Tracker mortgages – can I be forced off them?
Under a new legally binding code of conduct on mortgage arrears, banks cannot force you off a tracker.
The new code, published by the Central Bank of Ireland in December 2010 states explicitly:
Tracker mortgages – can I be forced off them?
Under a new legally binding code of conduct on mortgage arrears, banks cannot force you off a tracker.
The new code, published by the Central Bank of Ireland in December 2010 states explicitly:
"A lender must not require a borrower to change from an existing tracker mortgage to another mortgage type, as part of an alternative arrangement offered to the borrower in arrears or pre-arrears."
Get the code details here on mortgage arrears.
The new code however will not prevent some banks attempting to move people off a tracker.
Free Legal Aid Centre director Noeline Blackwell says: “The small print has become so important now.”
Permanent TSB has special conditions written into its tracker mortgages which give it a get-out: “If, for whatever reason, an event occurs which fundamentally affects the use of the ECB rate as a reference rate for this loan, Permanent TSB, in its sole discretion, shall be entitled to use such other reference rate or other method or basis of calculation as it deems fair and reasonable.”
The majority of people who are on trackers bought during the boom – so they have already paid over the odds. Trackers were not widely available until 2002 and 2003 and were withdrawn at the end of 2008.
Frank Conway, a director at the Irish Mortgage Corporation, an independent adviser on mortgages and debt, says the PTSB hasn’t tried yet to force someone off a tracker, but legally it is entitled to do so.
December 6, 2010: New Central Bank code on mortgage arrears
