Woman in fear of agents trying to seize her home
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.
