Get all the very latest news in Dublin straight to your email every single day Sign Up! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A Dublin mother got her arrears down to just €300 – but heartless Permanent TSB still sold her home to a vulture fund.

Caroline Kearns worked herself to the bone to get on top of her debts following a marriage separation.

The 58-year-old insisted: “I did everything the bank asked me to.

“I worked overtime. I haven’t had a holiday in years.”

Her two-bedroom apartment in Finglas, North Dublin, is one of 11,000 properties the State-owned bank flogged to a US vulture fund.

Mortgage holders got a brutal letter during the August Bank Holiday weekend telling them about the rogue deal with Smart Mortgages.

The mother of one said: “I was in shock when I got that letter. I didn’t sleep that night. I asked them, ‘How come you’re doing this to me?’ because I thought I did really get the arrears down to just €300.

“I had had meetings with Permanent TSB all along and they told me , ‘You’re doing great, continue what you’re doing’. I feel like I worked my butt off. After I separated I was paying the mortgage on my own. I owed €18,000 and I have now got that all the way down to just €300. By Christmas I will have no arrears whatsoever.

“I worked to their terms and did everything they asked and after all that, this is what I get. I am very stressed about the whole thing. Sometimes I just feel like giving up.”

Caroline added she never buried her head in the sand and engaged with the banks during her most difficult times.

She said: “At one point I was in hospital for eight weeks and I came out and had a meeting with the bank manager. He told me what I needed to do to get back on top of things and I did exactly what they told me.”

Caroline doesn’t believe the sale of her home loan is legal.

She added: “After I got the letter I rang them [Permanent TSB] and I said, ‘My contract is with you. I can’t understand how you can just transfer my contract to another company. How are you allowed to do that?’

“I would have thought I would have to sign forms to do that.

“I took out my mortgage with Permanent TSB and I wouldn’t just let them change me over to another company.”



A bank spokesman last night said he could not comment on Ms Kearns’ case.

(Image: Gareth Chaney Collins)

But he wanted to make a number of what he described as “key points” on the issue overall.

He said 2,500 accounts are deemed “Not Co-operating”, while 3,850 are classified as those which have “refused treatments or where the account has failed to operate in line with the agreed treatment”.

The spokesman said the average arrears time of loans in the portfolio is three-and-a-half years.

He added average arrears is €28,800 and value of loan around €175,000.