High court grants family repossession reprieve

A family whose house was scheduled to be repossessed at lunchtime yesterday was given a last chance by a High Court judge to save its home of 20 years.

Judge Anthony Hunt said Ian Fitzgibbon’s application for a stay was being made at the last minute as his family home was due to be repossessed by ACC Bank at 1pm.

Judge Hunt said he was prepared to give Mr Fitzgibbon, his wife Geraldine and their two sons “a bit of breathing space” by acceding to his application to have a three-week stay on the order for execution.

The judge said he was taking into account that Mr Fitzgibbon was giving an undertaking that, if proposals he would submit to the bank were not accepted, he and his family would surrender the house at Kerdiff Park, Monread Rd, Naas, Co Kildare voluntarily.

The court had heard that Fitzgibbon, a former employee of ACC Bank, had fallen behind on his mortgage repayments after he was made redundant by the bank in 2008.

He had recently found employment with a good salary at TSB Bank in London, which was willing to take over his mortgage once his probation period was over.

Fitzgibbon, who owes the bank almost €335,000, told Barrister Kenneth Bredin, for ACC Bank, he believed he could make new financial proposals to ACC bank.