Hi, Yes, that's why I'm in such confusion as to the best way to deal with this. It's such a stupid amount of money that we could never afford to pay. We couldn't even get a mortgage from a bank at the moment because we have no savings and that's because we put all our money into that house in Ireland. It's just such a messy situation and because of the fact that the debt is owed to a foreign bank it's tricky to work out what to do without unnecessarily exposing ourselves to potential bankruptcy proceedings etc.

Thanks again, Andy. I'll look into this. Jo.

Thanks Again, Andy. This has been really helpful. Jo.

Thank Andy, this really helps a lot. I knew we couldn't hide indefinitely but I just want to try to get the best outcome for us in relation to this so we can finally put it behind us once and for all. With a debt of that size, how do you think Cabot are likely to proceed with attempting to collect it? I'm assuming they'll have paid out a percentage in order to take the collection on in the first place? Cheers, Jo.

Hi, We've received nothing from Cabot yet. The bank have just sent us a letter stating that, seeing as we have not paid them the money, they have "..instructed Cabot Financial Limited to act on our behalf to collect the amount you still owe. Unless a satisfactory arrangement is Ade to repay the debt, Cabot may commence legal action against you to recover this debt which may result in a judgement being registered against you." Thanks.

The mortgage was with BoI in the ROI.

Hi Andy, Thanks for getting back to me. You'd think it was a castle but no, it was a 4 bed bungalow conversion in SW Dublin. House prices were crazy back then and we got a 100% mortgage. Nightmare. We were very green, I'm afraid. They sold it for somewhere in the region of €80,000 I believe but I'm reluctant to contact them directly as this confirms that they've been sending their correspondence to the correct address and could then affect our credit rating over here and make it impossible for us to rent houses etc. All the correspondence is still coming from Ireland so I thought that as long as it doesn't originate from a UK court or debt collector, it's best not to respond. What do you think about getting a 3rd party to contact them to try to negotiate some kind of voluntary arrangement? I just don't want this to blight our lives any further than it already has done. Cheers, Jo.

Hi, My wife and I got a mortgage on a property in Ireland back in 2006 just before the property market collapsed over there. To make things worse the property ended up being in a dreadful area where we were regularly the victim of anti-social behaviour and crime. Due to massive negative equity caused by the financial crash we could not sell and so put up with this nightmare situation until 2012 where we finally decided to admit defeat and move back home to the UK. Yes, we were naughty and did not tell the bank but by that time we were desperate. We heard nothing from the bank until they caught up with us about a year ago saying that they had sold the property at auction and that we owed them over €200,000. I don't know how they got our address but the letters have continued for a year and have now ramped up a level saying that they are going to involve Cabot Ltd. I have learned from this forum that these people are debt collectors and would really appreciate some help on how best to proceed with this as our decision to take this mortgage out over 10 years ago is still blighting our lives. We will never be able to pay this money back. We're both over 40, have no financial assets and realistically, will never be able to own our own place so this feels like a real kick in the teeth. Any advice or help would be much appreciated. Thanks.