Court hears Mayo woman who lost family home was being overcharged on mortgage

A woman lost her family home and ended up being adjudicated a bankrupt after Bank of Ireland charged her over twice what she ought to be paying on her mortgage, the High Court has heard.

Deirdre Dennis said she was left financially crippled and personally devastated by the level of overcharging on her monthly repayments between June 2012 and December 2017, to Bank of Ireland.

Arising out of what she believed to be her debts Ms Dennis sucessfully petitioned the High Court to be adjudicated a bankrupt in October 2017.

Her counsel Eoin McGonigal SC said while this "catastrophic error" was acknowledged by the Bank it came after she had exited bankruptcy in October 2018, and after her former family home at Seaview Terrace, Killala, Co Mayo had been sold by the bank.

In February 2019 counsel said Bank of Ireland wrote to Ms Dennis after it had completed a review of her mortgage under their Tracker Mortgage Examination.

In its correspondence the bank accepted, acknowledged and unreservedly apologised to her for failing to provide her with a tracker mortgage at a time when she was entitled to one.

Bank of Ireland said she was entitled to compensation, redress and a refund of interest charged and it accepted the bank's failure was a factor in her losing her home.

It also withdrew its claim in her bankruptcy of amounts totalling €115,000.

Ms Dennis, represented by Mr McGonigal, Michael O'Sullivan Bl and solicitor Evan O'Dwyer, has applied to the Court to have her bankruptcy annulled.

Counsel said when seeking to be adjudicated a bankrupt she believed she owed Bank of Ireland some €171,000 on foot of loans taken with the bank. Her then home was valued as being worth €73,000.

She also had additional debts of €66,000 owed to revenue and another financial institution.

She claims had she all the relevant information from Bank of Ireland in October 2017 she would not have sought to be adjudicated a bankrupt.

The application to annul Ms Dennis' bankruptcy was heard by Ms Justice Teresa Pilkington on Monday, who was told the official in charge of bankruptcy the Official Assignee was not opposing the application.

In addition Bank of Ireland, represented by Bernard Dunleavy SC told the court his client did not wish to make any submissions to the court

In a sworn statement to the court she said she spent years "fighting to keep my head above water". Despite her struggles, including her business failure in 2008, she always tried to maintain her mortgage payments as best she could.

She said she pleaded with Bank of Ireland to apply a common sense approach to the level of her repayments, and made many personal sacrifices.

In 2014 she said she had to stop making repayments and left the property which was in negative equity.

In 2015 Bank if Ireland sought an order for repossession of her family home so it could sell the property, which she consented to.

In early 2019 the bank admitted they had overcharged her, resulting her having to pay twice what she was contractually obliged to do when she was trying to make ends meet.

She now rents a property at Killala Road, Ballina Co Mayo, which she says she ended up paying twice as much for had she been paying on the mortgage for her own home, which she said she was "forced" to leave.

She said she could not understand why her account was not examined sooner, or why the bank continued to pursue possession proceedings against her in 2015 when they should have known that her loan account would come under examination.

She wondered why the bank continued to persecute her, and pursue her until she had lost her home, when they knew her accounts were affected by their failings.

Following the conclusion of submissions the judge, noting what was "a very unusual case", reserved her decision.

The judge said she wanted to "put something in writing" and would deliver judgment "as soon as possible."