Mars Capital

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vultures

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My mortgage was sold by Bank of Ireland to Mars Capital. This happened a few days after my partner passed away. I was in shock and broke down when on the phone to BOI begging them not to sell my home to a vulture fund.

Since then I’ve had to engage with Mars, went through the entire financial statement. An amount was agreed that was affordable to me and advised that I would be sent a letter confirming the new amount. Instead I received a letter advising me that they are increasing my interest rate by 1.5% which will increase my repayments by €400 per month.

I am at breaking point at this stage, my partner has not even been dead a year and there is not the slightest bit of empathy from them.

I have not missed a repayment since they took over and have paid a little extra when I can.

Can anyone advise me if there is any point in continuing to try and barter on the interest rate or is it just a waste of time? I’m on disability benefit due to long term illness and have had to supplement my income by taking in foreign exchange students. I’ve no other means of increasing my income due to my health. I don’t know what to do, I have a young teenager who
Is battling with grief and my time should be spent worrying about her not this vulture fund who is crippling me financially and mentally.


Any advice would be most welcome.

Thank you
 

This is the exact scenario envisaged by the personal insolvency legislation. Book an appointment with a PIP and apply for a personal insolvency arrangement. The court will force the mortgagee to effectively accept what it deems you can afford according to your specific circumstances.

Your credit rating will take a hit but you do not appear to be intending on applying for credit in the future given your circumstances.
 
Thank you for your advice
 
I am a PIP , Mars in Personal Insolvency are actually quite good to work with. Easier than the Pillar Banks actually. A PIP should be able to sort it out if the Debt is not particularly large
 
Raging Bull said:
I am a PIP , Mars in Personal Insolvency are actually quite good to work with. Easier than the Pillar Banks actually. A PIP should be able to sort it out if the Debt is not particularly large
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That is good to hear!, I have made strong proposals to Mars Capital, all declined. I
was sold to them a year ago after being sold off several times, originally my mortgage was with INBS. Mars are a nightmare to deal with, their main objective is to repossess!

A PIA, is now an option I am exploring at present.

I do feel quite strongly that a lot of us are dealing with these Companies on a one to one basis, what it requires is a strong group to get together and expose, through Media, Ombudsman etc as to what is really happening with these Vulture Funds and their treatment of people who are sincere in trying to resolve these issues.
 
If there is logic in your proposal they would generally no accept. Id be a rich man if I could get paid for settling debts at 10% if fully secured. Unfortunately peoples expectations sometimes have no reality. 2 weeks ago I met someone who wanted to settle an extremely large debt for nothing because they felt the house had little value due to planning breaches. It still has a land value and rental value so thats an example.

You get better deals through a PIP than an Arrears Support unit. The PIP can do a lot like fixing rates, extended mortgage past retirement age and writing off debt. Hence they would all love you to deal direct with them or go through MABs.
 
I would agree with this. I work in the industry and the amount of proposals I have seen declined where debt is 350K, house valued at 450K and borrowers make a "Strong" proposal of 100K as Full and Final.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Care to share with us what these strong proposals were?
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I Do not agree 100% regarding the PIA, like everything it has a plus & a minus.

I borrowed €440, have paid just over €300K, proposed to pay over 12 years, a total of €278K plus interest. House in negative equity, now €320K approx.

Several Proposals put forward by an Accountant, TD, and a failed PIA, IN 2021, OF €2200 Per month for 16years.. refused by Pepper, advised I could not appeal, turned out I could but was too late when I found out!

There is a lot more, too long to write. I am very pro active and have wall to wall correspondence since day one!
 
Thanks for that.

What is the value of your home at the moment?
How much is outstanding on the mortgage?
What is your income?

When you say a "failed PIA" , do you mean that you entered into a PIA which was agreed by your lenders but that you did not maintain the payments, so it failed.

Brendan
 
Its the PIP who decides to appeal anyway not you per se. The Debt you pay is dependent on your Circumstances. You get allocated Reasonable Living Expenses and Income above that is there to service Debt and PIP fees in an arrangement.

BOI will reject anything out of hand where they don't get paid in full in a PIA. Given you are now sold to Pepper you have much better chance of substantial rate changes and a write down(if in negative equity) they wont agree it so an appeal would be needed. They may not necessarily challenge a well constructed arrangement.
 
Raging Bull said:
Given you are now sold to Pepper you have much better chance of substantial rate changes and a write down(if in negative equity) they wont agree it so an appeal would be needed. They may not necessarily challenge a well constructed arrangement.
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How does it work, assuming he had a PIA which he failed to keep up the payments on?

