Getting through the heavy lifting of debt mediation, one result at a time

We had another successful outcome with a lender and thought that it might be worth describing in terms of how it came about and how it worked out.

This time it was Bank of Ireland who many say (in the past ourselves included) are notoriously difficult to deal with, while they are not easy (as none of them are) we have noticed a definite thaw in recent months in how they deal with negotiators which is a positive development.

The client in question has a job in the public sector (many in mortgage arrears do), but has faced various reductions in income and tax increases which resulted in payments being missed.

They engaged with the bank to no avail, spoke to another firm who they heard offer debt mediation for free but then got a quote and that kind of annoyed them so they called us. We suggested that if they wanted free service they go back to the provider who they spoke to first, that provider sent out a standard financial statement reminding them it would cost upwards …

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The first rule about debt deals is ‘we dont talk about debt deals’

Due to disclosure requirements I can’t actually tell you much about dealing with banks when it gets to the specifics of some cases, what I can say is that should a person get any debt write down of the type that banks are not doing that you will be asked to sign something like the letter to the left (click for full version).

What we do find frustrating is that there will be an insolvency register where people are named, but that you can’t find out what kind of restructure took place or what creditors accepted.

This is almost like having an absence of case law with which to go to court. It’s a huge oversight and will reduce the effectiveness of advisors who will all act in a common arena totally blind to what all of the others are doing.

As for specifics, this means you can’t ever talk about getting a write down or even a non-write down advantageous re-arrangement. You can be asked to destroy all of the evidence you have referring …

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