Key Post Does my debt just disappear after 6 years, if the bank does nothing or can't fit find
- Thread starter Brendan Burgess
- Start date
What if there is a judgement against the debtor?
Also agree that while this is possible it is very unlikely. Despite some posters believing that the banks will set up "hit squads" to chace debtors abroad and who re-locate in Ireland the chances of this actually happening are virtually nil. The actual costs of this process would far exceed any potential gain and unless the amounts are significant or a case becomes high profile (Lotto winners etc) once a bank has gone through the standard recovery process it will move on to other cases and chances of reversion in respect of lower value loans are virtually negligible. I have been involved in cost/benefit strategy discussions within my own organisation and the numbers don't add up.
Surrender Papers No intention of coming home
So what should a debtor do if they want their debts to disappear?
Don't contact the bank to acknowledge the debt.
Don't make any payment at all.
Go to Australia as the bank is very unlikely to bother getting a judgment against you.
Come back after 6 years, debt-free.
Hi Brendan first of all love the forum great work by all very helpful, I have a question, I have been living in Australia for 6 years now and I have no intention of returning home to live, the EBS have contacted my parents in Ireland wanting an address for me to send surrender papers for my apartment for me to sign for circuit court, if I do am I acknowledging the debt/or should I just have no contact at all by email, phone or letter. What should I do
So what should a debtor do if they want their debts to disappear?
Don't contact the bank to acknowledge the debt.
Don't make any payment at all.
Go to Australia as the bank is very unlikely to bother getting a judgment against you.
Come back after 6 years, debt-free.
Hi Brendan first of all love the forum great work by all very helpful, I have a question, I have been living in Australia for 6 years now and I have no intention of returning home to live, the EBS have contacted my parents in Ireland wanting an address for me to send surrender papers for my apartment for me to sign for circuit court, if I do am I acknowledging the debt/or should I just have no contact at all by email, phone or letter. What should I do
Brendan Burgess
Founder
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It seems clear that you should not have anything to do with them. But it's such an important issue that you should take legal advice on it.
Do absolutely nothing.
So what should a debtor do if they want their debts to disappear?
Don't contact the bank to acknowledge the debt.
Don't make any payment at all.
Go to Australia as the bank is very unlikely to bother getting a judgment against you.
Come back after 6 years, debt-free.
Hi Brendan first of all love the forum great work by all very helpful, I have a question, I have been living in Australia for 6 years now and I have no intention of returning home to live, the EBS have contacted my parents in Ireland wanting an address for me to send surrender papers for my apartment for me to sign for circuit court, if I do am I acknowledging the debt/or should I just have no contact at all by email, phone or letter. What should I do
Any documents will have a clause in them acknowledging the debt.
They will get possession eventually via the courts. They want to take the easy way out by getting a voluntary surrender and an acknowledgement of the debt.
Hi all,
I've been following this thread with interest and thought I'd add a couple of questions of my own. I defaulted on about 20,000euro of credit card and personal loan debt 3 years ago, I have been living in Japan since 2010. My bank have some previous addresses for me in Ireland and 1 in Japan, they would also have my parents address as this is the address I used to open the account as a teenager in the 90's (local branch in town my parents live). I have had no correspondance from the bank in just over 3 years now but have been trying to second guess what might be happening. I don' see myself living in Ireland again for at least another 3 years but am a little worried they might try to issue proceedings against me at my parents address even though the last time they have me living there was over 10 years ago. None ofy loans were guarantored by either parent. I suppose what I am asking is can anyone guess what route the bank will take, if any, to chase me?
ta, Len
I've been following this thread with interest and thought I'd add a couple of questions of my own. I defaulted on about 20,000euro of credit card and personal loan debt 3 years ago, I have been living in Japan since 2010. My bank have some previous addresses for me in Ireland and 1 in Japan, they would also have my parents address as this is the address I used to open the account as a teenager in the 90's (local branch in town my parents live). I have had no correspondance from the bank in just over 3 years now but have been trying to second guess what might be happening. I don' see myself living in Ireland again for at least another 3 years but am a little worried they might try to issue proceedings against me at my parents address even though the last time they have me living there was over 10 years ago. None ofy loans were guarantored by either parent. I suppose what I am asking is can anyone guess what route the bank will take, if any, to chase me?
ta, Len
Tell your parents not to accept any mail addressed to you.
I would suspect they have gotten default judgements at some old address. They are usually quite fast to issue proceedings, esp their credit card depts.
The judgements can do you no harm for now as you are not in Ireland. If you return and have any interaction with any banks, they may uncover your new address and start looking for instalment orders etc. It pays to be cagey and to watch your back.
I would suspect they have gotten default judgements at some old address. They are usually quite fast to issue proceedings, esp their credit card depts.
The judgements can do you no harm for now as you are not in Ireland. If you return and have any interaction with any banks, they may uncover your new address and start looking for instalment orders etc. It pays to be cagey and to watch your back.
Thanks guys...the debt is just one personal loan, which at the time was used to consolidate credit card debt so there is no actual credit card debt now as such. The last known address they have for me is here in Japan, they used to send correspondance to an old address I have here but not since 2011. The fact they havent made any attempt to contact me by e mail either I thought has been strange. I have a current account with a separate bank at home. Would it be possible for them to obtain an order to freeze such an account if they were to get a decision through the courts against me? Can they get a decision against.me whilst I am still living abroad?
Yes they can get a judgement against you. Also there is potential for an attachment order provided they have knowledge of the funds held in an account. You should get a search completed to assess whether a judgement has been obtained against you already.
I decent solicitor here would get a judgement obtained in such a manner reversed. The banks seem to think it is ok to post documents to empty houses etc. Once it is shown the defendant was never served the judgement will fall.
How do i go about doing that? Are attachment orders not only issued against assets like property? I dont own any property. Do banks co-operate with each other regarding details of customers? Surely not? Privacy laws etc etc...
Fair point. However, getting the judgement reversed would in itself involve appointing a solicitor. In that instance the solicitor could be served with the proceedings as he will be the agent of his client. In theory an attachment order could be obtained. However, in practise it tends to be extremely rare as any order would require prior evidence that the funds are in existence and in the ownership of the correct party. Where you are abroad and the address on the account does not correspond to the address held by the lending institution such an order would fail. If it were me I'd not be too worried about the prospect!
Hi there everyone, having read this extremely interesting thread I have another situation that you guys/girls may be able to throw some light on. Back in the day we bought land and built a house in Ireland with the intention of then finding some work and living a much more relaxed life to that of the UK. Things didn't work out and we mortgaged it, returned to the UK put the money towards another house and returned to work. We put the house in Ireland on the market but couldn't sell it. We couldn't afford to pay both mortgages so stopped paying the Ireland one. We received a few letters but never replied, we also received a couple of phone calls, one of which I told them that we could no longer afford to make the payments and that they should repossess the house and the land, to which they replied that they did not want the house and land and would only accept the money. This is over six years ago now and we have heard nothing since, our house is being looked after and kept up to scratch by a relative. Where do we stand with this situation????