Farmer with disabled son loses home

AN elderly farmer told how he wanted to sell his home and patch of land so he can leave something behind for his disabled son.

The High Court heard the man, in his 60s, owes €20,571 in mortgage arrears on an original loan of €100,000, the balance of which now stands at €105,000.

He took out the loan from sub-prime lender Start Mortgages in 2007 and if he had sold his house and land “when times were good” he would have got about €6m.

Now he said he did not wish to sell for less than €600,000, so he can move to the nearby town and in due course leave the property to his 29-year-old son, who he says “sometimes has the mind of a nine-year-old”.

The man told Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne he requires medicine for osteoporosis and after those and other living costs he was left with around €20 a week.

“I have no way of paying anything at the moment,” he told the court, on a day when a total of 16 properties were repossessed.

The loan was for the house in which he lives, but he said he proposed to bundle it with the land surrounding it, of up to 40 acres, so he can repay what he owes and move to the local town. The last repayment on the mortgage was in June 2009.

He said he would sell the house tomorrow if he could find a buyer, but said he was worried if it was sold now “you would get nothing for it”.

“I live on my own — it’s a lonely life,” he said. He told the court his son has a disability and he could not leave him at home to help with the lambing while he was in Dublin.

Instead he wanted to sell up and move, leaving any future property to his son.

Ms Justice Dunne said regarding the housing market “things are only going one way”. She granted the order for possession but put a stay on it of 12 months in the hope the man finds a suitable buyer.

An order was also granted in another case involving Start Mortgages in which the property was a family home.

Mortgage arrears stood at €30,000 on a loan of €130,000 which had been drawn down in July 2005. A stay of six months was placed on the order.

In another case involving a family home, also with Start Mortgages, the court was told two children also lived in the house. The family hoped to receive a windfall to help them meet their repayments but had actually fallen victim to an internet scam. They were €21,968 in mortgage arrears. A stay of six months was granted.

Start Mortgage were also the lender in another case of a family home which was repossessed, while an order for possession was granted in the case of a Limerick pub, over which a woman lives. A stay of nine months was placed on the order.