Rental property in €150k negative equity - and I now live in the UK.

Yes, I will probably do so and call Steve Thatcher on Monday, but want to make an informed decision first. I didnt realise that they could pursue me for assests that arent in Ireland. Interesting.I thought by avoiding bankruptcy I could still maintain a credit rating abroad so I can still buy in a few years time and fear that lenders will never look at me, even after the 5/6 year stage.

With the EBS, I have drafted a long letter to them now and will special delivery it on Monday.

But, I have been reading a lot on the forum and here and there Ive found contradictory advice. One was to not inform the banks of a forwarding address because they cant do much if they cannot contact me in person, and in other cases I see its best to warn them of my impending move and finally send them my home address in the UK. Im a bit unsure which is the best move in terms of my new residency status. Currently Im still using my Irish postal address and I sure do hope no-one (ie sheriff) comes to the door to look for me as very good, dear friends are receiving my mail

When it comes to pursuing you, the bank will probably find you whether or not you provide them your UK address. There are companies that specialise in locating run away borrowers for the financial institutions, I have been amazed how quickly they find people.

If your contact address in the bank is your address in Ireland, you can't blame the bank if you are not receiving communications to your UK address.

I have been reading the various threads on UK Bankruptcy here, but also on UK websites and on several websites run by legal eagles, I found the following

"One form of debt you cannot include in bankruptcy are secured debts such as a mortgage or charge on a property, however if the property is repossessed, and there is a shortfall, the shortfall now is unsecured, and can be included in bankruptcy."

Am I to understand that I would need to get my property sold first before proceeding?There is advice here on this forum which states otherwise but I have no credit card debts etc, and only some money owed to revenue, so bankruptcy would only be for the Irish mortgage debt.

My apartment is likely to take a long time to sell and also it may take as long to persuade EBS to accept a sale and shortfall deal.

Ontour - in terms of "finding me" after a judgement, is their objective to be able to summons me in person? Or to get me to acknowledge the debt? Or simply to give my new address to the bank so that can carry on pursuing it. Finding me is one thing, but making me return to Ireland is another thing. Is there anything else I should watch out for in terms of moving away and ignoring the judgement?

Munchy you're all over the place on this. You can go bankrupt in the UK. This is the easist option for you. You're already in the UK so why don't you find a local bankruptcy practioneer and discuss your options with him. I'd imagine the UK is litered with such offices. Maybe a trip to the local Irish community center for a recommedation is a good starting point. The quote I've seen for Irish people is 5K to go the UK bankrutpy route, but I imagine it's a lot less if you're already there as there is less to prove.

As part of the bankrupty you must inform your creditors, ie the bank of your current location. (Two very wealthy prominent people fell at this hurdle - Sean Quinn and more surprisingly after this precedent O' Donnell solicitor). Look at the bankrupty threads on here for further advice and no doubt googling in the UK will also be helpful.

I think Brendans advice to write to the EBS is also a good idea. See what they say, they cannot do anything to you by knowing your UK address, in fact this address will help them to actually deal with you in a more beneficial way as they will know the game is up with you.

I have been doing a lot of reading and researching and I have decided the best way is to forge ahead in making a deal with the bank. I have written to them.

But after much thought I feel that in my case I wasnt given a chance to engage in the MARP procedure, and now they have handed me over to their legal team, I am not sure where I stand. Is my case still with the arrears team or now in an entirely different department?

1- I had a number of telephone conversations end of Dec and early Jan about my missed payment and I was given a 1 week ultimatum to get in sorted and also pay an extra amount towards arrears and I did that. If they have recorded the calls they will hear their own guy saying that the new payment amounts "seem ok" and agreed to what I was doing.

2- But he was pretty aggressive about the fact that I had moved out in order to get some rental income to pay the bank and said Id need to apply for a BTL mortgage. A week later he confirmed that my standing order & one off payment had been received and also attached a BTL and financial statement for me to fill in. It stated that in order to apply for the new mortgage I would need to pay all arrears and need at least a 25% deposit. Impossible in my case so I didnt apply of course.

3- A few weeks later I get a letter saying Im being handed over to the legal team as Im not cooperating.

I do feel that I was never engaged in any sort of process and I also think my repayments were acceptable as they were coming in regularly. Im overall 10 k in arrears because of the underpayment rather than missed payments (although there have been a couple)

I wonder if it is now worth disputing this and somehow demand that they engage with me properly instead of handing me over to the legal team? If they were doing it because of an inability to pay then that would make sense, or because Id stopped altogether but I havent. I have written to them a few days ago but I didnt raise this issue and instead just outlined my situation and asked for us to reach an agreement as Im ready to move away etc.

Brendan, I wrote to the EBS on the 11th March and also filled in a SFS form outlining my financial details, with the specific target of getting my repayments down to interest-only. Its been nearly 3 weeks now and I have not heard anything back from them. I really want to engage with them and get the MARP process underway and get those repayments down to interest-only - and nothing but silence.

Its a worry. Does anyone have that experience with the banks and/or EBS? Will I perhaps notice reduced amounts (ie interest only) on my statements one day? Or does this lack of communication from the bank signify legal proceedings are underway?

After much kerfuffle I decided that the best recourse was to push for an agreement with the bank rather than opt for insolvency or judgements etc immediately.

I have been engaged with my lender since 2011 and still have received nothing officially in writing from them! Will take them longer then three weeks for a few reasons:

1) They're still waiting to see how the PIA pans out;
2) They're still waiting for another bank to make the first move so they can just follow; and
3) They simply don't know what to do.

K

Munchy, looks like you need good advice on Roi options. And since your main centre of interest is in UK , you need linked uk advice.
I have seen Frost DEbt Solutions 0749364000 give good cross-border advice.
Might be no harm to ring them . @ least the answer will be from a practising Debt Company.You can still then decide.

Salmon - great looking website they have, and looks as though they dont charge a fee either.
The trouble with them ignoring my messages and mails is that they continue to charge me the much higher capital repayment rather than the interest-only option that Im asking for. In effect the arrears look much worse than they are because it isnt interest-only and my situation obviously will get worse and worse as I get overcharged every month.