Can he do another?

Who are you appealing to?
 
Brendan Burgess said:
How does it work, assuming he had a PIA which he failed to keep up the payments on?

Can he do another?

Who are you appealing to?
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You can only do it once in a lifetime. The way I read the post was proposal was rejected.

If so they should try again Totally different ball game as Loan has been sold to an "Investor"

If arrangement was in place and it failed then that's it.

Where a proposal is rejected a PIP may take an appeal to court under certain circumstances. Basically if they can demonstrate proposal is fair they would win case.

Based on info provided there would be some write down of Debt since in negative equity. Rates can be reduced or fixed also to make more affordable
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Care to share with us what these strong proposals were?
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Sorry, I meant to state, the figures work out €2,500 per month for 5yrs & €1,500 pm for 7 years., retirement age next month.

We have never asked for it to be nothing, monies have always been paid, just not the full amount, requested arrangements to be put in place meetings every 8 weeks for 4 years. There is nothing that has not be done or carried out..

Again, a lot which is important which I cannot write down or it will be a book!

House approx €320K, I wont go into Salaries, but SFS plus all paperwork attached regularly, valutions carried out regularly and forwarded to Fund.

PIA, there was only the Fund which was Pepper at the time , 1 x Credit card which did not object Pepper objected, PIP advised we could not appeal, however, I got onto Pepper to see where everything was at they advisec I could appeal and, it turned out I could have, but too late as after the time frame, Pepper advised after at another meeting if we appealed they would have done a deal!!!!

You can only apply for 1 PIA if you were granted it and it failed or you got back into debt. I didnt get it, after one year you can apply again.

Ranging Bull... if you are a PIP you would know this, also I was a bit confused on your last thread as I am not sure if you were responding to me or "Vulture" at top of page who had her mortgage with BOI & was sold to MARS.

I have dealt with this a long time I have a lot of research, gone to a lot of places for advice, MABS , Abhaile, New Beginnings, number of Consultations with Solicitors, Flac, CCPC...(originally with INBS, Anglo Irish/IBRC, Shoreline, with Pepper the Asset Managers, Pepper took over 2019, they sold july 2023 to MARS)..

I dont generally get involved with Forums, I saw this and thought I would see if anyone can bring some knowledge of something I dont know about.

E
 
So as I alluded to above if your year is up you can try another attempt at a PIA.

The appeal bit stop focusing on it. You may not have unless you had a relevant debt. That has been now removed also.

So if the Credit Card debt is above 1% of total debt and they vote in favour of a new proposal should MARS decline a new proposal the PIP may bring an appeal
 
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Yes , exactly, if you had a PIA and got back into debt , that is it you cannot have another on, but I can go again as it was rejected, but you have to wait another year to apply again, I am nearly 3 years, However, I am refuting the figures so at present cannot apply yet, booking an appt with Solicitor & Account to do investigation so I can agree on the mortgage then make my application for the PIA as they have declined 4 decent proposals, again not a huge write down.

Also, anyone going through this, and gosh, it is heart breaking & destructive, stay strong, do not be afraid of these people, ensure you have everything in writing, better than phone calls although they are recorded, note who you spoke with, date time, & brief note on conversation, build up ground work in event of Court, original loan, statement of accounts, proposals etc it will come in useful, or try a PIA, that is not simple either and a Fee for it. Dont agree to a figure that will crush you regardless of them saying you can afford it, life is not a theory if you car breaks down or your boiler goes things of importance if you are literally to the wall and you dont want to default, it will be worse than first time. What I dont like about the PIP is, only in my opinion, is they work both sides, a slight conflict of interest, again, only my opinion, and if it works properly it should be good in the long run.

Also request a GDPR, from the fund, requesting what information they are holding on you, this should include what they say & do in connection with you.

E
 
Upon reading your last thread again, I am unsure if you dont understand me or vice versa Mars are telling me I owe nearly what I originally borrowed, they have loaded €90K interest on it in one year!! & hiked the interest rate twice, the objective here is to repossess.

There are no other loans or Credit cards now, I had to make an arrangement with the Credit card company when the 1st PIA fell through.

E
 
If you have a single Creditor and they say No you have right of appeal.

I cant comment on quantum of interest as we would need to know payment history and loan term from the date mortgage was drawn down. If you feel its wrong you should certainly consider an audit it in advance of trying a PIA. However if you are deep in Negative Equity depending on your finances and income a PIA would set the debt to a level you can afford possibly wiping out the alleged overcharging anyway
 
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