Hand hold needed, myself and family are homeless.

[Eggsdancing]

I am one of those affected by the mica scandal in Ireland where the houses are falling down and there is little Government support. I am a 47-year-old mother of four with a disabled husband. I am the breadwinner and we have to move out of our house as it is set to fall down. I only have 2 sisters who face similar so we can't stay with them and brother lives in Canada. My parents are dead.

I don't know what I am looking for here, I feel ready to just drop. I am trying to stay positive for my kids, the oldest being 11. I really don't know how I am going to cope. We are left financially ruined and our house is falling down around us and unsafe to live in. We have to move into a caravan. It feels like hell, I thought my husband getting MS in 2015 was the worst thing to happen but this is hell. I literally don't know how I can cope. I have lost my home.

no wonder you feel like its the end of everything. Its shocking this has happened to you. But things can get better from here.

If you are now at the point to access 90% of the monies then you can build something. Maybe not a house as extensive as the one you lived in but something. And once its built you can live in it or sell.

You might also want to look at non conventional building methods like straw bale and cladding. These can work out considerably cheaper and very economical to run - and if I was in your position I wouldn't want to put my faith in brick again anyway.

That sounds awful OP. is there any provision to declare bankruptcy to free yourself from the debt?

I'm sure you can do that in the UK but obviously the law in Ireland is different. You would lose the house but that sounds like a blessing not a curse.

There are very few houses available to rent in Donegal. Regardless of the redress scheme/who should pay, the area is looking at having a massive number of homes being left uninhabitable or demolished, and all those families need to live somewhere

It is an absolute disaster, and the ins and outs around who is to blame, who should pay, and how big someone's home should be don't take away from the fact that houses are unsafe to live in.

You are going to be handed 100s of 1000s of euro and that's like being a refugee is it? I don't know what type of refugees you have in donegal but that doesn't happen in the rest of the country

a new build will take around 3 years we were told as it takes at least a year to get approval. In the 3 years we are living in a sub-standard caravan which is dirty and cold and have to pay rent for that and if we try to walk away from the mortgage we don't get the money. We have to significantly downsize from the house we paid dair and square for.

Why will a new build take around 3 years OP? That seems like an awfully long time.

OP I think you're catastrophising a bit here here.

🤔

the bricks are like wheatbix.

I'll be honest and say if your house takes I'll also be honest and say if it will cost 350 to rebuild your house in Donegal, it must be a pretty huge house

so what?

Why will a new build take around 3 years OP? That seems like an awfully long time

it takes around a year for the scheme to give the go-ahead, once done you are looking at around 1.5 years at least for a house to be demolished and rebuilt.

I can't even imagine what a blow this must be OP but at the end of the day you're all safe, you have a job, and you have a roof over your head. Yes, having to live in a caravan temporarily after living in a €1.4m house is a huge step down, but it is not the end of the world, although it might feel like it. You would not be better off dead.

Take a metaphorical breath for a few days (perhaps take one or two days off work, if that is feasible?) and start making plans. Can you upgrade the caravan, can you move job and location, can you rent where you are, would it be quicker to save to buy rather than try to rebuild, can you increase your earnings somehow etc etc.

@dongke

I'll be honest and say if your house takes I'll also be honest and say if it will cost 350 to rebuild your house in Donegal, it must be a pretty huge house

so what?

People seem to be sidetracked by so footage of some of the houses. Are they happier knowing that some of them are 3-bed semis in housing estates?

having to live in a caravan temporarily after living in a €1.4m house is a huge step down, but it is not the end of the world, although it might feel like it

it's not a 1.4m house

Oh my goodness OP, I am so sorry.
Some very unkind and unhelpful posts ^ up there.

I imagine that with a disabled husband who has MS, you need additional space. Anyone who has tried to care for a disabled person, knows that there is never enough space for the wheelchair, and the large shower, and the hoist system, and the ramp at the front door, etc etc.

