‘Self-serving’ builder ordered to complete sale of family home

A builder described by a High Court judge as “a poor and self-serving historian with little consideration for the effects on others of his story-telling” has been ordered to complete the sale of his family home.

Mr Justice Tony O’Connor said he did not need to consider whether Gavin Crowley “committed perjury, is delusional or suffers from memory alteration due to strained circumstances”.

The court only needed to be satisfied to make its decision on the relevant standard of proof, the balance of probabilities, he said.

The judge rejected Mr Crowley’s claim that the purchaser of his home - once valued at €1.5 million - had offered to make an “under the table” €50,000 part-payment towards the price to defraud Revenue of tax due on the sale of the property in Kilsallaghan, near Swords, Co Dublin.

The judge was persuaded Mr Crowley “will stop at nothing” to hinder the buyer of his home, Brian Leggett, from completing the purchase.

The house was built in 2003 and Mr Crowley lived there with his partner along with his father who, it was claimed, had contributed €50,000 of the €600,000 building cost.

With a valuation of €1.5 million, Mr Crowley used his home as security for loans from Bank of Scotland (BoS) totalling €975,000 to acquire other properties. When the building industry collapsed, BoS appointed a receiver in 2012 over all his properties including his home.

He offered to sell his home and BoS said he would have to provide some €445,000 in cleared funds to release the security over his home. Mr Crowley said the asking price was €525,000

Mr Justice O’Connor said the purchaser, Mr Leggett, offered €475,000 and a €10,000 booking deposit was paid. The price was later renegotiated down to €460,000.

Contracts for sale were signed by Mr Leggett in January 2014 with a further €36,000 to meet the 10 per cent sale price deposit requirement. The contract was executed by Mr Crowley but then an attempt was made to pull out and refund the €36,000.

Mr Leggett brought High Court proceedings seeking specific performance of the sale contract by Mr Crowley.

In his defence, Mr Crowley claimed, among other things, the contract for sale was unenforceable due to illegality where he alleged a €50,000 cash payment was agreed between him and Mr Leggett. This would mean Revenue and the bank would be told the sale price was €475,000 when it would fact be €525,000, he claimed.

Mr Leggett “calmly but firmly” denied he ever told Mr Crowley this cash would come from his business and properties in Spain and Eastern Europe, the judge said.

“There was not a shred of corroborating evidence to support these serious allegations”, the judge added.

The judge rejected Mr Crowley’s argument that specific performance should not be granted because of a boundary dispute over the property.

He further rejected claims the sale would cause exceptional hardship as Mr Crowley’s father, who lives in the property, would lose his home and receive no compensation for the €50,000 he put into the house.

Mr Justice O’Connor said Mr Crowley entered into the contract willingly in an effort to deal with his bank debts. He was willing to sell his home in 2014 and no exceptional circumstances arose at that time, the period the court must look at.

After saying Smart Mortgages, which took over the BoS charge on the house, is entitled to make representations before the court makes final orders, he adjourned the matter to a later date.