Homeowners face mortgage protection risk

TENS of thousands of home owners may be under-insured on their mortgage protection with 20% of mortgage holders leaving their families open to thousands of euro of legacy debt.

Almost 155,000 homeowners are struggling to repay their home loan each month. More than 60,000 householders are already in arrears for three months or more and a further 36,000 have restructured their mortgages to interest-only repayments but may not have adjusted their mortgage protection cover to reflect this change.

“Many people may be unaware of the serious consequences of being in arrears or making interest only repayments,” said Joe Charles, marketing manager at Caledonian Life, which has just completed an analysis of the latest Central Bank figures.