we can't ask for help from family again as they have the €150k they say they wanted for the house.
We moved out some time ago when original bank had consented to sale and a rented house became available that we could afford. It was then discovered that the house had serious structural issues and roof could collapse st any time so we could not move back in and sale fell through.
What would the house fetch if the roof was ok.We got a sale despite the problems with the roof (quote says about €60k to fix)But none if that is enough and instead they just keep changing the goal posts.
With help from a homelessness agency, we are in receipt of rent allowance and have accepted that the house is gone.
We accept the house is gone but I disagree-other things do matter while we still technically own the house for reasons explained above-we want to achieve best price possible to limit our shortfall. I am well aware that we will have a shortfall whatever happens here. But surely there has to be some responsibility had by the lender to ensure our shortfall is for as little as possible? Again, advice would be great on this question.How do you know that the roof could collapse at any time. That is not a normal state of affairs. When you bought the house was there an engineers report.
A previous purchaser had a structural engineer look over it and the fault in the roof was discovered. The wrong sized joists were used, the whole roof has warped and there is already a hole. Remedial works were needed to be done immediately to ensure it didn't collapse but we could not afford to do this. A family member has tried to make it safe temporarily but cannot give us any guarantees. We have had people out to quote for the work. The entire side of the roof needs to come off, joists replaced and then everything else put back in place again. Believe me, I am very aware that it is not a 'normal state of affairs'. The engineer report specifically states it is not safe and advised that purchaser to run away very fast. Which she did. And I couldn't blame her. We were so shocked when we found out.
We built the house ourselves. Both the original contractor and the architects who signed off on the work have gone out of business and one has emigrated to Australia. Solicitor has told us there was little we could do bar drag them to court but of course there are no guarantee that there would be any assets/money they could use to pay compo to us and we are hardly in a financial position to afford costs. It has been a nightmare.
How old is the house, is it covered by home bond.
House was completed in 2007. Fault in roof discovered in 2015. Self build, no home bond.
Currently no insurance on the place. Insurance company cancelled the policy when we advised we were not living there and they refused to insure vacant house. We were unable to find another insurer. We told the original bank who just ignored us. So it is sitting there with no insurance.
What would the house fetch if the roof was ok.
It is difficult to know. The house is lovely, apart from the roof fault. But the area is not sought after. I think getting €150k is very fair given the issue with the roof-quotes are around €60k to fix that.
If you cannot keep the house, you should move on and forget it, but the whole thing doesn't seem to stack up.
It is our family home. We know we cannot keep the house. And we have moved out and we have moved on. We are trying our best. I don't understand why you think things don't stack up? We accepted that our mortgage is unsustainable and we did as we were asked by the lender and now the fund. It is very upsetting to hear that anyone would think things don''t stack up. We came on here to ask for advice, not judgement. It is bad enough losing your home without that.
And every piece of advice we read or received said to sell the property ourselves. The bank wanted us to sell it ourselves and then sold on the debt to the VF once they found out about the roof issue. Didn't even tell us. Just got a letter in the door having dealt with them for the last year.
We were even more convinced that we should sell ourselves once we knew about the roof fault as we didn't believe the VF would achieve anywhere near what can be got when the owner is selling. People around here just wont buy houses that are being sold on by the banks. They are being boycotted. However the VF then wanted to use their own estate agent. We complied with that too. They hold all the cards, all the power. And even when you do as you are asked, they still screw you over. My question here is are still in MARP? Can we complain to anyone? Has anyone any advice on that front?
If you accept that the house is gone, you should also accept that all the other things don't matter. Who buys it, how much they pay for it, etc. If the house is gone these are not your problem, stop worrying about them.
You will have a shortfall, you are not in a position to pay that. The bank will have to write it off eventually. Don't loose sleep over it.
The VF has made it quite plain that they will continue to pursue us for the outstanding debt. And our solicitor has had bad experiences in past with VFs saying they could sort outstanding debt out after the sale has gone through, then failing to engage and just pursuing the debt despite saying they would come to an agreement.
I will stop trying to be emotionally involved with the forced sale of our family home in future. In fact I think I would be better off not posting here full stop. But I will answer this last post. Thank you to those who messaged me privately and we really appreciate the good advice we received.
Bankruptcy is the option we most likely will now have to take. My point, and I am clearly not making it well, is that we could have done that two years ago. But we were advised by the lender that if we sold it ourselves, the bank would write off the shortfall. So that is what we have tried to do. I'm unsure why some cannot understand why we would be upset over this.
I don't understand the question about what have we go to do with the sale of this house? The VF wanted us to sell rather than them. This way a higher price could be achieved. So we used an estate agent for the past few years who had gotten four offers, three of which fell through because the bank took too long to decide. Another fell through because of the roof issue. He then got an offer which the VF said no to. The VF then decided we had to use their guy. So the people who made that offer switched to their guy who did none of the work and who will receive the fee. The original estate agent will get nothing. I just think that is a shoddy way to treat anyone with a small business and a family of their own to support. And if that happened to any one of you, I think you would be upset by that.
The VF wants another €20k cash from us, which we do not have or to give them the house.
The VF in my opinion, is not one bit interested in maximizing the sale price. They have already lost 3 higher offers because they took too long to decide. Now they have a very fair offer in, it has been been recommended by their sale agent and their SPV and they are still saying no. If this falls through, they will have to sell it and I have no doubt they will achieve much less for it.
It does matter to me what I owe. I'm sorry but I do care that I have been unable to pay back my debts as they fall due. But I also know the bank refused to ever offer us a long term option. I do know that government took away the mortgage interest supplement which was the nail in the coffin for us.
"I'm not trying to attack you but...." I am going to assume you have never lost your family home and future.
And as for not relying on anything in writing. Yes that is very true. But they refuse to write anything down. Ever. It is policy and is rampant. And there is no legislation or policy there to protect borrowers in these situations. On that basis, there is little more you can do but trust what they say and hope for the best.
We have a solicitor now because the VF instructed their estate agent and us that they were consenting to sale. We were told to get a solicitor. This is standard practice when selling a house is it not? Part of her work was ensuring that she has everything in writing from them. They are refusing to engage with her.
I had asked for some advice. I wasn't expecting tea and sympathy but I did think most people would understand that losing your home isn't easy. I certainly wasn't expecting to be put on trial and judged as harshly as I have.
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