More info sought over repossessions
Padraig Burke, county registrar for Kerry, also told the legal representatives for the various lending institutions seeking repossession orders at the circuit court in Tralee yesterday that they must give “full details of the stress test analysis” they carried out on the applicants at the time of granting a mortgage.
Market value of the house at the time of purchase and its current market value must also be provided by the lending institutions, Mr Burke stipulated.
Some 36 applications were before the county registrar at the Possession and Well-Charging Court at Tralee Circuit Court yesterday.
The majority were new applications for repossession of houses and were before the court for the first time.
The majority — 23 — were brought by Ulster Bank.
Among the other lending institutions represented yesterday were Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Bank of Scotland Ireland, Irish Life and Permanent, and the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Ltd.
A number of local solicitors represented the Dublin-based firms acting on behalf of Ulster Bank. All of the solicitors sought adjournments.
However, when questioned by Mr Burke as to whether the houses the bank sought to repossess were family or investment properties, none knew.
Most of the defendants were unrepresented.
Even though the civil bill for repossession had been served on them, there had been no written response to the bills in many cases, the court heard.
In the case of one woman who had health problems and was expecting her first child, no repayments had been made on the €142,500 mortgage taken out in 2007.
The county registrar said she must be advised to go to a community welfare and council housing officer. He adjourned the matter for eight weeks to allow affidavits to be exchanged between the parties.
In adjourning the cases, Mr Burke ordered that the banks swear and exchange affidavits exhibiting copy of the original loan application as well as the full stress test analysis carried out by the banks at the time of lending.
“When you are coming in the next day we will want to know if these are family homes,” he told the solicitors representing the banks.
Other items to be furnished in the exchange of affidavits between the parties include current and past market value, copy of the loan account, and full details of excess and of interest charged.
The defendants must set out again by sworn affidavit: Statement of means, outlining assets, liabilities and income fully vouched, and a draft budget for the next 12 months.
One couple who were in court and who are now separated said they had been trying to sell the house and had dropped the price from €180,000 to €130,000. The man, who is working, said he would be willing to make repayments until the house sold, but would need to get “a hand” with them. They had let out the house previously but it was now vacant. They had no children together.
The woman had been waiting 10 months for a legal aid appointment to progress the separation and now had an appointment booked for the end of October, she said.
Mr Burke adjourned the matter to allow the separation proceedings to be dealt with.
A case, again by Ulster Bank, was adjourned to allow mortgagees now living in the US to respond.
There was one voluntary surrender of a property and in the case of another, payments had begun in the past weeks — that case was adjourned for six months to see if the payments continued. Another older case seemed to be nearing resolution.
Mr Burke criticised the lack of local interaction between the banks and the mortgagees.
“There seems to be no direct communication from the banks locally with these people,” he observed.
Most of the cases have been put back to January; a small number to February; and to December.
There is now a monthly possession court in Tralee and numbers are expected to grow significantly after Christmas.
Last week in the court in Cork, also presided over by Mr Burke, there were 106 applications for possession, most of them concerning family homes.
