Just reading about this for work. There are a lot of ideas floating about in regard to writing off some mortgage debt, expanding mortgages to the next generation etc. What do wollies think about debt forgiveness? Good or bad idea?

to be honest i'd be absolutely disgusted at this (well what I know of it initially) surely you made your bed and you have to lie in it. i'm now being punished because i didn't buy property actually...

no lessons will be learned. sorry to ladies who are in trouble if this seems harsh but my taxes are now going into these banks and no money is going to be paid back and the thoughts of mine or any future children going to be punished in so many different ways. nobody held a gun to anyones head and told them to buy property. obviously a simplistic view but i am 100% against debt 'forgiveness'. there has to be a better way (agreements on payments ect, a grace period while people are out of work) but ultimately money you borrowed should be paid back or hand back the house!

While I'm not adverse to it in theory, it could turn out to be grossly unfair to those who have struggled hard to stay out of arrears.
Not sure what would qualify a person to get the debt written off (or in part).

lux wrote:Just reading about this for work. There are a lot of ideas floating about in regard to writing off some mortgage debt, expanding mortgages to the next generation etc. What do wollies think about debt forgiveness? Good or bad idea?

Have to say not sure whether i agree with this one.... it will only encourage people to stop making reapyments on their mortgages... not good for anyone...

and as for next generation debt.... making your children pay for your mistakes... who in their right mind you actually do that

Kaycee wrote:to be honest i'd be absolutely disgusted at this (well what I know of it initially) surely you made your bed and you have to lie in it. i'm now being punished because i didn't buy property actually...

no lessons will be learned. sorry to ladies who are in trouble if this seems harsh but my taxes are now going into these banks and no money is going to be paid back and the thoughts of mine or any future children going to be punished in so many different ways. nobody held a gun to anyones head and told them to buy property. obviously a simplistic view but i am 100% against debt 'forgiveness'. there has to be a better way (agreements on payments ect, a grace period while people are out of work) but ultimately money you borrowed should be paid back or hand back the house!

Totally agree with this. To be fair everyone who took a mortgage out was an adult and capable of entering the contract. Of course I would have liked a much more expensive house but we were realistic and made sure that if we were ever down to one wage (which we are) that we could still afford our mortgage. I think that arrangements should be made for those in difficulty of course but I used to be a mortgage advisor (back in the 90's)and recall one customer when redeeming his mortgage in telling me of his rate going to 18% in the 80's There was no debt forgiveness back then I don't think there should be now either. And like the other poster I realise my view may seem simplistic but I think you have a duty to repay what you willingly took on.

What really annoys me about this is that the banks are willing to talk about writing off this debt AFTER they've been given (in AIB's case) about €20.5 billion of taxpayers money. Before that, not so much! They would chase down every door to get the money back when it was there money - but hey, it's the taxpayers money so we won't chase so much. They wouldn't even dream of writing it off before they got the bailout money.

BUT I do think it's time that we start discussing ways of dealing with the massive mortgage debt that is out there. It is strangling the property market, the construction industry and the economy in general. I don't think all out debt forgiveness is the way to go but it is time that new ideas were discussed (intergenerational mortgages is another idea being mentioned). Interesting times...

MrsAH wrote:While I'm not adverse to it in theory, it could turn out to be grossly unfair to those who have struggled hard to stay out of arrears.
Not sure what would qualify a person to get the debt written off (or in part).

+1
While we are in NE, we have no problem paying our mortgage but I'd be fairly put out if anyone in the same position who's in arrears just got the debt written off. I think if I'd scrimped and scraped just to stay out of arrears, I'd be furious! I know this happens in a business context as I deal every day with people who are escaping their debts but I think it's a slippery slope - where do you draw the line? First we had taxpayers' money bailing out the banks, now we'd have taxpayers' money bailing out other taxpayers, what then? It's the same old argument that some less well off people feel that higher earners should just keep paying more and more taxes... where does it end?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/fro ... 55716.html

There's a pretty good piece on it here.

I dunno, maybe only in extreme circumstances or if just part of the debt is written off.
It's not really fair on everyone else who is stuggling to pay theirs yet won't qualify to have theirs written off. Then again to have it written off you must be in a very bad way so maybe it's the only answer. It's certainly better than taking a house off a family.

I'm in two minds at the mo!

