Can UK debts follow you to Ireland?

DanM1701

Currently in the process of moving from the UK to Ireland and both my wife and I have outstanding personal loans in the UK. We've been in the UK for over 10 years and have impeccable credit history.

Also, to be clear, we have no intention of not paying off the loans.
We don't want to burn bridges as we both have strong business ties to the UK which we will hope will continue long into the future.

I have noticed a sharp downturn in my own business in recent months though and so I'm wondering if worst came to worst, would the UK lenders be able to recover the debts in Ireland. We will be homeowners with no mortgage, so wondering if our assets will be at risk.

sourcrates

Assume you mean the republic of Ireland, not Northern Ireland, consumer credit debts are rarely chased over international borders.

The ability to do so may exist in many cases, but the cost and bother involved means few lenders have the heart or the time for it.

As a general rule, first they would have to trace you, as you could be anywhere, once they had achieved that, the debt in the UK would have to be sold to an Irish debt purchaser, who would then pursue you through the Irish legal system, honestly its something that just does not happen.

There is nothing to stop UK debt collectors writing to you and asking you to pay, but it cannot be enforced unless they do the above.

Normally if there was no response from debt collection the creditor could take action through the UK courts and a CCJ would sit on your UK credit file for 6 years, and that would be about it.