Latest Articles on debt, insolvency and bankruptcy from the New Beginning Blog

Check out the latest articles on debt management, personal insolvency and bankruptcy legislation and processes in Ireland by Ross Maguire in the New Beginning Blog.

4 Steps of MARP

MARP stands for the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process. It is a system devised by the Central Bank of Ireland which requires all lenders (Banks and Funds) to adhere to a process for Borrowers who fall into arrears with their mortgage.

During the MARP process a lender may not institute legal proceedings against a Borrower.

STEP 1 – All about Co-Operation

To be protected by MARP you must be a Co-Operating borrower. This means that you must supply the lender with a Standard Financial Statement (SFS) and supporting documentation. This form is available on-line or from your lender and care should be taken in filling it out.
Once you have supplied a SFS you are protected.

STEP 2 – Lender carries out an assessment

The lender will consider your SFS (Standard Financial Statement) and from that consideration will propose a resolution if that is possible. To begin with the lender will propose a short-term solution (usually 3-6 months). There are a variety of short term solutions that can be proposed by the lender that will involve the borrower being required to pay as much as they can pay.

STEP 3 – Offer of Resolution

Offers of resolution on your mortgage arrears may include:

Paying interest only, or interest and part of the capital, for a period
Permanently or temporarily reducing the interest rate
Deferring repayments (or part) for a period
Extending the mortgage term
Changing the type of mortgage
Adding mortgage arrears and interest to the principal
Warehousing part of the mortgage (including through a split mortgage)
Reducing the principal
A “deferred interest” or other voluntary schemeWhere the lender determines the debt to be unsustainable they may commence enforcement proceedings.

STEP 4 – Appeal

There is a right to appeal any decision made by the lender through an appeals system within the mortgage lenders process. From there an appeal can be made to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

Have any questions? Our expert team at New Beginning can help answer your questions.

Contact Us at info@newbeginning.ie or 01 – 5240000.

July 2017 Newsletter

Welcome to the New Beginning Newsletter July 2017.

In this edition, our expert team are sharing knowledge on Non Performing Loans and the difference between Mortgage Protection and Life Assurance.

To Sell or Not to Sell? – PTSB should sell its Non-Performing Loans

Ross Maguire, Founder of New Beginning

PTSB is being damaged by the large volume of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) on its balance sheet. The same must be true for AIB and other banks operating in the State.

There is a reason for this. Read more at To Sell or Not to Sell? – PTSB should sell its Non-Performing Loans.

Is Mortgage Protection and Life Insurance the same thing?

Nick Lawlor, Managing Director of New Beginning Financial Services

You’ve probably heard the ads on the radio asking you whether you have life insurance or mortgage protection. What are they talking about and should you bother checking?

Well, allow me to explain. Read more at Is Mortgage Protection and Life Insurance the same thing?

To book a meeting to discuss your options contact us on 01-5240000

High levels of demand for our New Beginning Funding facilitation service

New Beginning Funding continues to experience a high level of demand for our funding facilitation service among commercial borrowers. Demand for funding for commercial property transactions continues to outstrip supply, with commercial banks continuing to be noticeable in their absence at the sub €3m segment of the market.

The non-bank funding options currently available seem to be targeting deals of €1m and higher in larger urban locations.

As previously highlighted, the trend of overseas funds seeking immediate liquidation or refinancing of distressed portfolios continues. New Beginning believes that this is where our funding option offers most value to prospective borrowers. We can source funding commitments in a matter of days, based on the specific needs of the borrower. This means that clients avoid having to sell their properties.

In May, as part of our ongoing review of the commercial debt market trends and feedback from our commercial client base, we announced the broadening of our range of funding options to include Bridging and Mezzanine facilities, development financing and larger commercial facilities.

We encourage commercial clients with traditional or alternative commercial real estate funding requirements to contact us.

Our typical traditional funding transaction structure for income producing assets is based on:

5 year term finance, with capital and interest payments calculated using a 20 year repayment profile
Up to 75% LTV, subject to rental income

The minimum loan size is generally €1,000,000.

We will consider deals below €1m but have found that the options available at this level are very scarce. Many of our clients have agreed or are about to agree deals with funds who have acquired their loans.

By their nature alternative funding transactions are less formulaic and we encourage commercial clients to discuss their transactions with us to see if we can assist.

We do not underwrite ourselves, but have partnered with providers of non-bank funding.

If you have a distressed loan and want to avoid the sale of the underlying property assets then refinance may be an option for you. Often the refinance can be done through a new corporate entity or SPV meaning that the underlying property can be protected from any other exposure.

You can email me at john.ryan@newbeginning.ie This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call me on 01-5240000 to discuss options that might be of help to you.

New Beginning launch a Financial Planning Service for our clients.

