House co-owned by homeless man repossessed

A HOUSE jointly owned by a man who is now homeless and receiving treatment for alcohol addiction was repossessed by a bank in the High Court yesterday.

The property in Cork was one of 13 in which orders for repossession were granted yesterday.

In the case the court was told that the property was not a family home and the last payment made to the lender, ACC Bank, had been in December 2006.

The balance owed stands at €310,034 and the arrears on the 2003 loan of €277,000 were €35,547 as of earlier this month.

The man’s wife is living elsewhere in Cork and the court heard he is receiving treatment and is homeless.

The court heard there had been no contact with the woman, who is a co-owner of the property.

Mr Justice John McMenamin said the situation had got to the stage “where it is difficult to anything other than make an order for possession”. He put a stay of six months on the order, did not grant costs in the case and said: “I can only hope the situation improves as far as the defendant is concerned.”

In another case, brought by Start Mortgages, an order for possession was granted on a property purchased with a loan of €460,000 and on which there were now €64,000 in arrears. The court heard that as there were two dependant children, aged 13 and 16, affected by the order, so the judge granted a stay of six months.

Another property, in Co Tipperary, was also repossessed after the court heard just €750 in repayments had been made to GE Capital Woodchester Home Loans in the past two years. The court was told that it had been intended as a family home but was unoccupied.

In another case, a property was repossessed after the court heard the man who had taken out a loan was now thought to be living in Poland.

An advertisement had been taken out in the Krakow Post, even though the man may live in Warsaw, as it was deemed the best way to notify him given the paper’s larger readership and free online presence. Despite this, the man, who owes €63,000 in arrears, did not engage with the lenders GE Capital Woodchester and Mr Justice McMenamin granted the order.

In another case, this time involving a Waterford property in which a man still lives, the judge granted an order for possession after the court was told payments totalling €490 were made last year against arrears which now stood at €39,184.

In a case involving a family home, the court heard that €37,600 was owed in arrears and that a previous payment agreement organised by the Money Advice and Budgeting Service had been breached. The judge placed a stay of six months on the possession order.

A supermarket in Co Mayo was also repossessed after the court heard it ceased trading last summer. Three separate loans were in arrears and the last payments on any of them had been made in 2008, leaving €319,000 outstanding on the balance of the original loan in a case where there had been no engagement with the lender by the defendant.

An order for repossession was also granted regarding a five-bed house in Ennis which the court was told was an investment property.

The case was brought by AIB Mortgage Bank regarding two separate loans granted in 2004 and 2005 and on which the balance now stood at €255,468, including arrears of €17,083. The last payments on the loans were made in November 2009.

Seven of the repossession orders yesterday involved sub-prime lenders.