Landlords with 18 properties evicted for not paying their mortgage...

[ludermor]

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/pensioners-bought-at-least-18-homes-on-property-splurge-3087120.html
By Colm Kelpie and Edel O'Connell

Friday April 20 2012

THE pensioner and his wife forcibly evicted from their palatial home are major landlords -- with a nationwide portfolio of apartments.

Brendan (71) and Asta Kelly (63) had their home in one of Dublin's most exclusive neighbourhoods repossessed on Wednesday after failing to pay off a €2m mortgage from Anglo Irish Bank.

Bailiffs dragged the couple from the lavish detached five-bedroom house in St Matthias Wood, Killiney, Co Dublin. They have since been camped outside the property in protest.

The Irish Independent has learned their former home is just one of at least 18 different properties they bought around the country in an acquisitions binge since the early 1990s.

Mr Kelly, an ex-accountant, last night denied the couple had been the authors of their own misfortune, saying everybody in the country pushed themselves too far financially during the boom years.

"Everybody in Ireland overstretched, we didn't buy all of our properties during the boom.

"A lot of them were bought before the boom," Mr Kelly said

The couple insisted they were unable to move into one of their other properties as these were all currently leased out.

"Those properties are let and people have leases and cannot be disturbed. I am a landlord by profession and those properties are let," Mr Kelly said.

And the couple claimed it had been impossible to sell off any of their apartments to help pay the Anglo debt because of the depressed property market.

Mrs Kelly said the couple had put their Killiney home on the market two years ago but were unable to sell it.

Records indicate the couple borrowed heavily just before the financial collapse.

Five of their apartments -- three in Dublin, one in Carlow and another in Limerick -- were remortgaged in March 2008. A sixth apartment, in Dublin, was remortgaged that September.

All of the borrowings were with Irish Life & Permanent.

The couple also took a mortgage out against nine other apartments, all in Dublin, with IL&P in June 2007.

Some of the properties are in Dublin's leafy neighbourhoods -- Donnybrook, Ballsbridge, Stillorgan and Rathmines.

A two-bedroom apartment in those suburbs is estimated to have been worth between €400,000 and €700,000 in 2008, but are now valued between €200,000 and €300,000.

Rental income from such properties is currently between €1,300 and €1,500 a month.

Sligo-born Mr Kelly and his German-born wife, a former teacher, spoke to the Irish Independent from a tent they have put up outside their former home.

Mr Kelly said the properties were meant to be the couple's retirement nest egg, and blamed bailiffs for adopting 19th century tactics.

"The bank are not doing anything illegal, what I am objecting to is 19th century eviction tactics. We were dragged out of our home -- it could have been 1860," he said.

The couple, who have been married for 40 years and don't have any children, lived in Germany for 23 years where they ran a successful business in the tourist resort of Sylt, selling Irish textiles to holidaymakers.

Support

Mr Kelly said all his properties have dropped in value and he questioned how the couple could repay their debts.

"Property didn't just go down it crashed. You can't sell them at even a third of the price. So what are we to do, how are we supposed to pay off loans?

"We want to get back into our own house. My office is there. I have no livelihood until I get back into my home. We have to get back in and we are standing our ground."

Mr Kelly claimed he had received 44 text messages of support, and insisted they will find a way to make money again.

"Life has changed for us obviously as we are living on the street," Mr Kelly said.

- Colm Kelpie and Edel O'Connell


I was going to put this into the WTF thread. Im not living in Ireland at the minute so dont know what the public reaction is? Id love to know if all their tenants refused to pay there rent would the landlords take the same line as they want the banks to?

[Declan]

Yep - unreal stuff isn't it. And then we have Gilmore saying he'll meet with them as they are his constituents - WTF is right

[Ulick]

Need to be a right **** to do a job like that.

[WeeDonns]

I haven't been able to see the video of their eviction, sounds like it was OTT

But, How did these two intend to pay the mortgages for their 18 properties when they took them out? I assume rental income?
Has the rental income went down so much that they couldn't pay anything on this one for the past two years?
Have rents really went down much since the bust?

They have 7 un-mortgaged properties, its hard to have sympathy for them

"Those properties are let and people have leases and cannot be disturbed. I am a landlord by profession and those properties are let," Mr Kelly said

Who has a 2 year lease?

[J OGorman]

I haven't been able to see the video of their eviction, sounds like it was OTT

But, How did these two intend to pay the mortgages for their 18 properties when they took them out? I assume rental income?
Has the rental income went down so much that they couldn't pay anything on this one for the past two years?
Have rents really went down much since the bust?

They have 7 un-mortgaged properties, its hard to have sympathy for them

"Those properties are let and people have leases and cannot be disturbed. I am a landlord by profession and those properties are let," Mr Kelly said

Who has a 2 year lease?

jesus lad, a fellow Irish man has been physically dragged out of his home by an institution that a, helped create the bastardin mess we are in and b, a good amount of users on this forum (myself included), Kelly, his tennent's etc etc etc are helping this institution out of the mire...FFS, beggers belief. Heard someone on the wireless the other day describing Irish folk as docile, couldnt agree more. We'll sit and girn about it, but at the end of the day, roll over and keep taking it.

