POSSESSION OF three homes was granted to sub-prime lender Start mortgages by the High Court yesterday, as repossession proceedings got under way in 48 cases.
A possession order was also granted against a music venue in Co Wexford at the weekly chancery summonses hearing before Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne.
Possession of a Co Dublin property was granted to Start mortgages, after the owner accrued mortgage arrears of €13,000.
The defendant, a taxi driver, represented himself in court, saying he was unable to obtain free legal aid due to long waiting lists. He said he was not in a position to make payments as he was on tablets following a liver transplant, and they made it impossible for him to work at times.
He admitted the current loan was a remortgage situation as he had difficulties making mortgage repayments in the past.
He requested more time to put his financial affairs into order but this was rejected by the mortgage lender, who said he had put forward proposals through the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) in December to pay €1,600 per month, but never honoured the proposals.
A second possession order was granted to Start mortgages, after the defendant never honoured proposals to make repayments.
In 2008, the defendant said he had difficulty making repayments as he had lost his job, but gave assurances to make weekly contributions to the mortgage payments and arrears. However, this was never followed through, with arrears of €17,457 and a total outstanding balance of €201,000 owed. Some €184,500 was advanced by Start mortgages on October 10th, 2007, for the purchase of a family home, with the first default in repayments occurring the following month. Counsel for the lender told the court “the defendants haven’t even paid half the monthly repayments since the loan was drawn down in 2007”.
Possession of licensed premises in Co Wexford was granted to Bank of Ireland, for which debt in excess of €547,000 was outstanding. The bank had advanced a commercial mortgage of €530,000 along with an overdraft of €32,000 to the limited company.
A number of cases were adjourned at the hearing to give defendants “one last opportunity” to make payments or come to an agreement with the bank or mortgage lender.
Costs in a number of the cases were awarded at Circuit Court level, with Ms Justice Dunne saying “proceedings could have been brought there”.