TDs attack subprime lender sales

SUBPRIME MORTGAGE companies should not be allowed to resell houses they have repossessed, the United Left Alliance has said.

Some of the alliance’s TDs, including Joan Collins, Clare Daly and Joe Higgins, staged a protest yesterday outside the offices of Investec plc, the owners of sub-prime lender Start Mortgages. Start has more than 300 repossession cases in front of the High Court at present.

The alliance said it was in the process of setting up a “seller beware – buyer beware” campaign against the sale of repossessed homes and would be hosting a meeting on Sunday in the Red Cow hotel for those being threatened with repossession.

Ms Collins, TD for Dublin South-Central, said they were no longer prepared to stand idly by while people were evicted. “We will not accept a return to the 1800s, when non-resident landlords and speculators evicted people who could not afford their rent,” she said.

The TDs want Investec to cease the repossessions and evictions of people from their homes. They have called on Investec to withdraw from sale any repossessed homes they are trying to sell.

Among those who took part in the protest was Robert Marsh, who lost his home in Drimnagh in February this year. He borrowed €350,000 from Start in 2007 at an interest rate of 7.85 per cent.

He said he could not afford the mortgage, although he paid €13,000 in interest payments last year. He claimed to have made an offer of €1,500 a month, which was refused by Smart. “I don’t want others to go through what I’ve had to go through,” he said.

Nobody from Investec or Start could be contacted for comment.