Defining ‘Strategic Default’

One of the things the whole strategic default issue lacks is any set definition. There are words that get used with motives embedded in them, such abuse of language only exists when there is not a set meaning to the word. To call a default strategic is two very different things depending on who is talking about it.

To a bankers mind it might mean any loan unpaid where the person has a penny to spare, to a borrower it might only be where a person withholds all money from the lender and goes and lives the life of Reilly.

I’m asking for your help on this one, please use comments to add your thoughts and I’ll re-edit the post appropriately.

To start with I’ll attempt to define a strategic default on multi-investment properties, there are other types so feel free to give the example or way of defining it as you see it.

1. Multi-investment property investors: Where the person is collecting rent and paying interest only, then the bank look for capital and interest and the person goes …

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Mortgage Market Trend Outlook 2012

We have made a few more bold predictions in our ‘Mortgage Market Trend Outlook 2012’ and reviewed how wrong many of our 2011 forecasts were as well.

Some of the main points thus far are:

1. That mortgage lending bottomed out in 2011. 2. That IBRC may take on some tracker loan portfolios to de-risk state owned banks (as the state already owns these loans entirely anyway). 3. That rates for existing AIB borrowers will have to go up but that for new borrowers rates may come down with changes to how prices are charged depending on risk of the proposed loan. 4. That deposit rates will start to drop. 5. That up to 25,000 mortgages will be deemed ‘unsustainable’ and that the ‘won’t pay’ contingent of arrears cases may be as high as 1 in 5.

We hope you enjoy this report, we in turn hope that we get some of the calls right!

Many thanks,

Irish Mortgage Brokers

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Hand back the keys and walk away.

What we are not saying is that people should try this, this post is merely pointing out that this kind of thing could happen and that a failure of enacting sensible policy soon enough could encourage people to look for solutions such as what we describe here as a means to solving their personal debt issues.

We don’t endorse handing back the keys, we are not suggesting that people do it or consider it, but merely looking at the pro’s and cons of doing so and demonstrating a method whereby a person could potentially try to fool the system while doing so.

The Cons are basically that you lose your home, and assuming that in this case the person is in €100,000 of negative equity then they are also hit with a judgement for the shortfall plus expenses, for the following twelve years that debt can come back to haunt you. Your actual credit may be restored in year seven but that doesn’t mean you are off the hook.

Consider the position of Joe Bloggs, he is deeply in debt, …

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