Help Me Move On From Tracker Mortgage Scandal Nightmare

Hi, my name is Angela and I'm a 55-year-old autistic writer, teacher, and former architect, living in Dublin, Ireland. I am one of almost 50,000 homeowners who unwittingly were caught up in Ireland's biggest ever financial scandal, the Tracker Mortgage Investigation, involving the mishandling of tracker mortgages by the major banks and mortgage lenders, and brought to light by Ireland's Central Bank in 2015.

The situation with the house is complex and I've felt shame about it for so long, even though the fault was never mine. I now have to sell my home to avoid repossession, after my battle for justice over the lender's actions has left me ill, exhausted, and desperate for a resolution that will allow me to recover my health and start over.

But my story goes back to 2008, when I asked my lender about making a temporary change to my tracker mortgage and instead received instructions for permanent changes, removing both my tracker mortgage and a valuable insurance policy.

The advice given and actions taken by the lender did not comply with either the Consumer Protection Code or the Central Bank's guidance on advising customers making changes to tracker mortgages at that time.

I spent the next several years trying to understand, rectify, and seek justice for these actions, whilst the Celtic Tiger, the Irish housing market, its financial institutions, and then the global economy collapsed around me.

I've chased this case through customer service departments, MABS, the Financial Services Ombudsman, and beyond - I represented myself as a litigant-in-person at the High Court and won the right to have the case heard at the Supreme Court of Ireland.

At each stage of the process, the lender denied wrongdoing and the authorities ruled with them. The Financial Services Ombudsman also failed to hold the lender accountable to the Consumer Protection Code, and the High Court excused that failure.

In 2014, FLAC published a report titled 'Redressing the Imbalance,' which examined the effectiveness of the Financial Services Ombudsman. Of consumers whose cases were investigated by the Ombudsman, only 12% had positive outcomes and only 5% achieved the result they were looking for.

The Tracker Mortgage scandal broke in 2015 and the lender admitted that they had acted in error in 2017. This should have brought an end to my troubles. Instead, the lender refused to name the error or take account of the loss of the valuable insurance policy. Unhappy with this outcome, I appealed to the specially-created Tracker Redress Panels in late 2018.

At the same time around 2018-19, my original case came up at the Supreme Court, and was moved to the newly created Court of Appeal. Despite the lender having admitted an error, the evidence was not admissible in the appeal. I was in the unenviable position of fighting two cases at once - one where the bank said they'd done nothing wrong, and one where they'd admitted wrongdoing but not all of it.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit in Ireland in February 2020. During lockdown, when I was grieving the loss of my father, the lender sold my loan to a vulture fund. To date, I have not received a finding from the Tracker Redress Panel, nor have they acknowledged my many letters. Without their report, all subsequent avenues of accountability via the Tracker Mortgage Investigation were cut off.

My health suffered under the strain. Between 2020-22, experiencing burnout, I was diagnosed as autistic with ADHD (or AuDHD) - both lifelong forms of neurodivergence that fundamentally affect how my brain processes and engages with the world, and more crucially how others perceive and engage with me.

The late-diagnosis brought new clarity to difficulties I have experienced all my life, and also highlighted the many additional ways I had been vulnerable to exploitation, manipulation and deception by unscrupulous parties in my struggle for justice.

Ironically, a secure home base - safe from sensory overload and social demands, a place of predictability, where we can unmask and emotionally regulate - is essential to autistic well-being.

As I began to understand the impact it was having on my health, I put justice aside and started thinking about an exit strategy that would let me reclaim my life and start over.

This too was fraught with difficulty, as the agencies and legal services involved in helping distressed customers had no understanding of autism and would not make necessary accommodations to allow me to participate effectively, even after a direct intervention from one of Ireland's leading autism charities.

The stress once again pushed me into autistic burnout, impacting my ability to work and my financial stability as a self-employed writer and teacher.

Today, the only way out of the nightmare is to sell my home, settle up and start again with what is left of the proceeds. It will push me off the property ladder in Ireland but it will enable me to rehouse myself and free me from an intolerable situation.

The funds I wish to raise will pay for the following:

Time is a huge factor - getting the house to market, making a sale and paying off the mortgage quickly means more of the proceeds will go toward creating a stable and sustainable future.

I am aiming to get the house on the market by the end of July 2025, which means I need to start putting the above items into action asap.

I realise there is a lot of injustice in the world right now and so many people in need. Anything you can give will be hugely appreciated, and even the smallest amount can help make a difference.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you choose to help me reclaim my life, health and housing security, I will be incredibly grateful.