Fire victims' mortgage reality hits home
It is difficult to describe the predicament facing the people of Kinglake.
On the one hand they are deep in grief over the loss of friends and relatives, neighbours and acquaintances from their town.
They have got a massive clean-up in front of them, funerals to attend and children to care for. And then there are other old echoes of their previous lives.
Different banks seem to have different ideas about how the bushfire survivors should go about resuming mortgage repayments on houses that no longer exist.
Matt Falla says he is lucky his house survived, but just when he is getting back on his feet, he has had to worry about his mortgage.
"My wife went to the Commonwealth Bank who we have a mortgage with and spoke to the manager about some relief assistance with our mortgage," he said.
"I'm a sub-contract carpenter so I am unable to work at the moment.
"My wife does work part-time but she is unable to work. We are caring for our daughter because there is no schooling.
"We've been told that we can have a suspension of repayments for a period of three months, but at the end of that three months we need to repay the interest in full."
Mr Falla says should his mortgage line of credit go over its limit during that time, the excess amount will be charged at double the normal rate of interest.
"I relayed the story to our neighbour, Justin, who we fought the fire with on Saturday. He banks with the Bendigo Bank and they have suspended their mortgage for a period of three months on their principal and interest and they don't have to pay anything after that period."
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