The majority of our clients have been through a difficult time financially in recent years and many have had to put their financial plans on hold for a number of years.

I have recently launched a new financial planning service for our clients which looks at helping clients plan for the future. The single goal here is to help our clients take back control of their finances putting their families and their own priorities front and centre.

Often I find our clients are clear about where they would like to get to financially but are unsure how to make it all happen based on what they are earning. What our financial planning services does is to single out your goals and plan specifically for those goals. The areas that most clients would like addressed tend to revolve around the following questions we get asked;

Can I save for a rainy day or my kids’ education? Where is the best place to save?
Do I have the right life insurances/mortgage protection in place and can I reduce my premiums?
Should I protect my income?
Is my pension safe and is it worth paying into it?

Most of our clients have these niggling doubts about how they have structured their finances so we have decided to make ourselves available to give some guidance and direction to our clients in the above areas.

If you would like to discuss any of the above areas or indeed any other financial planning related queries please feel free to drop me a line at nick.lawlor@newbeginning.ie or 015240000 and I, or one of my team will be happy to help if we can.

New Beginning welcomes the the Insolvency Service of Ireland’s figures released for Q1.

New Beginning welcomes the Insolvency Service of Ireland’s figures for Q1 2016 released this morning calling it the beginning of what it believes will be a “Deluge of Deals”.

The figures show that an increasing number of people are now availing of solutions under the Personal Insolvency system and in particular the Personal Insolvency Arrangements.

Over 1000 PIAs have now been completed.

These arrangements deal with family homes and can involve very substantial restructures and write down across all debt meaning that people are returned to financial stability and kept safely in their homes.

This is among the most innovative and powerful insolvency systems in the world and can help many thousands of households break free from unmanageable debt.

Ross Maguire of New Beginning said:

While still only dealing with the tip of the iceberg it is very encouraging to see more people using the system. Under the new laws the banks have lost their control and a Court can and will enforce a proposal where the proposal is fair and equitable. This is a huge change in the dynamic between borrowers and banks. It can help tens of thousands of families – but the first step is for the borrower to take advice. We are seeing deals being done that we could only have dreamt of a few years back.

For further information contact:

New Beginning 01-5240000

New Beginning launch a Financial Planning Service for our clients.

The majority of our clients have been through a difficult time financially in recent years and many have had to put their financial plans on hold for a number of years.

I have recently launched a new financial planning service for our clients which looks at helping clients plan for the future. The single goal here is to help our clients take back control of their finances putting their families and their own priorities front and centre.

Often I find our clients are clear about where they would like to get to financially but are unsure how to make it all happen based on what they are earning. What our financial planning services does is to single out your goals and plan specifically for those goals. The areas that most clients would like addressed tend to revolve around the following questions we get asked;

Can I save for a rainy day or my kids’ education? Where is the best place to save?
Do I have the right life insurances/mortgage protection in place and can I reduce my premiums?
Should I protect my income?
Is my pension safe and is it worth paying into it?

Most of our clients have these niggling doubts about how they have structured their finances so we have decided to make ourselves available to give some guidance and direction to our clients in the above areas.

If you would like to discuss any of the above areas or indeed any other financial planning related queries please feel free to drop me a line at nick.lawlor@newbeginning.ie or 015240000 and I, or one of my team will be happy to help if we can.

New Personal Insolvency laws starting to work for home owners

Ross Maguire: April has been an important month for the Personal Insolvency regime. In the first of the new Personal Insolvency appeals cases to come before the High Court, Ms Justice Baker approved an application which sought to overturn the rejection of a PIA proposal by Pepper as agent for a US fund.

The High Court held that the Personal Insolvency regime was a “unique” piece of legislation designed by the Oireachtas to limit the veto of creditors. The whole intent of the new law is to keep a family in their home by making the mortgage sustainable.

In this particular deal a borrower owed more than €2.8 million on his home and other investment properties. The proposal involved a write off of almost €1.4 million and meant the family of 5 held on to their home. The fund objected to the proposal but the borrower appealed. The High Court upheld the appeal and the family are now paying a secure and affordable mortgage.

This High Court decision will give guidance to over 50 cases now before the Circuit Court where homeowners will be secured in their homes with sustainable and affordable mortgages.

The general effect of this change in the law means that anybody who can afford a mortgage based on the current value of the home should be in a position to have their loan restructured on a long term sustainable basis. Deals that we could not have done last year are now being done and that is to everybody’s advantage.

Finally, the ISI released its quarter 1 2016 figures last week and as expected there is a surge in applications for Personal Insolvency. This is a very welcome fact and marks the beginning of a sustained process to deal with mortgage debt once and for all. At this stage over 1000 PIA’s are complete and we expect thousands more over the coming months.