Ulster Bank to Kick Off Evictions with 3,000 Summonses and then 1,000 Next Week. Other Banks to Follow

by Forster - Property Markets Fri Apr 18, 2014 16:29

Did Paddy Healy receives answers to his questions?

Iceland wrote down 24,000 (must be US$?) on mortgage debt per household?

Morgan Kelly, Economist, has spoken harrowing words but this time he moves beyond homeowners, mortgage arrears and outcomes. This time it is the small to medium enterprises (SME's) who are starved of the necessary capital to progress their businesses. The time is now to tackle the apathy prescription of Austerity enforced by the Troika and to embrace the power of the new literacy of the internet. Google/you-tube Morgan Kelly and listen to common sense talking.

Dublin 4 and other elitist Dublin locations see the property supplements of our leading newspapers to the fore once more. The media have jumped on the bandwagon and house prices appear to be rising. Nobody seems to mention that Dublin 4 like London's Chelsea is not Donegal or Lancashire. Two completely different markets where house prices are multiples apart based on the theory of supply and demand and work prospects or for that matter wealth mass and choice.

Private equity is the new name in town: Reits recently brought in through legislation in Ireland is a new mechanism. To date we have three. Green, Hibernia and now Ires Reit (Irish Republican Properties Real Estate Trust) which has just raised 200 million euros from its launch on the Dublin Stock Market. There are many new players in our market who will determine who remains a home owner or who becomes a tenant or remains a tenant without every having the ability to be a homeowner.

Look out for the adverts in the newspapers that say cashbuyer looking for mews or two bed apartment in Dublin 4. There are reasons for this and this is the change being instigated by these private equity groups and Reits companies and let us not forget the role played by NAMA. Marie O'Halloran's article 17th April 2014 'Claims of 'cartel in the rental market' to be put to Nama. Are property speculators back in the market and are they operating a rental cartel on blocks of apartments now called family units?

Mick Wallace Wexford TD (who is a developer and a politician) raised a question for the attention of Ms Burton, Department of Social Protection. Mick Wallace drew her attention to the fact that :

'rents in Dublin were going through the roof because huge numbers of apartments, including ones he developed, "have been sold en bloc as opposed to individually, for less than half the amount than it would cost to build them today.

An increasing number of rental properties are in the hands of fewer people, he said, resulting in the "development of a cartel in the rental market.....".

In other words by controlling supply will determine ability to enforce high rents and impose strict terms and conditions and the basic human right to homeownership.

We already know that rents in Dublin are rising and people on rental allowance are no longer in a position to pay the top-ups. We know families are being asked to leave their rental homes because landlords get paid higher rents in the private sector. Some of these families are being housed in hotels at a cost 3,500 per month.

This is causing a hidden crisis.

Add to this the banks and the Central Bank enforcement of tackling mortgages in arrears and apathy is challenged by realities that people must address.

by Blake - Housing Crisis Fri Jan 31, 2014 16:12

Yes Fred. We are sleep walking ourselves into a further crises. We need to stop the denial and tackle head on the elephant in the room. The banks who to date have remain unchallenged to meet targets to restructure mortgage deals are now facilitated, or so we are told, by the ISI legislation. Now is the time to ask questions before the courts determine outcomes i.e effective eviction at the hands of the Banks or companies who have bought tranches of debt from NAMA or banks.

Iceland: Sean Healy TD's question, December 3rd 2013.
Leaders Questions in the Dail - (View the debate live wp.me/p1Uvd5-uP)

Do we know if the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Labour Leader, Eamonn Gilmore, have yet answered the questions raised by Mr Healy TD in the Dail. We need to know what is 'their solution'? We need answers now and we need to keep asking questions, raising solutions, and most of all we need to be informed. The valid statement by Sean Healy TD places down the gauntlet and today February 1st 2014, we need to ask for some recognition of the comparison made with Iceland and how they tackled their mortgage crisis. To quote Mr Healy's question in the Dail:-

(2) The Icelandic Government announced today that it will defy the banks by writing off up to €24,000 of household mortgages. Iceland obviously has real sovereignty. Will the Government exercise sovereignty by preventing reckless bailed-out banks, some owned by international vulture capitalists, from evicting 30,000 families in this country?

==============Mr Gilmore did not answer either question but continued to assert that these families do not face repossession despite the evidence

How long do we have to wait in denial? People, their families, are living in fear and dread of the eviction notices. The onslaught of debt repayments to be repaid forthwith approaches six years and all we hear about is that faint argument of Moral Hazard ie those who escaped the hendonistic celtic tiger rage, and who feel that is unjust that they should have to bear the burden of those who basically took the risks and recklessly were coerced by the banks to buy properties at vastly inflated prices.

Iceland is quite an interesing country and to advance the reasoning behind their option to instruct the banks to write off 24,000 euros of household mortgages, I would recommend reading an article in the publication 'Foreign Affairs, editor Stuart Reid' entitled 'Iceland's Saga, a conversation with Olafur Ragnar Grimsson when he attended Davos Switzland in 2011. Ireland remains in limbo without a banking enquiry but it is not beyond reason for those in positions of power and responsibility to ascend somewhat on the backs of another. Iceland makes an interesting model for Ireland Inc.

