Main banks remain coy on surrender of homes

THE main banks and building societies are refusing to say whether customers defaulting on their mortgages can voluntarily surrender their homes rather than endure repossession proceedings in the court.

The Irish Examiner asked seven of the biggest mortgage providers to state their policy on voluntary surrender and give figures for any such arrangements entered into in the past year but received only vague answers.

An example is the reply from Bank of Ireland which stated: “We have seen no material change in the level of voluntary surrenders this year. We cannot comment on specific voluntary surrenders but we can say that Bank of Ireland works closely with customers in difficulty in order to reach a satisfactory outcome.”