A NEW campaign group
has been established to help beleaguered Northsiders who face the prospect of
losing their homes because they are unable to meet their mortgage repayments.
Defend Our Homes
League (DOHL) has been set up to prevent further repossessions and evictions of
people facing financial hardship.
The group
includes the left wing United Left Alliance (ULA) group of TDs, legal group,
New Beginning, campaign group, Irish Homeowners Unite, and homeowners unable to
repay their mortgages.
Ben Gilroy (48),
who is originally from Raheny and a member of DOHL, is married with three
children and now lives in Navan.
Until recently
he had been paying approximately
?¬2,800 per month for a period of over three
years to meet the repayments on an interest-only mortgage of
?¬310,000 on the
house, which he purchased for over
?¬400,000.
However, Mr
Gilroy recently told his mortgage broker that he could no longer afford to make
the repayments. He said the company has now told him it intends to repossess
the house.
“After paying
that mortgage I am absolutely financially ruined and they are looking for the
house back,
? Mr Gilroy told Northside People.
“I have lost
over a quarter of a million on that house. In three and a half years I have
paid
?¬75,000 in interest and the valuation of my house has gone down by
?¬200,000.
“Because of the
interest-only repayments nothing has come off the principal sum. I still owe
the
?¬310,000 that I borrowed.á
Mr Gilroy said
DOHL supports the idea of a State agency such as the Money Advice and Budgeting
Service (MABS) acting as an independent assessor of people’s ability to repay
their mortgages.
“I want an
independent body set up – someone who has experience like MABS,
? he stated.
“I would be
looking for the independent body to be saying this is what these amounts are
for and this is what the house is worth and to come to some arrangement.
“It is better to
leave a family in a home paying
?¬500 or
?¬600 a month when they could
alternatively become a burden on the State.
?
Mr Gilroy added:
“I could just as easily say why should I bother and try to get a house off the
social welfare because they would pay most of my rent on it.
?
David Hall is a
barrister with Capel Street-based New Beginning. He said the group would be
making submissions to the Government in the coming weeks to address the
mortgage arrears and repossession issues.
“We are looking
for an independent judicial group or body that is allowed to formally
restructure debt appropriately when a lender approaches with a resolution,
?
stated Mr Hall.
“Why not reduce
some pain now and postpone the pain if everyone including the Government and
the banks are saying this is a cycle and it will improve?
“Why not allow
people pay their mortgage appropriately but by reducing the risk to that person
by looking at what effectively happens if a house is to be repossessed?
“If someone with
a
?¬400,000 house gets repossessed, the bank will get
?¬180,000 and will have to
write off over
?¬200,000.
“We are saying:
why are you trying to penalise a person by trying to force them to pay a
mortgage of
?¬400,000 where in effect they can’t pay it?
“Why not try to
do a deal with them where they pay
?¬180,000 over a period of time and then
reintroduce the
?¬220,000 at a later stage.
?
Dublin North TD
Clare Daly (SP), along with a number of other United Left Alliance TDs,
recently submitted proposals to the Government’s Interdepartmental Group on the
Mortgage Crisis on behalf of DOHL.
Dublin North
Central TD Finian McGrath (Ind) has also indicated his support for the
initiative.
DOHL says it
will convene a national meeting to respond to the forthcoming report by the
Interdepartmental Group and to plan resistance to repossessions.
It is also
working with New Beginning to prepare a Bill to submit to the Dáil later this
year.
Deputy Daly said
the purpose of the campaign is to engineer a climate where repossessions and
evictions become totally unacceptable.
“Parts of the
campaign will include protesting where repossessed properties are put up for
sale,
? she stated.
“In the Dail I
and the other ULA TDs, with the help of others who support the Defend Our Homes
League, will be looking to introduce a private members’ bill this autumn, which
will effectively outlaw repossessions and evictions.
?
A spokesman for
the Department of Finance told Northside People that the Government’s Economic
Management Council has tasked an Inter-Departmental Group to consider further
necessary actions to alleviate the increasing problem of mortgage
over-indebtedness.
“The group will
report to it by the end of this month,
? he said.