unable to pay mortgage

My husband and I had a moritorium for 9 months and now it is coming to an end. It literally cut my repayments in half and allowed us to reduce some of our other bills, it wasn't a hugh help but enough for us to reduce the size of our overdraft. As with other home owners we are still finding it difficult to manage paying the full amount of the mortgage, but because we have already had 9 moths moritorium, we are unable to have another one, according to our building society. We did out a budget plan, and tried to agree lower repayments with our other lenders, which some agreed to and others didn't, but as our biggest monthly repayment we are really struggling to pay the full amount on the mortgage. Our repayments are €1680 per month, but can only afford to repay €950 per month, as we are pushing ourselves further into debt with our overdraft, which at the moment sits at -€4650. The building society has refused our payment offer and doesn't seem to want to come up with any alteratives. We feel that we cannot do anything else to persaude them to help us out. They have been shown bank statements and utility bills so they know we can't afford it. We are at our wits end now and feel we have no option but to foreclose on our home. Is there any other information that could help us keep our home by repaying a minimum amount. We didn't go out and buy extravagant items during the tiger period but I found my self without a job when the recession started and as I have only regained employment recently, its hard to get back on track. Any advise is welcome.

Hi there,

Get on to MABS asap and see is there anything they can help you with. Also, is it possible to increase the mortgage length? You can hopefully reduce it back in years to come when ye are back on yer feet.

It might be a good idea for you to do the Money Makeover here on AAM - it really helped me to cut back on my daily expenditures etc.

Hi Liz

Which Building Society? I presume it's the EBS?

Also agree that the money makeover section could be done.
If you are in a position could you take students for the summer months, there are lots of international schools who look for host families. Good luck.

niceoneted said:

Also agree that the money makeover section could be done.

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I've now copied and added Brendan's keypost from the Money Makeover section for convenience as it seems more appropriate to this new forum. Can a Mod make it a sticky?

Hi Brendan,

My mortgage is with INBS, we borrowed €348000 5 yrs ago and still owe €328000. Our home is only worth €290000, so we are in negative equity at the moment. We had 9 months moritorium altogether but still had to pay interests and insurance which amounted to €963 per month, which is manageable. My husband earnings is 65000 and mine is 14500, and I know this sounds alot but we have other bills and loans also. Our monthly income is 5500 but our outgoings(including trying to pay of overdraft, which is a joke) are 6400. At the moment we have no arrears but I don't think it will be long before we do. We provided them with bank statements, utility bills and loan balances and have asked if we can pay €1000 per month for a 2 yr period to see if we can bring some other loans down that way it will free up more money to be used against the mortgage repayment. We were advised to make an offer to them, which we think is reasonable, and have done so twice which has been turned down. There doesn't seem to be any other way than allowing ourselves get into arrears and then proving to a court that we can't repay the mortgage at the moment. I've spoken to a few INBS customer and this seems to be their experience also. I'm getting really stressed about it and feel there's no light at the end of the tunnel. I have no space for a student, i work all the hrs god send's for minimum payment and my husband works well over 45hrs a week and is now trying to finish his Masters so he can try and get some part time lecturing. Please help with advise

What are your others outgoings? It seems to me it's not the mortgage you can't afford but the other loans.

Also, can you break up your posts? Big blocks are hard to read.

Howitzer said:

What are your others outgoings? It seems to me it's not the mortgage you can't afford but the other loans.

Also, can you break up your posts? Big blocks are hard to read.

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Lizrc, fill out your details in the format that is suggested in the keypost I added; you'll get better responses!

Always prioritise the secured debt when in repayment difficulties except as part of an agreed strategy with your prime lender.

Pay your mortgage from your 5500 which will leave you with 3800 approx. Make your lifestyle fit that figure.

You were given a moritorium by your lender for 9 months so you could get yourselves back on track, you haven't been able to achieve that.

Therefore you can no longer afford this huge mortgage of €348,000. You don't seem to have much choice but to try and sell the house and buy a smaller pad.

I have to agree with number7. To quote from an article I read earlier "A mortgage debt is a priority debt and should always be paid ahead of unsecured debt such as credit card balances or a motor loan".

I disagree with marietta, in a lot of cases nowadays selling the family home and realising the neg eq means the chances of every owning your own home again are pretty much over and after you pay rent you probably wont have a whole lot extra to repay the loan.

I would open a bank account in a different bank to where your mortgage is and set up a standing order for the 950 that you are able to afford while at the same time sending in a registered letter to your bank informing them of your intention and outlining the reason why including a comprehensive statement of means.

If you really dont have any more you can give then thats that, next decision is the banks not yours so no point worrying about it.

Invest all of your energies into getting back to work because that is the only solution in the long term. In the meantime the bank will accept your situation because the alternative is not in their interest.

5500 does sound like an amount you should be able to live on though and if you prioritise the mortgage then it should be possible to pay it at least until we see interest raises.

Again Lizrc it would be a great help if you could outline all your other loans and outgoings as there may be a way to restructure them.
You seem intent on paying them and looking for a way to reduce your mortgage. It may be easier to restructure your loans, or if it is credit card debt moving to another company that offer 0% on a balance transfer for a period of time.
You may be able to cut back on unnecessary spending ie top sky package, holidays big shopping bills, nights out etc.

Nothing to add other than to say that's some really good posting from Number7.

Thanks Purple, I must have been drunk when I made that post.

niceoneted said:

Again Lizrc it would be a great help if you could outline all your other loans and outgoings as there may be a way to restructure them.
You seem intent on paying them and looking for a way to reduce your mortgage. It may be easier to restructure your loans, or if it is credit card debt moving to another company that offer 0% on a balance transfer for a period of time.
You may be able to cut back on unnecessary spending ie top sky package, holidays big shopping bills, nights out etc.

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I totally agree.