My Mother is going to lose the house

LegacyUser

My mother has told me tonight that she can no longer keep up the morgage payments on the family home. She lives with my father but he is unemployed and earns 95 euros a week ever since his furniture business went into liquidation a year and a half ago.

She told me tonight that she earns less than 2 grand a month and she must pay a morgage of 1400 euros a month. I feel very bad about it as she works very hard in two jobs and yet she gets no reward for the work she does at the end of the week for what she does. I never new this has been going on for so long and Im very sickened.

I dnt know what to do as Im planning on going to university in september. She has been talking about immigrating and Im worried since shes 52 years of age and my fathers 56. What prospects will they have if they immigrate?
Im very sad and angered and want somebody to pay for this. This has been our family home for 20 years. My parents worked hard for it and did the best they could with what they had and now the banks are going to take their home and destroy our family...

markpb

As far as I know, most banks in Ireland have signed up to an agreement not to take court cases against people over their family homes. I think there's a delay of two years before any legal action begins. Even when it does go that far, judges are extremely unwilling to take away someone's home, especially if they're making some contribution to their mortgage and have co-operated with the bank.

If she's having problems, she needs to talk to the bank immediately to discuss her options. They might accept a reduced payment until your dad gets a job or they might accept a change to a longer term which would reduce the monthly payments (although that's unlikely, given their age). She should also talk to MABS - they will try to help her sort something out and will help her in her communications with the bank.

Lastly, it sounds like the house was re-mortgaged for some reason. If they bought a foreign or second property, is it possible to sell it now?

LegacyUser

they remorgaged it to start my fathers business which failed miserably. she wants to give up the house. she says shes just not living for the work she puts in and the qualifications she has. she says its the only thing that makes financial sense to her but yet I heard her cry in the bathroom after we discusses it.

Denimgirl

How about her getting students in? you can get them in for the summer, a girl i know used to get them in for 6 months at a time

Ickle Magoo

Get your parents to speak to MABS & get an appointment with the bank manager, ask if they can get a moratorium on their mortgage or reduce paymemt, they could even change to an interest only mortgage for a while. There are thousands of families in the same position - keep communicating with the mortgage provider and MABS and hopefully loosing the family home doesn't have to result.

Best of luck.

Boskowski

Sorry sounds awful. But sure must be a massive house and nearly paid for if it's 1400 hundred a month and already in your family for 20 years?

dixiefly

Boskowski wrote: »

Sorry sounds awful. But sure must be a massive house and nearly paid for if it's 1400 hundred a month and already in your family for 20 years?

Not necessarily as they remortgaged to get the business going.

Your mum should not despair. As stated above she should get advice MABS, citizens information etc. surely the banks will listen to her and give her some interest only options for a while.

Alsocan your dad get a job or has that been exhausted? Can he do the business to a more limited extent?

Not sure if emigration is the answer but if there is somewhere your dad could utilise his skills / business then maybe it is a good option.

fungun

sounds like you and perhaps some other children have moved out by now, is this correct?

The advice above stands about getting lower repayments, but another viable option if the kids have moved out would be to sell and buy a smaller house in the same area. I know its not ideal but a far better option than emigrating (unless they want to emigrate)

ManOfMystery

Your father needs to find something, even a low paying job. It's unfair that your mother is working 2 jobs and dealing with that pressure and he's doing nothing.

whirlpool

ManOfMystery wrote: »

Your father needs to find something, even a low paying job. It's unfair that your mother is working 2 jobs and dealing with that pressure and he's doing nothing.

You make it sound like the OP's father is sitting on his ass not trying anything to help, yet there is no way you could possibly know that. You've no idea how much or how little the father is contributing, so in fairness it's not fair of you to make that statement.

OP, that's a horrible situation and I wish your parents all the best and I hope that everything works out for them.

ManOfMystery

I'm drawing together as much as I can from the limited information the OP gave us. The mother is working 2 jobs, the father is unemployed after his business went bust - so we have to assume he's not in a position where he can be contributing that much financially. If I'm wrong and the father is miraculously handing over €1000 per week, then please accept my apologies OP.

