Homeowners facing repossession should not be treated like criminals or be bullied by the banks, says ISABEL MORTON

BRAVO TO THE two brave young couples who appeared on The Late Late Show last Friday to tell of how they, along with around 35,000 other homeowners (to date), are in arrears of three months or more on their mortgage repayments.

These couples were not property investors or speculators, but bought normal family homes for €280,000 (in Kildare) and €210,000 (in Cavan) some years ago and had no problem servicing their mortgages. Like so many others at the time, they were working in the construction industry and were earning very good wages and never expected to become unemployed.

It was, after all, a time when the Government actively encouraged half of eastern Europe to come here in order to fill our job vacancies. The idea that you might not be able to find a job was almost impossible to imagine, in a country where unemployment was virtually non-existent.

And even if the worst was to happen and you could not, for whatever reason, continue to service your loan, you could always sell your house and pay off your debts and rent some place until your financial situation improved again.

But those were the days when you could sell property within a few weeks and would even have been sure of making a profit. They were the days when responsible young adults were actively encouraged, by both the banks and the Government, and one would have to say by this supplement, to buy property as an investment for their future.

In fact, it was a time when, if you were even thinking about starting a family, let alone already parents of young children, you would have been considered very irresponsible had you not made every effort to buy your own home.

The couples interviewed on The Late Late Show were typical examples of responsible, law abiding, hard working young parents who were trying to provide a comfortable home and lifestyle for their young families.

It was quite obvious that neither of the couples interviewed ever had any intention of reneging on their financial commitments. And never in their wildest dreams would they ever have envisaged themselves revealing every detail of their financial embarrassment to the nation on national television.

But they did and they should be applauded for doing so, as they represented the 35,000 homeowners who are currently living in fear of having their homes repossessed.

They told of how they were being treated as if they had committed a heinous crime, when in actual fact they are victims of circumstances not of their own making.

In fact, had they actually committed a crime, the Government would have provided them with free legal aid. But no such assistance was given to these people.

One couple, Ian and Julie, no longer able to afford representation, appeared on their own behalf 10 days ago and asked the judge not to prolong their agony by giving them a moratorium of a further six months. They knew that such a reprieve would be of no use in the long-term as their bank would continue to keep piling on the interest and their debt would keep increasing.

They have no idea where they and their four young children will live when their home is repossessed next week. However, even handing back the keys will not be good enough, as they are now in negative equity and will still owe the bank the outstanding amount. “Nama can bail out the banks but where’s the Nama for people who are struggling?” Ian enquired.

The other couple, Jason and Karen, are equally distraught about their circumstances and made sure to advise their bank as soon as Jason was made redundant.

Their mortgage was reduced by 50 per cent for six months but was then reinstated and increased by €200 per month to make up the shortfall. They are now being charged 6.7 per cent interest on their loan, which they can’t afford and are now €7,000 in arrears.

Since then, they have been hounded by their bank which has been phoning them “at least 15 times per week” demanding to know if their circumstances have changed and questioning them on how much they spend on their household bills. Some of these calls are made outside office hours and at weekends, and are so upsetting that Karen can no longer answer the phone and Jason must deal with the constant harassment.

The name of their bank was not made public on The Late Late Show but, in my view, the bank in question should be named and shamed.

Or perhaps we should all learn from the banks bullying tactics and start playing them at their own game.

If owing €7,000 generates 15 phone calls per week from the bank, how many calls per week should we be making to our banks to harass them about the €54 billion they owe us, the taxpayers?