Vulture funds are operating in Ireland – What you need to do!

Are you in negative equity and behind on your mortgage repayments? Is your home at risk or the debt sold to a Vulture Fund?”

For so many of us, our natural default position is to avoid confrontation. These instincts generally serve us well. However, when it comes to dealing with mortgage arrears, negative equity properties, banks, whether they be vulture or otherwise, it is always better to deal with these problems head on. Only through positive engagement can one hope to realise a better than sub-optimal outcome.

At Anthony Joyce & Co Solicitors we work for you to take the stress out of an otherwise very stressful situation. We engage with lenders on our client’s behalf, providing a buffer from the worst of a lender’s advances, the legal advice, negotiating skills and strategy necessary to navigate these most difficult of conditions.

Vulture Funds have bought thousands of Irish mortgages. If your Mortgage has been sold to a Vulture or is in arrears it is in your best interest to take action.

Contact us now to discuss your case with professional and experienced solicitors.

At Anthony Joyce & Co. Solicitors, we can take your instructions, identify your options and provide a strategy that will be ahead of the vulture fund.

We will ensure that your solution is the best strategy to protect what is important to you while getting you back on track as quickly as possible.

Achieving a satisfactory resolution of the debt is the goal, and for many, life can start again having cut loose from the burden that has crippled them for so long.

Over the years there have been a raft of sales of tranches of what the bank consider ‘bad debt’ to various vulture funds.

The most recent of which saw PTSB sell their portfolio named Project Glas with 11,000 distressed mortgages with a face value of circa €2.2billion to Start mortgages (Affiliate of US Private Equity firm Lone Star).

Another saw Ulster Bank sell its portfolio named Project Scariff consisting of over 5,000 mortgages with a face value of circa €1.6billion to Cerberus (a vulture fund with the image of a three headed dog as its emblem). Promontoria is Cerberus’s Irish operation.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis (2007-2009) the Irish Government created NAMA as a holding company for a vast portfolio of property taken under management by the state. NAMA was to take charge of and dispose of mortgages created by Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, Anglo Irish Bank, EBS, Permanent TSB and Irish Nationwide.

They proceeded to dispose of these mortgages in a number of controversial sales to US vulture funds. In a cruel twist of fate, because of the current housing crisis, the government (through its agencies) are now buying these properties back from the vulture funds.

So, having sold tranches of mortgages at perhaps 30 to 40 cent on the euro to various vulture funds, the government are now buying those same properties back at 100 cent on the euro.

Many of the Irish banks have followed the NAMA model of selling tranches to vulture funds at heavily discounted rates in order to bring their balance sheets back in line.

This is of concern to those whose mortgages are being sold on to these funds. Since the outset of the crash from 2008, Anthony Joyce & Co Solicitors have been at the forefront of finding the best resolution to our clients’ financial difficulties. Anthony Joyce qualified as a personal insolvency practitioner (PIP) and provides legal advice to PIPs.

We now have plenty of ammunition to fight back. The personal insolvency Acts of 2012 and 2015 have provided us with the legal framework. On the back of this framework, there are recent decisions of the High Court which have further strengthened the hand of the debtor.

Then we have the commercial reality of the vulture funds who have received massive discounts which they wish to keep secret and the fact that they want the mortgaged properties to be sold as quickly as possible.

Therefore, if your debt has been sold to a vulture fund you need to act quickly. We at Anthony Joyce & Co. Solicitors can take instructions, identify your options and provide a strategy that will be ahead of the vulture fund.

Whether your solution is an informal solution, a formal solution through the use of a PIP or bankruptcy, we will ensure that your solution is the best strategy to protect what is important to you while getting you back on track as quickly as possible.

Cerberus (Promontoria- Oyster, Aran, Finn, Arrow) DAC, Lone Star, Oaktree, Mars Capital, Start Mortgages, Havbell Ltd, Beltany, et al.

Administrators: Link, Cabot, Pepper etc.

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