THE LONG arm of legal compliance is reaching out to at least 20 people who bought apartments from Treasury Holdings at the height of the boom.
Yesterday one of them, Mary O’Kennedy, from Sandymount, Dublin, had a judgment made against her for €505,000, having reneged on the purchase of an apartment in the Spencer Dock development on North Wall Quay.
Ms O’Kennedy had originally paid a deposit of €20,000 and signed a contract to buy the two-bedroom unit priced at €525,000.
It is now though to be worth less than €300,000.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane was told there had been “no engagement whatsoever” since October last year by Ms O’Kennedy.
Treasury Holdings, which is one of the top 10 property companies, is due to have its loans transferred into the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). It is also pursuing about 20 other investors who booked apartments in Spencer Dock but who now claim they are unable to complete the deals.
A week ago, a widow with a €6 million mortgage went to court seeking to resist an application by Treasury Holdings’ Spencer Dock Development Company for an order directing her to complete the purchase of an apartment.
Anne Cassidy, of The Birches, Foxrock, Dublin, had paid a deposit of €100,000 and was contracted to pay a further €320,000 for the apartment. The case was adjourned when she explained that she had failed to raise a mortgage on the apartment.
At least two other property developers are expected to take similar court action against reluctant buyers in the coming months.
John Lally, who has built over 200 apartments in Sandyford and has sale contracts on many of them at about €500,000 each, is reported to be planning to take court action to force the sales.
Jim Kennedy, who has also completed over 200 apartments in the former Clancy Barracks along the Liffey opposite the Phoenix Park, sold many of them for about €450,000 before the property market collapse.
None of the units have so far been occupied, although the building has been completed for several months. In each case, apartments would have been booked with relatively small deposits. Many investors would have believed that they could walk away from deals, and merely forfeit their deposits.
Treasury had been pursuing Ms O’Kennedy since last March to complete on her apartment.
Judge Linnane granted the company judgment for €505,000 and ordered costs against Ms O’Kennedy.