Some quotes worth engaging with:-

After its banks were fully privatized in 2003, foreign money poured into the financial sector, which grew to almost ten times the size of the national GDP before bursting in a matter of days in October 2008.

There's a culture of cooperation, an awareness that you cannot survive in a tough environment unless you rely on others and others rely on you.

Recall the Cold War - the Artic Russians v the US the arsenals NATO. Mr Grimsson refers to the 'Artic Model' and the global interest expressed to same.

"If nations that confronted each other for over half a century in the most dramatic military buildup the world has ever seen were able within a few years to move to constructive, legally based cooperation, why can't we?" They have a product they can market much as the Peace Process and its success is for Ireland to capitalise on now.

Being small open economy without membership of the EU. The vulnerability is expressed in a few simple words. Financial terrorism is what befell Iceland.

The British government put us together with al-Qaeda and the Taliban {when it used anti-terrorism legislation to freeze the assets of an Icelandic bank}. I mean, a founding member of NATO, a strong ally of Britain, a country without any armed forces whatsoever-we would be the last country to be put on such a list. But this meant that all business connections for Icelandic companies were closed down all over the world. Gordon Brown would never have dared wage financial war against France or Germany or any other bigger country......

.........When we tried to engage America, our long-standing ally, they said "Sorry"...to preoccupied with other matters.....Every western door closed its door on Iceland.

Cinderella Ireland, stand up, stand tall. We were faced with two paths and we took the other. Now it is time to reflect. This article for anyone interested is a must read. We can learn. We urgently need to explore a write-down on the capital amount as carried out in Iceland before too many families are subjected to hardship that can ultimately be avoided.

by fred Fri Jan 31, 2014 02:47

Evicted. What then? Is it the social housing list? The news here is that there are nearly 100,000 people awaiting housing. This will not be an option for those evicted due to the banking crisis fiasco. This list is about being first there first served. Add to this the policy of respective governments to avoid building social housing for over a decade now while introducing incentives for buy-to-lets, then we must be doubly on guard to protect the new contingent of people who become vulenerable due to eviction.

Could it be an application to social services for rental allowance now less than market rental to be paid to landlords? Well here we have the banks changed attitudes to enforce repossession kicking into effect. This means landlords are becoming scarce, rent is moving higher, supply and demand creates a critical scenario of hardship for people and their families. Does the Government have a plan? We need to know.

Of course they do. And they are executing that plan admirably. Trouble is, it is a stupid short sighted plan.

FG, as a party adhering to a neo liberal pro privatisation "chicago school" ideology, they wish to dismantle social safety nets, privatise every utility and service possible and reduce the government footprint, and thus reduce taxes on business, leaving people completely at the mercy of the "markets" to sink or swim as globalised business dictates. FG believe this will bring the greatest good to the most people.

Unfortunately the markets are rigged and the game is controlled and there are in reality no such things as free markets here or anywhere else. So all that happens is we become impoverished serfs working desperately as really cheap labour (if we are lucky) as everything worthwhile in society falls apart and becomes less available under the profit motive, while kleptocrats and businesses steal everything worth having in our economy leaving nothing for the ordinary people except poverty, destitution and homelessness.

So a society, and it's structures, originally set up in order to collectively do what is best for people as a whole, now exists instead to help a few profit greatly at the cost of everyone else.

by Blake - 'Gilmore denies Evictions Threatened Thu Jan 30, 2014 16:23

Paddy Healy raised questions but did he receive any answers from An Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

The Central Bank is reported to be putting pressure on the banks to meet targets ie do deals with homeowners who are in arrears with their mortgages and buy-to-let loans. According to today's media sources, ISI (Insolvency Service of Ireland) it appears miscalculated and the judges tasked to deal with the insolvency/bankruptcy crisis are basically pushing paper because people are not taking up the option for the Insolvency route, yet. Please note salaries of these chosen Judges for their special abilities to resolve what can only be described as potential homelessness catastrophe.

Meantime, we all know the conundrum. A person who in the Celtic Tiger bonanza who either bought their first home or traded up only to see their dream home become a nooze around their necks and that of their families. The social, health, employability costs as we head for year six are yet to be researched. However common sense tells us that unrelenting financial pressure is a high cost for people to sustain especially if they know that their home is to be repossessed. Life events happen to us all but when they happen altogether there is real misfortune.

Can we please have figures? The Central Bank, the ESRI, the Department of Finance, the Department of Environment all have access to the data mining engagement via Abtran (who compiled the data for the 90% subscribed local property tax) so it is not unrealistic that there are policies, plans, and facts that will state just how many people are now targeted by the banks for eviction and within a time frame of 2014?

Evicted. What then? Is it the social housing list? The news here is that there are nearly 100,000 people awaiting housing. This will not be an option for those evicted due to the banking crisis fiasco. This list is about being first there first served. Add to this the policy of respective governments to avoid building social housing for over a decade now while introducing incentives for buy-to-lets, then we must be doubly on guard to protect the new contingent of people who become vulenerable due to eviction.

