A new state-backed finance scheme could help ease the anguish of over 1,100 distressed mortgage holders in Donegal.
This comes following the news that 1,129 households in Donegal have owed an outstanding debt for the last two years, while 870 of those have been in debt for at least five years – according to new figures.
Despite the scale of the repayment problem by mortgage holders, figures from the Department of Housing show that not one household in the county availed of the Government’s Mortgage To Rent scheme.
A Government-approved mortgage to rent provider Home For Life (HFL) is spearheading a drive to enable mortgage holders in unsustainable debt to stay in their current homes debt-free as long-term tenants of their local authority.
HFL insisted that they could come up with a solution in many cases of serious mortgage liabilities.
At the recent Home For Life (HFL) Advisory Board meeting at the Fr McVerry Trust headquarters in Dublin were Paul Cunningham, CEO HFL, Fr Peter McVerry and Charles O’Reilly Hyland, Chairman, HFL. Pic: William Power
The company works with homeowners, lenders and the local authority to keep unsustainable mortgage holders in their current homes, avoiding upheaval for families.
Paul Cunningham, CEO of Home For Life, said: “I was surprised to find that of the 1,129 cases in Donegal, none had found a solution through mortgage to rent.
“This may be due to the fact that councillors, community leaders and advisors were unaware up to now that the Government’s Mortgage to Rent Scheme was a real deliverable solution for homeowners whose mortgages are unsustainable and are at most acute risk of losing their homes.”
Under the scheme, a property is sold to Home For Life and then leased back to the State through the local authority which, in turn, sublets the house or apartment back to the homeowner. The homeowner pays an affordable income-based rent to their local authority.
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