by Andrew Carey
MORE than a dozen homes were repossessed in Limerick last week as County Registrar Patrick Wallace dealt with almost 200 cases at a special sitting of the Circuit Court.
Solicitors, who were involves in the majority of the applications, were seeking orders allowing financial institutions take possession of homes after borrowers fell into arrears.
A number of home owners represented themselves in court while, in other cases, the application was moved by the banks after the borrower failed to respond.
While Mr Wallace granted repossession orders in up to a dozen cases, many others were adjourned after being told that the homeowners were paying the principal on the mortgage but were unable to pay the interest that was accruing.
In one case, the court was told that despite €800 a month being paid off the loan, the bank were seeking an order because more than €1,300 was due each month. The borrower was seeking additional time to continue with his “serious efforts” to repay the mortgage on an investment property that had seriously devalued.
Mr Wallace suggested that the bank “should live with this client” by accepting the lower monthly payments and he adjourned the application for review in six months.
In another case, an order for possession was granted after more than €100,000 in arrears had built up and the lender was due €230,000. No payments had been made since July 2012 and costs for proceedings were awarded against the borrower.
The County Registrar also granted permission for lenders to post notices of proceedings on the front door of a property that was subject to a repossession after the borrower refused to accept delivery of legal documents or respond to posted correspondence.
A woman who was summoned for not paying her mortgage told the registrar that her marriage had broken down and she had not lived in the house since 2007. As far as she was concerned, the property was abandoned and derelict since then.
Although documents showed that her name was still on the mortgage, Mr Wallace granted the repossession order to the bank and awarded costs against the woman’s ex-husband.
One solicitor told the court that his clients were paying more than €1,000 a month off their mortgage. There was balance of €110,000 on the loan but only €25,000 of that was arrears. The solicitor said it was unfair to have the matter listed before the court as he had written, phoned and called to the bank on several occasions to restructure the loan but the “bank failed to engage at all despite my clients continue to pay their mortgage at that rate for the last 12 months.”
Adjourning the application for six months, the County Registrar said he was sympathetic to the borrowers and asked the bank to engage with them.
Orders seeking repossessions on homes where as a little as €2,000 and €6,000 were refused and the registrar granted alternative methods to serve papers on the borrowers.
One of the last cases involved a woman who owed almost €400,000 on her home. The banks said that no resolution had been put in place after she fell into arrears of €93,000.
The court put a stay on repossession until January 2 for an update on the woman’s financial situation.
