Scare mongering stories of home repossession - fact or myth?

A

Alwyn

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We read the articles, watched the horror stories unfold on television and listened to endless talk on radio chat shows about repossessions, evictions and what not . . .

Our family business is almost non existant at the moment and we are having difficulties paying our mortgage each month.

My wife and I have listened to hours of scare mongering stories and were petrified meeting our mortgage provider to inform them of our predicument.

We were like too deers caught in a head light meeting with our provider. They must have literally thought we were insane!

The meeting went well; we weren't threated or intimidated in any way as the media would have you believe.

I am not doubting that people have had horrendous experiences but we were expecting to be treated with contempt but found this not to be the case.

Ironically, the provider thanked us for turning up and thanked us for being so honest. It was a totally non threatening envirnoment.

My point being; why were we treated differently to the people that are showing up on television programmes and the few that ring radio stations with stories?

Where we just lucky to have spoken to someone with a bit of understanding?
 
Hi Boomtobust

Glad to hear that you were treated with courtesy and respect which is only right.

Unfortunately for our ever increasingly guttery press, your story just isn't dramatic or tragic for them.
 

You should probably post this up in the mortgage arrears forum instead of LOS. It might help reassure some people who are very reluctant to deal with their lenders.
 
If you read the Irish Times section on a Tuesday on mortgage cases, the bulk of them always seem to be subprime lenders. Whether that is because major banks are more flexible or whether it's because the onorous rates charged by subprime lenders means the house holder will never have a chance of repaying is open to discussion

However, concern I would have is that given the amount of people now on restructured loans with major lenders, if the economic situation does not improve, is there likely to be more repossessions by major lenders a few years down the line?
 
From my listening to the media there is only one side of the story. We never hear of how many letters banks have sent to borrowers to no avail. If people bury their heads in the sand the bank cannot do anything to engage them. People are literally not opening letters. After one or two years the bank has to come for the house.

On each and every TV programme lately I would have had many questions for the people in distress. On AAM we have people ranting about banks, and I've on many occasions asked them directly to tell their story. As most do not my conclusion is that they borrowed to 100% or more, borrowed the deposit, expected a fully fitted out property, that was put on the credit card, they then got a car loan for a new car, and an overdraft to keep them going month to month, then were entitled to 4 holidays a year, borrowed from the credit union, then after a couple of years of that, consolidated the whole lot into one loan, and after a while of that took out the equity in their property and increased their mortgage.

There is a fallback in the Irish system if you cannot pay your mortgage. The state will pay it, as long as the mortgage was reasonable. But it has not come up much on AAM but I think people re mortgages as outlined above and that is why they are in fear of losing their homes.

I'm very glad Boomtobust that your experience was so different. And it is very heartening to hear it. Would ou mind telling us what lender it was. I hope that the agreement you've come to with the bank is in writing (with no sneaky stuff) because personally I have an aversion to banks, but use them I must.

A point that is often missed is that it is, currently, in both the banks and borrowers interest to come to an arrangement that both can live with.
 
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