Residing in NI Mortgage debt in ROI

[beth green]

I would be most grateful if anyone can advise.

 

I lived for one year in the Republic of Ireland. (ROI), but returned to Northern Ireland 30 months ago.

 

Prior to this I contacted the mortgage company asking for interernest only as I was struggling to pay the mortgage. The bank refused and said they would add a penalty of10% as I was in a fixed mortgage if I sold the house.

 

The house was in negative equity and we could not have given the house away at the time.

 

I work in the Republic of Ireland and my husband works in Northern Ireland we have lived in North Ireland for 30 years excluding the year spent living in the ROI.

 

We wrote to the Bank, surrendering the property returning the keys and informing them of our new postal address in Northern Ireland. To date the bank sends the odd letter informing us of rate changes etc they also came to my work and contacted neighbours to check that we were living in NI.

 

A number of letters were sent to the new address informing us of rate changes etc but they refuse to acknowledge that we surrendered the property.

 

We sent the keys and letter by registered post and they were delivered. I heard that there is some difficulty in repossessing property in the ROI for property bought in the 2000s.

 

My question is, can they get a judgemeneyt against us now that we have returned to NI?

 

Also the property has devalued a further one hundred thousand since we surrendered the property yet the property is still sitting there.

 

We have been traumatized by this situation and it has put our lives on hold. We have no other debt. We have mortgage debt of around, we believe 200.000 euro after the property is sold.

 

Can they take deductions from my salary as I work in the ROI? Should we sit tight and hold off on bankruptcy in NI as it is almost three years since we surrendered the keys? Can I go bankrupt in NI even though I work in the ROI

 

Any advice is welcome as we are so worried.

Edited January 2, 2013 by honeybee13
Spacing.

[cerberusalert]

Moved to the overseas forum.

[cerberusalert]

Have a read through this thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?308128-Debt-in-NI