Siobhan and Damian McCarthy.

Mother accuses mortgage lender of using bullying tactics

A Mullingar mum whose mortgage is in arrears has accused her lender of using what she sees as “bullying” tactics in a bid to get her family out of their home.

Siobhan McCarthy and her husband Damian first got into difficulty in 2009 when he lost his business due to the economic downturn. The family’s financial problems were exacerbated when Siobhan had to take time off work following a serious car crash.

Over the last five years, Siobhan, who is currently recovering from an operation, says that she and Damian have tried everything in a bid to improve their situation, including taking a number of vocational and educational courses, but so far, to little or no avail.

Although dependant on social welfare payments, Siobhan says that the couple are paying their mortgage lender everything they can in a bid to keep their home. However despite their efforts, she says the lender is engaging in increasingly “bullying” tactics to get them to either meet their full payments or vacate their home. At present, their mortgage repayments are close to €2,500 per month almost €1,000 more than their income.

“I took voluntary redundancy from my previous workplace because we were in arrears. I got a payment of around €5,000 and it went to the bank. When my father died, he left some money and that went to the bank.

“We are both on social welfare and we are feeling pressurised by the banks to pay up. We have to do a financial statement every six months since 2009. Every time we contact the bank they ask what we are doing to alleviate the situation, we even started growing our own vegetables (to cut costs). We are going from week to week, hand to mouth, trying to pay off a bit of our mortgage the best we can and trying to keep in negotiations with the bank.”

In recent weeks, Siobhan says that the couple have been bombarded with phone calls from their lender, including several times on the same day. The increased pressure is taking its toll on her family, the concerned mum says.

“It is frustrating and annoying. It wears you down. You are trying to keep as much as you can from your 13-year-old. We don’t feel we should hide it, but at the same time you try and protect him,” says Siobhan.

“We have tried to do everything we can. They must have a wall of steel around them. We are just a statistic. Myself and Damian always negotiated with the bank, kept in contact, try to pay as much as we can, when we can.”

The McCarthys recently sought the help of the Westmeath branch of the Land League. Siobhan says that talking to people who are going through a similar experience and can offer advice has been a big help.

“You are getting personal experiences of people going through the system. You feel you’re not alone. You don’t feel you’re part of anarchy, you feel that you are part of humanity.”

Hopeful for the future and eager to hold on to their family home, Ms McCarthy says that they are “going to fight”.

“We’ve given them an offer of what we think we can afford to pay them until our circumstances change. We always remain optimistic that they will, it’s not from the want of trying to get work.

“It’s a horrible situation to be in. I am sure that we aren’t the worst case scenario, but it is horrible for everyone.”