EIGHT ORDERS for possession were granted at the High Court yesterday, including three for home mortgages that went into arrears shortly after they were taken out.
In a case involving Stepstone Mortgage Funding Ltd, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne was told a Co Cork couple who had two children borrowed €420,000 to consolidate their home mortgage and provide funds for the husband’s haulage business, which had run into difficulties.
The loan was taken out in early 2008 at an interest rate of 10.22 per cent and was in arrears within six weeks of its being drawn down.
The business subsequently failed and the husband became unemployed, counsel for the lender said. The couple owed arrears of almost €98,000 with a total debt of more than €520,000.
Counsel for the borrower said there had been “a perfect storm of bad luck” against his client. His business had collapsed, then property values had collapsed. The husband had sworn an affidavit alleging there there was an element of reckless lending on behalf of Stepstone.
He claimed he was “too close” to his situation to make the right decision when he borrowed, and had little education, but the lenders were experts and should have been able to see he had no chance of repaying the loan.
Ms Justice Dunne noted the accusation of reckless lending, but said there was also a concept of reckless borrowing.
She pointed out that on the application for the loan the purpose recorded was “loan consolidation and home improvements”. She also said the husband had stated at the time he borrowed the money he believed he could repay it. “Like many, many, other people”, he had suffered from the collapse of the economy, she said, but he had no legal defence to the case.
“I sympathise with his situation, but there is very little I can do,” she said. She granted an order for possession with a stay, or delay of execution, for six months.
An order for possession was also granted in a case involving Leeds Building Society. The couple involved borrowed €584,000 in September 2007 and went into arrears in November the same year.
And in a case involving Start Mortgages Ltd, the court heard a Co Kildare couple borrowed €210,000 in August 2007, paid one repayment and then went into arrears. An order was granted for their home.
But the judge declined to grant an order to GE Capital Woodchester Homeloans Ltd when she heard that the couple involved was expecting a baby in four weeks’ time, that the husband had started a new job and that they had been making small, but reasonably regular payments to the lender.
She adjourned the case until July.
