Registrar seeks more details from banks in repossession cases

A bank must be able to tell a court if the house it seeks to repossess is a family home and primary residence or an investment property, a county registrar ordered yesterday.

Pádraig Burke, the county registrar for Kerry, also told the legal representatives for the various lending institutions seeking repossession orders at the Circuit Court in Tralee that they must furnish full details of the stress-test analysis they carried out on the applicants at the time of granting a mortgage.

The market value of the house at the time of purchase and its current market value must also be provided, said Mr Burke.

Some 36 applications were before the county registrar at the Possession and Well-Charging Court at Tralee Circuit Court. The majority were applications for possession of houses and were before the court for the first time.

Twenty-three were brought by Ulster Bank.

Among the other lending institutions represented were the liquidated Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Bank of Scotland (Ireland), Irish Life and Permanent and the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.

Most of the defendants were unrepresented. Even though the civil Bill for repossession had been served on them, there had been no written response to the Bills in many cases, the court heard.

Health problems
In the case of one woman who had health problems and was expecting her first child, no repayments had been made on the €142,500 mortgage taken out in 2007.

The county registrar said that she must be advised to go to a community welfare and council housing officers and he adjourned the matter for eight weeks to allow affidavits to be exchanged between the parties.

In adjourning the cases, Mr Burke ordered that the banks swear and exchange affidavits exhibiting a copy of the original loan application as well as the full stress-test analysis carried out by the banks at the time of lending.

“When you are coming in the next day we will want to know if these are family homes,” he told the solicitors representing the banks.

Other items to be furnished in the exchange of affidavits between the parties are current and past market value, copy of the loan account and full details of excess and of interest charged.

The defendants must set out, again by sworn affidavit, statement of means, outlining assets, liabilities and income fully vouched, and a draft budget for the next 12 months.