Kaycee wrote:to be honest i'd be absolutely disgusted at this (well what I know of it initially) surely you made your bed and you have to lie in it. i'm now being punished because i didn't buy property actually...

no lessons will be learned. sorry to ladies who are in trouble if this seems harsh but my taxes are now going into these banks and no money is going to be paid back and the thoughts of mine or any future children going to be punished in so many different ways. nobody held a gun to anyones head and told them to buy property. obviously a simplistic view but i am 100% against debt 'forgiveness'. there has to be a better way (agreements on payments ect, a grace period while people are out of work) but ultimately money you borrowed should be paid back or hand back the house!

+1 Would not be in favour of this at all.

Kaycee wrote: or hand back the house!

Just on this part, you can't do this in Ireland as an exchange of your debt. Well you can, as long as the bank can sell it for more than your outstanding mortgage (if not, they chase you for the remainder). Sure I'm sure lots of people would happily do this - my DH and I for example, we could hand back the keys to our house (worth 150k) with our mortgage of 250k and start from stratch with all our savings and buy a bigger house for less. Everybody would be doing it!!

MizMelanie wrote:

MrsAH wrote:While I'm not adverse to it in theory, it could turn out to be grossly unfair to those who have struggled hard to stay out of arrears.
Not sure what would qualify a person to get the debt written off (or in part).

+1
While we are in NE, we have no problem paying our mortgage but I'd be fairly put out if anyone in the same position who's in arrears just got the debt written off. I think if I'd scrimped and scraped just to stay out of arrears, I'd be furious!

This is us too, we can pay our mortgage but it wasn't easy at times, both of us lost our jobs at one point and we still made payments every month. I'd be pretty furious if someone else just got the debt wiped off.
However, arrangements do need to be made for some people to try and get them out of arrears. Extending terms, reducing rates for them, something anyway.

MizMelanie wrote:

MrsAH wrote:While I'm not adverse to it in theory, it could turn out to be grossly unfair to those who have struggled hard to stay out of arrears.
Not sure what would qualify a person to get the debt written off (or in part).

+1
While we are in NE, we have no problem paying our mortgage but I'd be fairly put out if anyone in the same position who's in arrears just got the debt written off. I think if I'd scrimped and scraped just to stay out of arrears, I'd be furious! I know this happens in a business context as I deal every day with people who are escaping their debts but I think it's a slippery slope - where do you draw the line? First we had taxpayers' money bailing out the banks, now we'd have taxpayers' money bailing out other taxpayers, what then?

+1
Our house is in a massive amount of NE, the mortgage has been hard at times, but we'd do anything to pay the mortgage. If they did start doing this i would hope each case is looked at individually, as i remember a high profile very well off couple who had split up, and moved out of a huge house and just stopped paying the mortgage, they both could afford to but let it go into arrears, why should they be let off?
Whereas us eejits would put our last penny into the mortgage so as not to go into arrears

What annoys me the most is that myself and DH can not do anything i.e switch mortgages, pay forthnightly (well we can but it makes no difference to the capital borrowed) to try and reduce the NE we're in bar pumping money off the mortgage!!! We are sensable with our money and always have been. Yes we bought a house at the time worth 260K and now worth about 190-200k. We were offered with one bank 320K (would love to know where they got that figure from)...we refused it on the basis that we wouldn't be able to repay the mortgage (or have no life whatsoever!)

I don't agree with that the children of the future should pay for it. The government were warned back in late 90's early 00's that things are getting out of hand and to stop the banks handing out so much money and try and put a cap on the house prices....but they didn't listen (whats new there) I personally think that the taxpayer shouldn't pay for the governments and banks mistakes. Its not really our fault that the farmers were asking a lot of money for land and the builders asking so much for houses (and to be honest a lot of houses are not well built)

The head of NAMA got a pay increase from 100k to 160k.....and I've heard yesterday that he's earning now 500k Now....surely they should give him a wage cut!!! I know its a drop in the ocean as far as "savings" are concerned but its something!!!!!

I don't agree with this at all....Like another poster said earlier it will ounly encourage people to stop paying thier mortgage if there is a possibility of it being written (sp) off.
What about the people who are doing everything they can just to stay out of mortgage debt but struggle in every other areas like putting food on the table and keepnig the housr warm all becasue they don't want to loose the roof over thier head.
Is any assistance from the electricity and gas networks gonna do the same? I strongly doubt it
I swear this country is laughable!