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Comment by joelbluminator | Hacker News Reader

When I was living in NL I knew a guy who had a mortgage for a house in Australia, a mortgage on a house in Groningen and then he was looking to get another mortgage for a house in Den Haag. Banks don't seem to cooperate internationally or even nationally; he never told the banks he has mortgages already.

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While banks may not check this on signing, they'll certainly check it when you start defaulting.

This really is the worst advice ever. It's a sure way to get you in Real Trouble when shit hits fans. This is not legal advice either, btw. Just someone who read the tiny letters in the mortgage contracts.

If he defaults. From his point a view he is not risking too much; he never put his own money as down payment it was 100÷ mortgage which NL is too generous with. Then the rent he earns is higher than the mortgage due to the low interest. So best case he ends up with 3 houses in 25 years. Worst case he gets some angry letters from the bank and loses houses that arent really his. I am not condoning his actions but they are not irrational.

But he lied on his mortgage application about loans in other countries. So he could be up for some fraud criminal charges, and jail time.

I find that extremely unlikely

We had to reveal all of our houses and loans on our mortgage application. They had no way to verify, but the penalty in that case is always fraud. But there are definitely a lot of people out there who don’t think that is a serious problem, and the government has to come down hard on it:

https://www.magnifymoney.com/blog/mortgage/lying-mortgage-ap...

Is the UK more tolerant of lying than the USA? It doesn’t seem so via a Google search:

https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/mortgage-application...

Now, of course, they might not find out, but that just means it is a perfect crime, it is still a crime.

Banks will definitely know about any other mortgages and loans you have within the Netherlands before the mortgage is finalized. These are all registered with the credit agency they all employ. The only exception to this rule (for now) is a government student loan.

I hope you're right! No one knew or did anything about him renting out the Groningen house thats for sure. I don't know what happened with the 3rd house plan of his, hopefully it didnt materialize.

You’re right, banks don’t cooperate internationally in this area, but it cuts both ways no?

How can one get a mortgage in Holland without being a resident/having income declared there? The bank will not loan a foreign resident in those circumstances. Did he pay taxes in all those countries?

He is a Dutch resident but no bank knows he has other mortgages. He is not even allowed to rent out his house yet he does.

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