Unfortunately Donegal is long way from Dublin and there is a little bit of "out of sight out of mind" mentality... so hopefully the protests in Dublin should move things along.

May I ask:

• do you have a caravan to move into? Not suitable I know, especially heading into a Donegal winter.
• do you have somewhere safe to park the caravan if you need to?
• is there any thing that we can do?

@Mossstitch

I'm so sorry, you life sounds hard enough without this! I probably don't know what I'm talking about but I'm old enough to remember when mortgages shot up to 15%+ in the early 90s & I had young children, ill husband and did anything to try to keep the house (in the end gave in and downsized to tiny house that was really far too small for family of 5 but the stress relief was immense) I was main breadwinner too. At that time a lot of people were just handing keys into the lenders and walking away. Would something like that be an option. Stop paying mortgage to build up a deposit, hand keys in to lenders and walk away and rent a house elsewhere.

It's not always as simple as walking away from the house. If the lender sells the house for eg 100K and your mortgage is 110K, then you're still liable to pay the balance of 10K

*sq

@AnnieJ1985 it's bizarre, the situation is outrageous regardless of the house value or size.

Yes, having to live in a caravan temporarily after living in a €1.4m house is a huge step down, but it is not the end of the world, although it might feel like it

the house cost 200,000 euro in 2005, it would cost 350k in 2021. We are not wealthy. We both worked for every penny of it and didn't get the land or have any deposit help etc. We are in no means wealthy.

Agree that there is a serious regulation and enforcement problem here. And it seems as though, once again, the industry that’s really at fault is the insurance industry. It seems absurd that there is no insurance policy that can contribute whether it’s the suppliers, the contractors or your own building insurance associated with your mortgage. What is the point of taking out building insurance for your mortgage if it doesn’t work in this scenario?

I understand you feel stressed about it and angry. However since a majority of housing is funded by private individuals in this country it’s hard for people to get their heads around the insistence on 100% of rebuild costs coming from the taxpayer.

On a practical note, you might have a look at this Galway company

www.scanhome.ie/pricing

They have a variety of pricing options/level of finish. They could easily rejig plans to suit your husband’s requirements with bedroom downstairs and accessible bathroom. And they are quite economical relative to getting a one off house built by local builder.

@dongke

having to live in a caravan temporarily after living in a €1.4m house is a huge step down, but it is not the end of the world, although it might feel like it

it's not a 1.4m house

Sorry if I've got it wrong, but OP said on page 1 that 10% of the house was €140k, so I assumed overall it was worth €1.4m?

Just read the posts

However since a majority of housing is funded by private individuals in this country it’s hard for people to get their heads around the insistence on 100% of rebuild costs coming from the taxpayer.

Why? we have the cladding issue here & I want the government to sort it out. I believe in a safety net.

Hello OP, we are really sorry to hear you are feeling this way.
We hope you don't mind, but when these threads are flagged up to us we usually add a link to our Mental Health resources. You can also go to the Samaritans website or email them on [email protected]. Support from other Mumsnetters is great and we really hope you will be able to take some comfort from your fellow posters, but as other MNers will tell you, it's really a good idea to seek RL help and support as well.
We also like to remind everyone that, although we're awed daily by the astonishing support our members give each other through life's trickier twists and turns, we'd always caution anyone never to give more of themselves to another poster, emotionally or financially, than they can afford to spare.
We are going to move this thread to the Mental Health section shortly.’

*- do you have a caravan to move into? Not suitable I know, especially heading into a Donegal winter.

• do you have somewhere safe to park the caravan if you need to?
• is there any thing that we can do?*

Thank you. We are effectively renting it in a field. Donegal winters are much colder than south of UK ones, I know as I lived in London for 12 years so believe me it's much colder up here all year round (addressed to anybody who isn't aware here]. How dh will manage in a caravan I realy don't know.

@dongke
I’m sure you do believe in a safety net. So do I. Unfortunately it doesn’t exist in this country. People don’t want to pay for it. Until something drastic happens like in this case.