Could it be an application to social services for rental allowance now less than market rental to be paid to landlords? Well here we have the banks changed attitudes to enforce repossession kicking into effect. This means landlords are becoming scarce, rent is moving higher, supply and demand creates a critical scenario of hardship for people and their families. Does the Government have a plan? We need to know.

Moral hazard is understandable. Human nature creates competitiveness in some and hence division. The postponement of the crisis on a year by year basis now leaves too many people uncertain awaiting intervention. The problem of eviction was postponed but not for much longer. Timing dictates that NAMA is now a major player. It is focused on its best assets and sold prime location properties in the commercial sector and successfully too. Now its focus is the housing market. This blends together with the foregoing comments. Peoples' properties will be flushed out to a newly constructed 'Wall Street rental driven market' with private equity groups like Blackstone becoming Ireland's new signifcant landlords. It may be irrelevant who owns the property but it is worth understanding especially if the Central Banks are pressuring the banks to meet targets.

1980/90's recession in the UK. Word on the street was that you were basically one paypacket away from homelessness. A judgment by Justice Dunne placed breakers on this for many people in financial crisis over the past 5 years, but we know that this is no longer in place. The timing is now and the calm is before the storm.

House prices are rising in Dublin. Questions are often more important than answers. Keep asking the questions. Could it be that certain banks have already repossessed properties and are holding them as stock until prices rise? This is not unheard have. Check out America?

by Paddy Healy - WUA Mon Dec 30, 2013 19:15 paddy.healy at eircom dot net 88 Griffith Court, D3 086-4183732

Statement by Seamus Healy TD
On December 3, at Leaders Questions in the Dáil,(View the debate live wp.me/p1Uvd5-uP) I asked the Tánaiste and Labour Party Leader, Eamonn Gilmore, the following questions:
(1) Last week the Taoiseach refused to answer my question on the issue but he repeatedly stated that there is a solution for everyone in mortgage distress. Does the Tánaiste regard bankruptcy and repossession of the family home as a solution for those blameless families? Is that the reason the Government removed the legal ban on repossessions? One could ask whether that is the reason the indefensible situation has arisen whereby the Government has allowed the Central Bank to reduce the moratorium on repossessions from 12 months to two months. Will the Government ensure that the families which have fully engaged and have modest mortgages that are not buy-to-let properties, who are not strategic defaulters-will the Tánaiste ensure that these families will be allowed to remain in their homes?
(2) The Icelandic Government announced today that it will defy the banks by writing off up to €24,000 of household mortgages. Iceland obviously has real sovereignty. Will the Government exercise sovereignty by preventing reckless bailed-out banks, some owned by international vulture capitalists, from evicting 30,000 families in this country?
Mr Gilmore did not answer either question but continued to assert that these families do not face repossession despite the evidence

by Crazy Cat Mon Dec 30, 2013 13:59

Article by Carlos Delclós from Roarmag.org:

http://roarmag.org/2013/12/plataforma-afectados-hipotec...pain/

by Firebrand - Direct Democracy Ireland (Wexford) Thu Aug 08, 2013 22:43

Does anyone know to location of the people who are under threat of eviction so that I and others may lend a hand if they (the home owners) want some help.

by W. Finnerty Sat Aug 03, 2013 20:25

'Nearly everyone knows how corrupt the judicial system in America is, but very few people know how to confront it with knowledge, skill, and integrity. Private Attorney General Anthony Williams is one such special authority in this field of law, civil rights, and organized crime.'

'Watching this video makes you want to scream and shout with joy, releasing anger, in great relief. Finally, there is evidence of a solution to the corruption in the legal system, and the unlawful "enterprise" called "The Bar," that has overtaken decency and "civility" in our common law and criminal justice systems by substituting "commercial psychopathology" (called "arrogance" and "greed") for reasonableness and justice.'

All of the above excerpts have come from:
http://vimeo.com/71587843

"Nearly everyone knows how corrupt the judicial system in America is, ..."

I'm not sure that everyone in the Republic of Ireland yet realises just how corrupt our judicial system, and our legal profession, really is?

Related Link:
"Unconstitutional legislation, Human Rights Ireland, William Finnerty ..."
http://tinyurl.com/ozzag99

by T Sat Aug 03, 2013 10:26

See the link below from these solicitors who explain the significance of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2013

Basically the court can for mortgages taken out before 2009, force the person into insolvency -i.e. bankruptcy.

It corrects a "loophole" in the 2009 Act. It is amazing how quick the government will change any law when it favours big business/capital and the banks but when it might favour the people then we are told it is almost impossible to make such changes.

by T Fri Aug 02, 2013 21:35

Given the announcement above, it seems the banks are ready to attack people in their homes and boot them out. So much for us so called owning the banks. Even though we bailed them out, it is quite clear we don't have any say or role in how they are run or what they do.

We can expect nothing less from the present political system which has been completely captured by private capital. Interesting that they are launching their offense on one of the quietest weekends in the year.