What I'm suggesting is nothing more than common sense, if he had 2 jobs like the mother did (even low paying) he could contribute more and this may lessen the financial pressure they're under.

LegacyUser

Hey Op,

Listen i was in the very same situation as you almost exactly two years ago.
When i say exactly i mean right down to the amount of the repayment and the dads failed business.

It's really crappy but you'll get through it. You should tell your folks to keep talking to them
and deffo speak to MABS.

Don't worry though I can honestly say my family are happier now than at any time in the past. My folks just seem so much more relaxed now. So they may have to go to court etc and you may have to move home to rented accom but it ain't the end of the world. Do go to court at every stage, MABS will do a statements of means and they will be asked to pay back what they can on all the other debts that may exist as well as the house, could be €2 a week.

Tell them not to bury the heads and for god sake tell them not to be ashamed. Your Dad took a chance, he tried to start a business that I'm sure he hoped would have employed people.

If you need to chat post up here and I'll try and get in touch with you.

whirlpool

ManOfMystery wrote: »

I'm drawing together as much as I can from the limited information the OP gave us. The mother is working 2 jobs, the father is unemployed after his business went bust - so we have to assume he's not in a position where he can be contributing that much financially. If I'm wrong and the father is miraculously handing over €1000 per week, then please accept my apologies OP.

What I'm suggesting is nothing more than common sense, if he had 2 jobs like the mother did (even low paying) he could contribute more and this may lessen the financial pressure they're under.

You are drawing conclusions from information that hasn't been provided; that's where I feel you have made the mistake.

Here is a true story that may open your eyes a little: The mother of one of my best friends got married thirty years ago. In the months following the wedding, her husband unfortunately developed MS and degenerated extremely rapidly. For the past 25 years he has been bound to a wheelchair and to the house, unable to take care of himself whatsoever. The mother has spent their entire 30 years of marriage taking care of her husband, working every hour god sends to earn enough money to keep the house and the family going and to pay for all of her husband's required medication and medical care. As a result, the mother is in her mid-50s and would easily be mistaken for a woman in her early 70s. She has been working day-jobs and night-jobs for as long as I can remember, then coming home to look after the husband.

Instead of telling you all of that, if I had simply said "The mother is working two jobs and the father doesn't work at all." and you had replied with "Tell the father to get a job" and made sarcastic comments like "If he is miraculously handing over 1000€ every week..." I'd have felt that your assumptions were more than insensitive and ridiculous.

In the case of this OP, we know the father is physically capable of trying to start up a business. That is all we know about the father. So there is no possible way you can make further assumptions when you have no further info, yet that's what you seem to have done and I just feel it was inappropriate.

Painting a poor picture of the OP's father is surely only going to upset the OP even further.

heart broken

heart broken wrote: »

My mother has told me tonight that she can no longer keep up the morgage payments on the family home. She lives with my father but he is unemployed and earns 95 euros a week ever since his furniture business went into liquidation a year and a half ago.

She told me tonight that she earns less than 2 grand a month and she must pay a morgage of 1400 euros a month. I feel very bad about it as she works very hard in two jobs and yet she gets no reward for the work she does at the end of the week for what she does. I never new this has been going on for so long and Im very sickened.

I dnt know what to do as Im planning on going to university in september. She has been talking about immigrating and Im worried since shes 52 years of age and my fathers 56. What prospects will they have if they immigrate?
Im very sad and angered and want somebody to pay for this. This has been our family home for 20 years. My parents worked hard for it and did the best they could with what they had and now the banks are going to take their home and destroy our family...

From the sounds of it they have around 1000 euro a month between them after the mortgage is paid? I think it could be that they just need some proper financial advice from something like MABS.

Op, make sure to have your mother go into the bank and discuss it before it goes too far gone.. Banks will take any contribution to a mortgage rather than take ownership of a house in this market.

StillWaters

This is not your problem, and I really think your mother should not have burdened you with it.

You are not the parent here, your mother needs to sort this out, with her husband, your dad. There is nothing you can do, other than as others said advise her of MABS etc.