Days after the bank foreclosed on the home belonging to media personality Errol Fabien and forced him to issue a national appeal for financial help to save the premises which also houses Gayelle The Caribbean, a former MP is appealing to banks and other financial institutions to be more lenient as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Attorney Prakash Ramadhar is concerned about how many more people are facing the same faith as Fabien, and if they have been fortunate to have been bailed out.
He said, “Now is a time for banks and financial institutions to not seek to obtain more than $1 as their profit at the end of the year.”
Ramadhar said we are experiencing very difficult times which we have never seen before nor had we anticipated and as such, it requires a very different approach. “It cannot be business as usual.”
He called on the Government to ensure mechanisms are in place to secure the homes and, in some instances, the businesses of citizens, “Who, through no fault of their own, are now in jeopardy because of the economic decay of the last several years and hit by the double whammy of the COVID-19 horror.”
Ramadhar said i appropriate cases, the TTMF or another institution created by our Government should take over those mortgages or loans to allow our citizens time to breathe, “a time to hope, and a time to recuperate, until things get better as we hope.”
If homes and businesses are allowed to fall to mortgage claims and those properties are put up for sale and “as many suspect, there are already prepared buyers…” Ramadhar said there may be a deflation of the real estate market with many homes being left to be vandalised and become an eyesore.
He added, “The broken window will become a broken economy.”
Ramadhar said this time is really about self-survival and having a different long-term approach.
Last Thursday, Fabien was given 24 hours to raise $350,000 to save his home. A GoFundMe account was set up and he was belt to get the money.
