Daughter’s cries ring through court as father pleads to stop home repossession

THE increasingly loud cries of a young infant were allowed to ring in Court 16 of the Four Courts yesterday as a judge listened to pleadings by the baby’s father to prevent the family home in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, from being repossessed.

Conscious of the sensitivity of the couple’s circumstances, Judge Elizabeth Dunne eventually had to kindly suggest to the baby’s mother, who was rocking the pram back and forth in a bid to calm her daughter, that she might want to leave the room in order to speed up proceedings.

The woman agreed to wait outside as her husband explained his efforts to keep up repayments on their mortgage from Stepstone Mortgage Funding.

The man, representing himself, told the judge how he had made the last two monthly repayments and intended to continue to do so as well as paying an additional €1,000 per month to make up arrears.

However, lawyers for Stepstone said the couple had started falling into significant arrears two months after the original loan of €360,000 was taken out in March 2005.

The High Court heard that the current amount owed to the lender now stood at €424,578, including arrears of €68,662, notwithstanding the fact that sporadic repayments had been made over the intervening period, including a total of €15,240 over the past 12 months.

In seeking a request for a repossession order, lawyers for Stepstone claimed there was “an unsustainable pattern of arrears which appear consistent” as the monthly repayments due on the loan are €2,062.

“Stepstone have reached the point where it can’t have confidence in what is proposed,” said the company’s barrister.

The judge observed that she would have thought that Stepstone would be interested in considering any arrangements which offered the prospect of regular monthly instalments as well as repayments of arrears.

A lawyer for Stepstone shook his head as Ms Justice Dunne ruled that she would adjourn the case for two months to see if the couple could fulfil their promise to keep up the proposed schedule of repayments.

Almost half of the 77 cases listed yesterday before the weekly sitting of the Chancery Summons Court (more widely known as the “house repossession court”) related to sub-prime lender, Start Mortgages.

However, a total of just four orders for repossession were granted by Ms Justice Dunne, including a shop in Thomondgate, Limerick, on which the owner had defaulted on a 10-year €118,850 loan.

Two repossession orders were granted to Start Mortgages for properties in Bunratty, Co Clare, and Clane, Co Kildare.

The High Court adjourned an application by GE Capital Woodchester for a repossession order on a house in Dunmanway, Co Cork, as the borrower’s elderly uncle who resided in the home with his nephew had not been separately notified of the proceedings.

The court heard that just €384 had been repaid on the €150,000 loan in the last three years as the owner had lost his business and now received just €148 per week in social welfare payments.

Lawyers for GE Capital Woodchester claimed there was a dispute over whether the owner and his uncle actually resided in the house.