[nifan]

a fellow Irish man has been physically dragged out of his home by an institution that a, helped create the bastardin mess we are in

It sounds a bit draconian, but did people who bought the properties not help to make this mess as well as the banks? What you reckon this guy would do if some of his tennants stopped paying their rent?

[ludermor]

I haven't been able to see the video of their eviction, sounds like it was OTT

But, How did these two intend to pay the mortgages for their 18 properties when they took them out? I assume rental income?
Has the rental income went down so much that they couldn't pay anything on this one for the past two years?
Have rents really went down much since the bust?

They have 7 un-mortgaged properties, its hard to have sympathy for them

"Those properties are let and people have leases and cannot be disturbed. I am a landlord by profession and those properties are let," Mr Kelly said

Who has a 2 year lease?

jesus lad, a fellow Irish man has been physically dragged out of his home by an institution that a, helped create the bastardin mess we are in and b, a good amount of users on this forum (myself included), Kelly, his tennent's etc etc etc are helping this institution out of the mire...FFS, beggers belief. Heard someone on the wireless the other day describing Irish folk as docile, couldnt agree more. We'll sit and girn about it, but at the end of the day, roll over and keep taking it.

He hasnt paid his mortgage in 2 years apparently, he owns 18 other houses why the fook shouldnt he be dragged out of his house ( he has 18 other place he could chose to call home, some of them in very good addresses!) . He is no worse than the banks IMHO remortagaging his properties to try and get more and more property! 

Edit , the times reports they havent made a payment since 2009!!

[Tubberman]

I haven't been able to see the video of their eviction, sounds like it was OTT

But, How did these two intend to pay the mortgages for their 18 properties when they took them out? I assume rental income?
Has the rental income went down so much that they couldn't pay anything on this one for the past two years?
Have rents really went down much since the bust?

They have 7 un-mortgaged properties, its hard to have sympathy for them

"Those properties are let and people have leases and cannot be disturbed. I am a landlord by profession and those properties are let," Mr Kelly said

Who has a 2 year lease?

jesus lad, a fellow Irish man has been physically dragged out of his home by an institution that a, helped create the bastardin mess we are in and b, a good amount of users on this forum (myself included), Kelly, his tennent's etc etc etc are helping this institution out of the mire...FFS, beggers belief. Heard someone on the wireless the other day describing Irish folk as docile, couldnt agree more. We'll sit and girn about it, but at the end of the day, roll over and keep taking it.

This fellow Irish man owns 18 properties. Greed and bad judgement/advise got him where he is today. The bank never forced him to re-mortgage his properties so he could buy more. He said himself he is a professional landlord i.e. his only income is rent. He left himself open to this. I find it very hard to believe he couldn't have done anything to pay the mortgage of his primary residence over the past 2 years.
Could he not have moved into one of his other properties when a lease expired and then sold his €2m home in Killiney?

I haven't seen the footage of the eviction, but it can never be comfortable viewing to see elderly people physically removed from their home.

[muppet]

But I am completely confused.

Surely the solution is to loan them more money and ask them to pay back more?

Is it not cast in stone that they should be bailed out with more debt in return for even greater returns? Then of course they will return to growth and everything will end happily ever after.

[pintsofguinness]

No sympathy here, don't understand why anyone would have sympathy.
The banks didn't create the mess by themselves. 

[Tony Baloney]

No sympathy here, don't understand why anyone would have sympathy.
The banks didn't create the mess by themselves.

+1 sir. They took a risk that didn't pay off. Tough shit regardless of their age.

[ziggy90]

No sympathy here, don't understand why anyone would have sympathy.
The banks didn't create the mess by themselves.

+1 sir. They took a risk that didn't pay off. Tough shit regardless of their age.

Yep. Fcuk 'em. Greedy cnuts.

Agree with all that, big boys games, big boys rules. Tough titty.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

I haven't been able to see the video of their eviction, sounds like it was OTT

But, How did these two intend to pay the mortgages for their 18 properties when they took them out? I assume rental income?
Has the rental income went down so much that they couldn't pay anything on this one for the past two years?
Have rents really went down much since the bust?

They have 7 un-mortgaged properties, its hard to have sympathy for them

"Those properties are let and people have leases and cannot be disturbed. I am a landlord by profession and those properties are let," Mr Kelly said

Who has a 2 year lease?

jesus lad, a fellow Irish man has been physically dragged out of his home by an institution that a, helped create the bastardin mess we are in and b, a good amount of users on this forum (myself included), Kelly, his tennent's etc etc etc are helping this institution out of the mire...FFS, beggers belief. Heard someone on the wireless the other day describing Irish folk as docile, couldnt agree more. We'll sit and girn about it, but at the end of the day, roll over and keep taking it.

Its not the famine and its not a tenant farmer being evicted from their little hovel, its not even someone who made 1 or 2 bad investments in property, its a couple of people who pulled the piss every bit as much as any bank.

[seafoid]

If the banks are going to grant mortgage restructuring  to people who really need and deserve it
they have to take a hard line on the chancers. Mr Kelly seems to have made a very bad call.

[thebigfella]

No sympathy here, don't understand why anyone would have sympathy.
The banks didn't create the mess by themselves.

+1 sir. They took a risk that didn't pay off. Tough shit regardless of their age.

Yep. Fcuk 'em. Greedy cnuts.

Didn't use enough force IMO