Legal row over €2.3m contract for house secured on €25,000 deposit

A €2.3 million contract for the sale of a house at Dublin’s Morehampton Road, now at the centre of a legal dispute, had been secured on a deposit of €25,000, a High Court judge observed yesterday.

However, Justice Peter Kelly remarked, the contrast between that contract price and deposit was not as “dramatic” as that in an earlier case where a €19m contract was secured on a deposit of €100. He made the comments when transferring to the Commercial Court yet another action aimed at having a party honour a development contract.

The number of such “specific performance” claims has been mounting in the Commercial Court for some time and the judge dealt with several more yesterday.

The €2.36m contract before the judge related to an alleged agreement of July 12, 2007, between Colum Mackin, a builder, of Morehampton Road, Donnybrook, against Gerard Deane, Rathmore Glebe, Naas, Co Kildare.

Mr Mackin claims he had purchased property at Morehampton Road to commercially develop it with the intention to sell on to Mr Deane, who had recently purchased two other adjoining properties at Morehampton Road.

He claimed the July 12 contract involved an agreed purchase price of €2,365,000 with a deposit payable of €25,000.

A completion notice was served on October 21 last, but the sale had not been completed. In November, solicitors for Mr Deane wrote purporting to rescind the contract and requested the return of the deposit.

Mr Mackin said he has been ready and able to complete the contract at all relevant times and remains anxious to do so.