pack up and give the keys back and then what? How do you avail of the UK debt settlement - if you were to go to the UK after handing keys back would you then look for a solicitor dealing in bankruptcy - this is a whole new world to me that I havent got a clue about!

Nell, he is an owner and we are affected the most by the behaviour but nearby neighbours are at times too but they wouldnt always hear the noise ie., if they were all out the back garden the houses across the street wouldnt necessarily hear them.

Hi Winner

So sorry to hear ur situ...

If you go to the Dept for the Environment website there is a section on noise and dealing with noisey neighbours. The forum wont allow me post the link sorry.

It might help get the ball rolling on dealing with your neighbour, making your life a living hell while you try and deal with everything else will have u in the looney bin. I live in an apartment building and have extremely noisey people living above me so I know what you are going thru.

Good luck and hope you get some peace soon.
Lizley

Hello Winner my name is Steve.

"The best result for all concerned is that your husband returns to employment and over time, pays off the shortfall. However, you might consider moving to the UK as you can then avail of debt settlement or bankruptcy. Not pleasant, but possibly better than having a €150k debt hanging over you for the next 30 years. "

I have taken the quote from Brendan.

I may be able to help you if you do decide that your only option is to up sticks and move. Losing your mental health in a situation such as this is never worth it.
Having debt is hard enough for an individual as it is without the complications of a delinquant neighbour.
Moving to the UK is not easy. It can be done however and I have helped, and am helping people do this.
You may read in order to go bankrupt here in England and be able to have your liability to the bank written off, you need to be able to establish your COMI. That is you must make England your centre of main interest.
Essentially that means that at the moment you are made bankrupt your main economic activity is here.
It doesn't matter that all your debts are in Ireland or even that the only reason you moved to England was to go bankrupt.
You establish your COMI by for instance, getting a job or being slef employed, by getting a national insurance number, get a bank account, rent a property. Do all this for four months and you will not have a problem when you present your petition.
It is hard uprooting a family for a new life, but which is harder doing this or carrying your debt until it is written off.