Woman in fear of agents trying to seize her home

A woman says she has been traumatised by security agents attempting to board up her home while she was inside.

Eileen O’Neill, 66, a mother of one from Clountiquirk, Dunmanway, Co Cork, was in bed at 8.30am yesterday when she heard noise downstairs. “They came and started breaking glass in the doors and the door handles. They said they wanted to board it up. They told me to get out, that the banks owned the house and they were boarding it up, but I told them this is my home and I’m staying,” she said.

Ms O’Neill’s son, Michael O’Neill, borrowed €150,000 from GE Woodchester in 2005 to extend and refurbish the original ‘acre cottage’ home. He defaulted on his loan in 2008 after his joinery business, which was uninsured, burned to the ground. Pepper Finance bought the loan from GE Woodchester in 2012. It has informed Mr O’Neill that the debt has risen to €240,000.

However, Ms O’Neill has since returned to the house and is now fighting her own separate case to remain there.

Ms O’Neill signed an indenture in 2010 that she did not fully understand, said Lynette O’Donoghue of Anti-eviction Ireland.

“She didn’t understand she was signing away the house that was left to her and her brother Dan [who has since passed away] by their mother in her will,” Ms O’Donoghue said.

Anti-eviction campaigners arrived at 10am after Ms O’Neill called for help. The three security workers trying to board up the house left soon afterwards, she said. Ms O’Neill said her case is due before the High Court in early 2015 and she is hopeful of a positive outcome.