Artist given three months to vacate Dalkey home

Artist and former model Jennifer Fitzgerald has been given three months by a judge to leave her home on Sorrento Road, Dalkey and hand the keys back to a bank.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane heard in the Circuit Civil Court that Ms Fitzgerald’s former husband, Colin Hayes, had recently signed an agreement to the bank repossessing the home known as Xanadu.

Barrister Anne Lawlor, counsel for London-based Tanager Limited, which has taken over Bank of Scotland’s mortgage book, told the court there was an outstanding debt of €1.8 million on the property including €200,000 in arrears.

She said nothing had been paid off the mortgage since 2010 and said Ms Fitzgerald was now opposing the bank’s application for possession of the house in which she still lives.

Consent to mortgages

The judge rejected as “simply untrue” a sworn claim by Ms Fitzgerald that she had not freely and legally given her consent to the raising of mortgages by her then husband.

Ms Fitzgerald had told the court she had been forced by Mr Hayes to sign documents, "under duress", retrospectively agreeing to the 2005 mortgage and to his raising a second mortgage with Bank of Scotland in 2007 for investment purposes, using her home as security.

The judge said Ms Fitzgerald’s signature to the agreements had been given in the presence of, and witnessed by, a solicitor who had given her independent legal advice.

The court heard that the property had been valued in 2005 at €1.9 million and the initial mortgage had been taken out for €1,125,000.

Ms Fitzgerald, who had been made a notice party to the bank’s application for possession, stated that the property was originally held in their joint names.

She said in 2005 her husband had transferred the property into his sole name. She added that in 2007 she had come under pressure from him to sign an agreement relating to the loans.

Judge Linnane said the bank had comprehensively shown that Ms Fitzgerald’s consent had been freely given and that she had been fully legally informed.

Costs awarded

The judge granted the bank possession of Xanadu and awarded costs against Ms Fitzgerald, giving her three months in which to vacate the premises.