Number of mortgages in arrears is now almost 11%

Bullrush wrote: »

"10.9 per cent of private residential mortgage accounts are in arrears over 90 days, according to new figures from the Central Bank."

And that's 14.7% if you look at the value of mortgages, rather than number of mortgage accounts - more meaningful in my opinion. And another 6.7% in arrears of less than 90 days.

Also, how many of these are speculators mortgages?

These are just owner-occupier mortgages. Arrears on investment properties are 2-3 times worse.

Bullrush wrote: »

I'm imagine those who are deciding not to pay are in a minority. And, of course, they should have to pay. Surely the rest of them just don't have the cash?

There was traditionally a "pay your mortgage at all costs" attitude in this country. That if you could keep yourself sweet with your bank, then you still had your asset there, you could sell up and move on and take some cash with you. Stop paying your mortgage and the bank would break down your door, throw you and your family out on the street (onto the mercy of evil landlords!) and you walk away with nothing.

We can see this attitude changing now. People are realising that looking after their family comes first, and there are no great stories abound of families being thrown out. In fact, it's the other way, people are hearing stories about "friends of friends" or others who have been sitting in their own homes for years while the bank does nothing or while the bank allows them to pay a nominal amount way below their mortgage.
On top of this, there's less emotional attachment to the buildings - in many cases, people are paying huge mortgages on a box which was never supposed to be a permanent home. Now, they don't feel like they're building an asset at all, but paying money into something which they'll never see a return on - they may as well be renting.
Finally, you have a massive softening on the stigma against renting; family and friends are renting nice places and extolling the virtues of having less hassle and more portability.

Basically, we have a generation of people in homes which they don't feel like they own, don't have a huge attachment to, and a cash flow that's being massively squeezed. When faced with the option of feeding their families and moving into a rental or keeping up with their mortgages, the choice is obvious.

Aside from debt write-down or widespread availability of negative equity mortgages, I honestly can't see any simple way out of this. The arrears problem is just going to build and build.

Nody wrote: »

What I'm missing are the people paying something but not the full monthly amount. It should also be quite easily for banks to see who's trying to pull a quick one as they see what comes in on the monthly account and can compare to how much they had coming in when things where good.

you could easily set up another account to handle incomes in a seperate bank to the mortgage account

I know what would reduce the number of households in arrears. Repossessions, Debt Write-offs or people getting more money to pay their mortgages (for example: by the government getting more Jobs into the country or even better paying jobs)

Is there any breakdown of the mortgage arrears numbers ? What %.are self employed ,unemployed etc ?

kdowling wrote: »

we decided this week that we are going to go into arrears even though we can afford not to.
With the mortgage arrears situation only going to get worse I think that there will definately be some sort of debt writedowns coming down the line.
The only people getting this will be those who are in arrears and have been engaged with MARP for at least a year.
If we go into arrears for less than 30 days each month it will not affect or credit rating either.
I know it's not morally correct but if others who made the same mistake as we did end up getting a write down then I want to be in a position to get one too.

That's absolutely disgusting. What about the rest of us, who didn't make your mistakes? We'll be left to foot the bill.

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

I've nothing but sympathy for those who genuinely cannot afford to meet their mortgage payments after exhausting every reasonable avenue.

However, the chancers like kdowling above who are choosing not to make their repayments are also choosing to stick their hand in mine and your pockets. What's more, it's people like that who are reducing the prospects of any sort of debt forgiveness occurring.

We are in a similar position but I think it's unlikely there will be any debt writedowns.
We are with AIB and asked to upgrade with a negative equity mortgage.
They refused and so we are discussing moving to the UK to declare bankruptcy.
Will be a much bigger loss to them than if they decide to give a reasonable writedown instead.

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

Away you go to the UK, so. Their health service, education system and infrastructure will be much better able to support you, seeing as ours is being ravaged as we struggle to deal with genuine poverty as it is.

We most likely will but we'll be back again in 12 months time

woodoo wrote: »

Best case you may be allowed to move on without the debt.

I would take that no problem but I know even that won't happen.

The problem is that there is a high amount of strategic defaulters now who are looking for a writedown. If they are 30 days + in arrears their credit rating is shot.
What happens when all these people realise that bankruptcy in the UK is not the reserve of the developer/businessman and that many normal people in negative equity are declaring bankruptcy.
Instead of 5 years bad credit rating for being in arrears in Ireland you have 12 months of bankruptcy.
I think the stigma of bankruptcy in Ireland is slowly dissipating and when it does I think the banks (and ultimately the taxpayer) will be sorry that they didn't give the €20,000/€30,000 writedown instead of a loss of the full €100,000/€200,000 negative equity.

titan18 wrote:

I love how in previous posts, you gave out to someone for thinking about not paying rent, and now you're thinking of the above

Lol That's kinda creepy how you guys trawl through people's previous posts desperately looking for something to criticise!!

kdowling wrote: »

Lol That's kinda creepy how you guys trawl through people's previous posts desperately looking for something to criticise!!

Says the guy who created a thread looking for quotes from a few years before the recession to criticise people

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72416998

kdowling wrote: »

theres nothing wrong with it, its just a little sad and creepy, just ask me instead, it'll save you time!

I just did...

Should those guys be allowed a free pass on what they owe too?

Knock yourself out.

kdowling wrote: »

we decided this week that we are going to go into arrears even though we can afford not to.
With the mortgage arrears situation only going to get worse I think that there will definately be some sort of debt writedowns coming down the line.
The only people getting this will be those who are in arrears and have been engaged with MARP for at least a year.
If we go into arrears for less than 30 days each month it will not affect or credit rating either.
I know it's not morally correct but if others who made the same mistake as we did end up getting a write down then I want to be in a position to get one too.

Your a prick!!!