POSSESSION OF nine properties was yesterday granted to banks and mortgage lenders, as 54 cases got under way at the High Court’s weekly chancery summonses hearing.
Ulster Bank was granted three of the nine orders.
Possession of a Co Mayo property was granted to the bank after the owners failed to repay a €1.1 million loan.
The court heard how Ulster Bank had advanced the defendants €1.1 million in April 2005 to be repaid over 10 years. Arrears had accumulated on the loan, with some €1,382,477.20 now owing.
Possession of a Co Donegal property was granted to Bank of Ireland, after the owner accrued mortgage arrears of approximately €34,000.
The bank had advanced the defendants €320,000 in May 2006. However, “default started reasonably quickly” with in excess of €371,000 now owed by the property owners.
Granting the order with a stay of four months, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne was told that the Donegal property was “purely a commercial operation” and “not a family home”.
Meanwhile KBC Bank was granted possession of a Co Limerick property, the mortgage for which had an outstanding balance of €123,000.
The defendants had taken out a mortgage of £60,000 in 2000, topping it up a number of times since then.
The court heard that the bank had not received any mortgage repayments since June 11th, 2008. As a result, arrears of €37, 125 had accumulated.
In a case involving Start Mortgages, a possession order was granted for a property after the defendants fell into arrears of €16,000.
The court was told that the defendants first fell into default on their mortgage repayments in January 2007, the same month they were advanced a further €12,000 by the lender.
They were first advanced a remortgage loan of €40,000 on August 8th, 2006.
Granting the order for possession, Ms Justice Dunne said: “The solicitor was unable to get instruction from the defendants, so the court has no information good, bad or indifferent.”
She granted the defendants a stay of six months.
In another case involving the same lender, an order of possession was granted after arrears of €65,000 accumulated.
The lender advanced a loan of €499,999 to the defendants on October 23rd, 2007.
The mortgage was registered on November 19th and five days later, the defendants began to default on repayments.
An order for possession was also granted to Stepstone mortgage funding, after the defendants failed to follow through on several proposals to make payments.
The defendants obtained a mortgage for €170,000 in December 2007, defaulting on repayments just one month later.
As a result, arrears of €13,889 had accumulated, with a total balance outstanding of €187,000, which is in excess of the original loan.
Granting a stay of six months on the order, Ms Justice Dunne commented on the lack of court appearances by defendants in repossession cases.
“The defendants haven’t appeared in court . . . they know from correspondence the consequences of not dealing with the matter”.