A FORMAL AGREEMENT has been signed between Allsop Space auctioneers and the Irish Mortgage Holder’s Organisation (IMHO) that could stop future sales of repossessed homes.
Yesterday afternoon, the agreement was signed between the mortgage support group and Ireland’s largest auctioneers that will ensure that repossessed properties where no debt deal has been struck between the banks and the homeowner over mortgage arrears will not be offered for auction.
The agreement relates to situations where the mortgage holders live in the property as their principal private residence. The auction house’s subsidiaries are also part of the deal.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie today, David Hall of the IMHO said the deal was struck yesterday and will ensure that Alsopp Space will now only auction repossssed homes where the owners had reached a deal with their bank over their mortage debt.
Mortgage debt
He said: “The agreement undertaken will see that no family home that has been repossessed will be auctioned where the owners had not reached a deal with lenders over their mortgage debt.”
He added: “We will be calling on all other auctioneers to follow suit, and those that do not, we will publish the name of those auctioneers on our website.
This agreement could cause major problems for the banks who are hoping to progress with repossession orders”.
Mr Hall acknowledged that there are cases where houses must be repossessed, but said that family homes should not be repossessed and sold on without the homeowners having a structured deal in place as to how their debt is to be managed following the sale. He said:
We heard at the Oireachtas Finance Committee that the banks had issued mortgage holders with 15,000 solicitors’ letters.This agreement, which has no time frame, is a reasonable and responsible approach to take. It ensures that before the auction house can sell a repossessed home, the banks must have an adequate structured deal laid out for the customer on how their debt will be managed from then on.
Uncertainty
He added: “What is happening at the moment with repossessions is not acceptable. Imagine having your home sold from under you and months down the line you not knowing how much you owe the bank and how you are going to pay your debt even after your home has been sold.”
Mr Hall added that this agreement and the future agreements he hopes to get with other auction houses will provide customers with certainty of their future financial situation.
He said that anyone who is in the process of having their home repossessed should make sure they have a debt deal in place before their home is auctioned.
Here is the formal agreement signed by both parties:
(Courtesy of the IMHO) If you cannot view this document please click here.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say