100 signatures reached
To: Affects over 200,000 citizens in Ireland
Legal Support for possession proceedings on homes
There are currently thousands of citizens battling to save their family home in Irish Courts, not represented by any legal team. These individuals “are willing to pay” the mortgage but cannot obtain a fair and reasonable restructure with the banks or private equity firms (aka vultures) that now own their mortgage.
Under the current legal system, families and individuals are not entitled to Legal Aid or advice under the Act (Civil Legal Aid Act, 1995 )
“…in principle, legal aid and legal advice are available for all civil matters, other than those which are specifically excluded by law. Those excluded by law include: disputes concerning rights and interests in or over land”, i.e., the family home.
In many cases, the mortgages were originally mis-sold with structures such as (1) Interest only with No Repayment Plan, (2) Repayments Past Retirement Age or (3) Self-Certified Income.
All of these are potential breaches by the lender of the Consumer Protection Code 2006, the 2001 Code of Practice for Credit Institutions and the regulator’s direct guidance on mortgage lending.
Due to current Irish legislation, these individuals are defending themselves as lay litigants as they have no alternative. There is no legal aid for citizens trying to save their homes. They are often faced with a full legal team representing the vulture who purchased their debt at a discount.
This situation must be construed as unfair in terms of access to justice and is out of sync with the majority of European countries.
To compound matters, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, created to mediate between well-resourced financial service companies and the consumers, is refusing to use their discretion (granted by an Amendment to the FSPO Act in 2017) to investigate misconduct by the banks when originating the mortgage.
The Ombudsman rejected nearly a third of consumer complaints lodged in 2020; refusing to investigate nearly 2,000 complaints.
If you believe that Ireland should come in line with European norms in the area of financial justice, please sign this petition.
Why is this important?
Over 200,000 of our fellow citizens potentially may lose their home or, at best, continue to spend years in Court at great cost to their health and well being.