Family home order-for-sale case adjourned

An application for an order for sale of a family home in Co Roscommon was adjourned by the High Court yesterday after the owner said the property was not part of the security of his loan.

Danske Bank, formerly National Irish Bank, had applied for an order for sale of three separate properties in Leitrim and Roscommon. The Leitrim property, a four-acre industrial site, and one of the Roscommon properties, consisting of 31 acres of land, had been used as security for a loan.

The loan was defaulted on and the bank obtained judgment against the borrower in 2011 for more than €820,000. It then registered judgment mortgages against the two properties that were part of the security and a third property: 10 acres in Co Roscommon.

In court yesterday, the borrower said the third property was his family home. He produced an affidavit and photos.

“I should have the right to remain there. It is my family home . . . we have no other place to go,” he said. He argued he had agreed to the €820,000 judgment against him but only on the basis the bank would come after properties that were security for the original loan.

Mr Justice John Cooke said that as the bank had obtained a judgment against him it could obtain a charge over any of his property. Counsel for the lender said his instructions had “always been that there was no family home”. If there was, his client would seek an order only on the portion of the home that belonged to the borrower, he said.

The judge said he had “better find out” if there was a family home involved. He granted an order for sale confined to the first two properties and adjourned the case in relation to the third property until April.

Resume payments

The judge also adjourned a case involving Stepstone Mortgage Funding Ltd, after hearing a separated father of three might be able to resume payments. The borrower owed arrears of €23,000 on his loan, counsel for the lender said.

A solicitor for the borrower said his client made “hurleys for a living”. He had paid €8,600 toward his mortgage in 2012; “a substantial amount of money”, but it was seasonal work and he had not been able to pay anything since October 2012. The solicitor said his client would be able to begin repayments of €800 a month from March and he would try to pay down the arrears. The judge granted an adjournment.