Young Meath Homeowners in Need of Protection

Meath East Sinn Féin Spokesperson Sinéad Burke has echoed her party’sHousing spokesperson, Aengus O’Snódaigh, and called on the Governmentto enforce a moratorium on home repossessions by all mortgage lendersfor the duration of the state bank guarantee scheme.
She said, “I have been contacted by a large number of young couplesand young families in the East Meath area who bought over-valuedhouses, close to the height of the market, and now find themselvesrecently unemployed and with huge negative equity. These people arestruggling to meet mortgage repayments and other household bills, anddon't know where to turn. They feel absolutely abandoned and let downby the state.
“One young couple, who contacted me in absolute despair, currentlyhave their house on the market for more than €150,000 less than theybought it for just over two years ago, and are still struggling tosell. Because of a change in their circumstances they are being forceddown this road by the same rogue lenders that our government has givenbillions of euros of public money to. At the same time, the economicvultures are swarming, seeking to take advantage of others misfortune.
“Figures indicate that a record number of repossession orders weregranted by the courts recently. This after it was revealed that houseprices fell by 20% in the last year leaving thousands of homeowners inEast Meath in real trouble.
“The number of repossession orders granted by the courts each daycontinues to increase as the price of houses falls and the rate ofunemployment soars. It is quite clear that homeowners are in need ofprotection and the Government should step in and introduce amoratorium on all home repossessions for the duration of the bankguarantee scheme.
“As the Government refused to step in when lenders were giving outcompletely irresponsible home loans there is an onus on them now toprotect those people who are facing negative equity and who are beingpursued by these rogue lenders.
“At this time, while house prices are relatively low, localauthorities should seek to buy up stocks of vacant houses at or belowcost price for social use in order to start working through thebacklog on the waiting list which is set to see an increase in demandin the current climate.”