Bank of Scotland accounts for 25% of repossession orders last year

Bank of Scotland accounted for a quarter of all repossession orders granted in the Circuit Courts last year.

The bank, which pulled out of the Irish market in 2010, had lent aggressively during the boom. When it closed its operations here, it had more than €6bn of property development loans on its books.

The bank’s repossession activity in 2013 was well in excess of the largest players in the mortgage market — Bank of Ireland and AIB.

The 92 orders granted for Bank of Scotland more than doubled those awarded to Bank of Ireland.

AIB had just four circuit court repossession orders granted against its debtors.

In total, there were 343 orders granted in the circuit courts across the country in 2013.

Two other institutions which were particularly active in this realm were Ulster Bank, with 52 orders (15%) and Permanent TSB with 44 (12%).

The breakdown of circuit court activity for 2013 was prepared by the Courts Service. It showed that the majority of repossession orders granted were for residential properties, although the figures did not specify if these were owner-occupied or were let to tenants.

There were 310 orders for residential properties from a total of 343.

Repossession orders do not necessarily correspond with the number of properties handed over to the banks. This is because it is up the lender to have the order executed. The Courts Service said it did not have records on this.

The overall figure is expected to rise this year following changes to repossession rules last year which addressed technical loopholes that had stymied repossessions since the ruling of Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne in 2011.

This ruling had the effect of killing off parts of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009.

There was a slight increase in the volume of orders processed in the last three months of the year.

But these related to cases filed much earlier.

Late last year, it was reported that the changes in the circuit court rules had resulted in a large increase in the number of repossession applications.

In the six weeks after the new law term began in October, there were 465 cases lodged; 278 were in the name of Ulster Bank.

Bank of Ireland, AIB, and Permanent TSB had between 17 and 19 cases each.

According to the 2013 figures for orders granted, Dublin was the busiest centre and accounted for a quarter of repossession orders. Cork’s circuit court granted 11% of orders.

The Courts Service said circuit court activity was not the only measurement of repossession rate as many mortgages allowed banks to seize properties without recourse to the courts.

“These cases are not the only cases in which a financial institution is foreclosing,” it said.

“The vast majority of mortgages contain a foreclosure clause which becomes operative, without the need for a court order, if there is any failure in payment of instalments.”