2013 the year banks told borrowers to hand back the keys?

We help different people with different things, and while most of our debt problem clients face broadly similar reactions from the banks, we think it’s important to post the documents which show a presence of lashings and lashings of stupid. To see the full letter click on the image at the bottom of the post

One such document was received by a client recently from the Irish Civil Service building society, also known as ICS and a subsidiary of Bank of Ireland. It’s no secret that posting these documents makes us highly disliked by the banks,  but if people don’t expose them then the great farce will go unchallenged.

What makes this case interesting is that the bank offered a short term forbearance plan which the client asked them to tweak. Then they turned around and changed their mind and went from ‘we can give you a few months to get your affairs in order’ to ‘sell the house or even abandon it’.

In 2008 to now I have never heard a bank say that walking away (also called jingle …

Read More

Standard Financial Statement or SFS – for people in mortgage arrears

If you go into arrears on your mortgage or you talk to your lender because you believe you are a ‘pre-arrears’ candidate then you will be asked to fill in a ‘Standard Financial Statement‘ or SFS which is part of the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (MARP) which started last year.

Engaging with the lender is a key tenet of this and filling in the SFS and liaising with the lender on aspects of it. The information in this is what will be used to negotiate the repayment that you will pay in cases where lifestyle adjustment does not allow you to make the full payment.

Read More