A BUSINESSMAN yesterday had his attempt to have a five-year stay put on the sale of one of his properties, in order to allow time for the market to improve, rejected by a High Court judge.
Addressing Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne at the Chancery summons court in Dublin, the man said the price currently being suggested by the auctioneer handling the sale of the property would not come "anything near" to realising its true value.
There was also an "inherent value" in the property, which had a significant rent roll, he said.Were the property to be disposed of now, that value would "disappear".
However, counsel for Euler Hermes Kreditversicherungs, which was seeking an order for sale of the property, rejected the plan, noting that the proposal was that his client should "effectively do nothing for five years".
The total sums involved were approximately €1.8 million, he noted.
Commenting, Ms Justice Dunne told the man that the suggestion that a stay of five years be placed on the sale was "simply not an option".
While she would be willing to consider a "realistic stay", five years was not such a realistic stay "by any stretch of the imagination", she said.
She asked the man, as someone who had told the court he has been in business for 20 years, to imagine his reaction if one of his debtors came to him and said they did not want to pay him for five years.
However, she said it was important that the property achieved the best possible price. "That does not involve waiting five years to see what the price is like," she said.
She noted that the property had been up for sale for some time already, and put what she termed a "slightly unusual" stay of six months on the sale, provided the carriage of the sale remains with the current auctioneer.
After this six-month period had elapsed, it would be up to the plaintiff to decide how best to deal with the sale of the property, should this be necessary.
The case was one of 32 which were before the Chancery summons court yesterday, many of which were adjourned to a later date. Eighteen of the cases related to the specialist lender, Start Mortgages, with other financial institutions represented at yesterday's hearing including Ulster Bank, AIB, and IIB Homeloans.