Apparently what we are seeing now in terms of house repossessions, company bankruptcies and one-time big business honchos being hauled before the courts for bad debts, is only the first wave in what is predicted to be a tsunami of personal financial horror stories. This is because up to now, as bad as things appeared on the outside, ducking and diving have actually been the two main activities keeping people going since the economic crisis began. What this means in real terms is that instead of facing up to debts as soon as they hit, many in trouble adopted the ‘head in the sand’ approach, shoving their problems deep under the rug that time forgot, never to be retrieved again unless under threat of a shotgun to the head.
Well, unfortunately, that shotgun is now very prevalent in Irish society and is being pointed face on at thousands of people around the country. Some of these are the big players we have already been reading about in recent years, who now fall within the NAMA remit, but on a much smaller and more realistic scale, the logjam currently happening in Irish courts is due to the plethora of regular and middle-income earners who, in the Celtic Tiger years, bit off more than they could chew.
By all accounts every imaginable method of siphoning off and hiding debt is being employed by those called to account in an effort to salvage whatever meagre money possible towards maintaining lifestyles to which they have grown accustomed. We have already seen the popularity of the yet-to-be-regulated property-sign-over clause which allows husbands secure assets by putting them in wives’ names; additionally inventive accounting measures through the use of off-shore/multiple/variously named bank accounts in separate institutions or on-line are also coming to the fore, not to mention those instances of huge cash withdrawals being detected as extra padding under mattresses.
Aside altogether from hiding dosh, those in bother are also exercising fantastic creativity in concealing physical assets from five-bed properties to SUVs to boltholes in other parts of Ireland and abroad. Pulling off such ruses may prove a personal victory for some but ultimately, will not make much difference. The time has come for people to realise the game is up. Compensation must be paid. Land held in the family for generations has been lost. Your home is no longer your own and that lifestyle you have been enjoying in recent years was never your entitlement to begin with. You were simply living way beyond your means in some weird world of fantasy.
As awful as this reality is for some who are now taking desperate measures to avoid paying off their dues while holding strong to claims that the banks/auctioneers/builders/Government are fully to blame for their dilemma, the time has also come to stop the ‘victim’ mentality. People simply have to face up to their situations. Holding out as long as possible, barring up doors, blockading property, can only prove effective temporarily. In the end we must all be held liable. The mess we are in now is not necessarily due to the actions of others, rather, to our own actions taken of our free will.
For instance, what were people thinking using family homes as collateral for second homes in places such as Bulgaria? Who did we think we were, acquiring second homes in the first place? Or why did young people just out of college think it was OK to live on a never-ending budget funded by credit cards, spending money that was never there in the first place? Did parents never educate them in the practicalities of checks and balances?
These are the difficult questions that must be asked and dealt with in total honesty. Desperate measures are not the only way out of this crisis. Facing situations head on and turning to as many relevant support structures as possible will not only help identify a path forward, but also provide a tremendous sense of relief from having finally owned up to your responsibilities.
