DEVELOPER AND landlord David Grant faces losing his €1.25 million former Dublin home to Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Ltd on foot of an unpaid mortgage.
Barrister Anne Lawlor told Dublin County Registrar’s Court yesterday that Mr Grant owed the bank an outstanding balance of just over €1.3 million on a house on Haddington Road, Ballsbridge.
She told county registrar Susan Ryan that Mr Grant owed repayment arrears of €75,700, which amounted to 30 unpaid monthly instalments of €2,171 and interest.
Ms Lawlor said the bank was seeking possession of the property. Its application had been adjourned from June after the court had been told Mr Grant’s partner and three-year-old child now lived in the house. She said the property had initially been valued at about €1.5 million but a position of negative equity now existed for the bank.
A barrister for Mr Grant, who was not in court, said the basement of the house had now been rented to tenants on a 10-month lease at €1,000 a month.
Ms Lawlor said the bank had no knowledge of the new tenancy and would require time to serve the tenants with notice of its application for possession.
Ms Ryan said things were very unsatisfactory. While the bank held other accounts with Mr Grant, it was treating the mortgage on Haddington Road separately. If Mr Grant did not engage with the bank, an order for possession might well prove inevitable.
“He will have to show his bona fides in respect of this matter,” Ms Ryan added. “It is very serious because of the negative equity situation and the extent of the arrears.”
Adjourning the application for a month, she said it was not satisfactory that the bank had been given no information on the tenancy.
Mr Grant’s claim to be an architect was questioned on an RTÉ Prime Time programme in 2007, after which he said his architectural business had been destroyed overnight.
Afterwards he had set up business as Inspire Design in east London. Last May he had been charged and ordered by Stratford London magistrates court to pay €6,000 in fines and costs for falsely listing himself as an architect in the telephone directory and on his company website.