house being repossessed

Gazzcois

Hi all,

I am looking for help i got an affordable house off the kildare county council and under no fault of my own i lost my job and could no longer pay for it as it was 800 euro a month , Now its going to court to be repossessed as i have not paid anything in a year , so i have tried everywhere , citizens information,community welfare officer,kildare co co, etc all to no avail so i said i would try here, does any one know if i am aloud to get rent allowance when my house is taken off me as some people are saying im not aloud to get it as i had a house , Now the other problem is that i have 3 kids who have moved with there mother to kerry and i have also being told if i move in there she will lose her rent allowance, if anyone has being in this situtation or can shed some light on the matter that would be great thanks in advance..

Anfield Road

Sorry to hear what is happening to you, the stress toll must be so hard!. In such a serious situation you really have to seek proper legal advice and get some proper help with this if you have any chance of hanging onto your home.
MABS/Citizen information are great etc to a certain extent but this is serious now and you need to contact a solicitor, even if you don't have the money to pay them tell the straight and they will help you out and take payment over a period of time. They will come to an agreement that you can manage with your lender, just be upfront with everything financial.
Because you are in arrears you won't get Mortgage Interest Supplement. I don't know what happens with rent allowance all I know is you must seek proper legal advice from a good solicitor, your lender might not get a possession order now but they could at a future date but if you get the proper help you could turn things around. I am a former bank employee that is how I know this, just get some help. I hate hearing repossession stories.
Best of luck with it all.

Gazzcois

Hi

Thanks for your reply i have being onto the kildare co co and asked them to drop the payments so i could make them but theu wont do that as theu said it was an affordable house i got so they cant drop the payments they also said they would not let me do an interest only repayment either , when i said well the banks do it they told me very quickly where not the banks and maybe we might bring it in in the future but not now, as things stand i am only on 197 euro a week and its very hard to live on it so that does not even add up to the 800 euro i should be paying a month,when i took legal advaice i was told that the affordable house where great for people on low income but now with the way the market is gone nearly all the houses being repossessed are some sort of affordable home and there where figures release last month and it said that 85% of people where in arrears who had recived a house from the co co .

jayo245

Hi there,

You said it’s going to court for repossession. This means it might be possible for the Judge to make the County Council accept significantly lower repayments whilst you are out of work. The Court is more likely than the County Council to acknowledge you have lost your job and accept highly reduced payments for a period (12 months or so) instead of granting repossession.

You need to get back to a solicitor and ensure you are in court with proper legal representation. Before you go there you need to sit down and detail your expenses etc and how much you can reasonably make towards paying your mortgage; even if its €200-300 per month. If you submit a proper plan to the Court through your solicitor and inform the Court in person that it’s been a hard year, you are sorry you have not made any payments in the last year; but that you are facing up to the situation and have devised a plan for some form of repayment whilst you are out of work; the Court will try to be reasonable. Also reiterate that you are looking for work and hopefully the situation should rectify itself within the next 12 months as the recession subsides. If you have (or can get from the County Council) proof of proper payments made whilst you were employed, include that too.

By all means look for information on rent allowances etc. But I would definitely still fight to keep your home. If you show evidence that you have devised a proper plan etc the Court is likely to be more reasonable than the County Council and help you. However if they do grant your request for lower repayments you absolutely need to honour that agreement with the Court. Get to a solicitors a.s.a.p.

J