Hi all,
My husband and I are preparing to apply for a mortgage at the end of April this year. He started a new job recently and has a probationary period to end April so we're just building up our savings at the moment.
My salary is 47k and he gets 24k plus 2k Sunday premium. We have no children. He's 40 and I'm 34 years of age. We pay rent of 1.2k and save 1.5k each month. Over the last year we've worked hard to clear off all our debts and save up the deposit for a house. Our savings are deposited via standing order and never touched. We are looking to borrow circa 200k and there's no question over affordability. There is however a fly in the ointment….
Be warned this is a long story. A couple of years ago my husband’s then employer decided to randomly just not pay him his wages as part of a wider plan to purge employees that where on very good contracts.
This is a nightmare since you can’t claim any type of welfare or financial support, instead having to exhaust the employers’ internal grievance procedures over a period of months before you can take a Rights Commissioner or EAT case and even then each side must pay their own costs. My husband had multiple cases for non-payment of wages and ultimately a constructive dismissal case, all of which he won. There is also no financial compensation element so all you get are your actual losses, which are mitigated if you get another job after you leave, which of course you must to survive.
During the time of the employment case saga my husband worked up about 15k of credit card debt, which is roughly equal to what he was awarded in terms of losses when he eventually won his case. However, the employer failed to pay the award within the given time-frame resulting in a further saga of trying to get the money out of them.
At this time my husband approached AIB (whom he had the credit card with) for forbearance pending receipt of the award which he would then use to clear the card. He was struggling to keep up with the card repayments because following the constructive dismissal he had to take an alternative job on a much lower salary. He was also paying a car loan (also with AIB) which only had a few repayments left. Between the two, it just became too much. I couldn't help him as I was in college and in a training contract. It's only in the last year that I've qualified and started earning reasonable money myself.
AIB weren't having it. I have no idea why they were so obstinate except to say that constructive dismissal cases are difficult so perhaps they had their doubts he would ever get the money. I really don't know. He had no financial issues before this so his relationship with the bank had always been good. He managed to pay back the car loan without having missed any repayments. He has nothing negative in his history save for this cr. card.
Ultimately my husband ended up having to go to MABS but because he wasn't insolvent they were limited in what they could do for him. He entered a voluntary arrangement with AIB where he paid them an agreed sum each month and interest and other fees were frozen but credit was revoked and reported as such to ICB. This arrangement was in place for several months until he obtained the money owed to him from the employer. The card was only cleared in Oct. 17. He had won his case in Nov. 16 but we had to fight them for months to get the money. We have not received a cent interest on the late payment. We could pursue them for it but we're tired of all this now. Had AIB agreed to a moratorium be able to close this horrific chapter but that's not what happened.
I understand that this will now remain on his credit record for another 5 years. Apparently all that can be done is to attach a personal statement to the ICB record to explain it. As we are married we have to apply for a mortgage in our joint names. We want to buy a house and start a family and because of our age, we definitely can't wait another 5 years.
I can't find anyone who has had a somewhat similar situation to us. I can find people who have a less than stellar credit history but not due to the the illegal behavior of someone else. Nevertheless, I'm just terrified that we will be refused a mortgage pretty much automatically because of this. Has anyone experienced anything like this?
My husband and I are preparing to apply for a mortgage at the end of April this year. He started a new job recently and has a probationary period to end April so we're just building up our savings at the moment.
My salary is 47k and he gets 24k plus 2k Sunday premium. We have no children. He's 40 and I'm 34 years of age. We pay rent of 1.2k and save 1.5k each month. Over the last year we've worked hard to clear off all our debts and save up the deposit for a house. Our savings are deposited via standing order and never touched. We are looking to borrow circa 200k and there's no question over affordability. There is however a fly in the ointment….
Be warned this is a long story. A couple of years ago my husband’s then employer decided to randomly just not pay him his wages as part of a wider plan to purge employees that where on very good contracts.
This is a nightmare since you can’t claim any type of welfare or financial support, instead having to exhaust the employers’ internal grievance procedures over a period of months before you can take a Rights Commissioner or EAT case and even then each side must pay their own costs. My husband had multiple cases for non-payment of wages and ultimately a constructive dismissal case, all of which he won. There is also no financial compensation element so all you get are your actual losses, which are mitigated if you get another job after you leave, which of course you must to survive.
During the time of the employment case saga my husband worked up about 15k of credit card debt, which is roughly equal to what he was awarded in terms of losses when he eventually won his case. However, the employer failed to pay the award within the given time-frame resulting in a further saga of trying to get the money out of them.
At this time my husband approached AIB (whom he had the credit card with) for forbearance pending receipt of the award which he would then use to clear the card. He was struggling to keep up with the card repayments because following the constructive dismissal he had to take an alternative job on a much lower salary. He was also paying a car loan (also with AIB) which only had a few repayments left. Between the two, it just became too much. I couldn't help him as I was in college and in a training contract. It's only in the last year that I've qualified and started earning reasonable money myself.
AIB weren't having it. I have no idea why they were so obstinate except to say that constructive dismissal cases are difficult so perhaps they had their doubts he would ever get the money. I really don't know. He had no financial issues before this so his relationship with the bank had always been good. He managed to pay back the car loan without having missed any repayments. He has nothing negative in his history save for this cr. card.
Ultimately my husband ended up having to go to MABS but because he wasn't insolvent they were limited in what they could do for him. He entered a voluntary arrangement with AIB where he paid them an agreed sum each month and interest and other fees were frozen but credit was revoked and reported as such to ICB. This arrangement was in place for several months until he obtained the money owed to him from the employer. The card was only cleared in Oct. 17. He had won his case in Nov. 16 but we had to fight them for months to get the money. We have not received a cent interest on the late payment. We could pursue them for it but we're tired of all this now. Had AIB agreed to a moratorium be able to close this horrific chapter but that's not what happened.
I understand that this will now remain on his credit record for another 5 years. Apparently all that can be done is to attach a personal statement to the ICB record to explain it. As we are married we have to apply for a mortgage in our joint names. We want to buy a house and start a family and because of our age, we definitely can't wait another 5 years.
I can't find anyone who has had a somewhat similar situation to us. I can find people who have a less than stellar credit history but not due to the the illegal behavior of someone else. Nevertheless, I'm just terrified that we will be refused a mortgage pretty much automatically because of this. Has anyone experienced anything like this?