ORDERS FOR repossession of homes and properties were granted in three cases yesterday, as 49 cases came before the High Court.
In one case, the judge granted a stay of three months on the order of repossession to allow the local authority to provide a woman with a home.
More than half of the cases listed before Mr Justice John MacMenamin were taken by subprime lender Start Mortgages, which provides loans to people who have difficulty getting mortgages elsewhere. Two of the three orders for repossession granted went to Start Mortgages.
The remainder of applications for repossession orders came from ACC, Bank of Ireland, IIB Homeloans, GE Capital Woodchester, EBS, National Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, with 10 new cases listed before the court.
In one case involving Start, an order was granted after €45,000 had accrued in arrears, with the new balance owed totalling €337,000. The original loan was for €300,000.
Another order was granted to Start after €28,000 had accrued in arrears, with the amount owed totalling €233,000. The original loan was for €216,000.
The court heard that no mortgage payment had been made since spring 2007, with the exception of a €1,000 payment in August 2007. The defendant told the court she had applied to Fingal County Council for accommodation as children were under her care in the house, and that the house was on the market.
The judge granted a stay of three months with liberty to apply in relation to the stay if the council did not provide accommodation within three months.
An order for repossession was also granted to IIB after €15,800 had accrued in arrears, with a total balance of €187,000 owed.
Many of the cases were adjourned, either with the consent of both parties, to give defendants more time to sell their properties or to come to a new agreement with the lending institutions.
In an application involving GE Capital Woodchester, the judge adjourned the case to give the defendant a final chance. The balance owed on the mortgage amounted to €169,000 with arrears of €14,000, with no payments made since October 2007.
The judge recognised that the defendant had made several unsuccessful attempts to sell the house, which is valued at €380,000, and had been unable to work as a bricklayer since 2006 due to muscle deterioration of his shoulder.
The judge also noted that the defendant’s wife had given birth to a son with severe bilateral club foot just days after he discontinued work and that the defendant had offered to pay €100 a week towards arrears from his social welfare payments.
Another adjourned case involved arrears of €49,260, with a total of more than €400,000 owed. The defendant said she was selling her car and breeding dogs to raise money for the repayments.
She said she hoped to get €7,000 for her car and €6,500 from the sale of the dogs, adding that she was expecting mortgage subsidies of €1,500 a month from the HSE.