OWNERS OF a Co Wexford property lost their battle with mortgage repayments yesterday, after mounting arrears in excess of €73,000 resulted in the repossession of their home.
The homeowners struggled with high interest rates which meant they would have to pay subprime lender Start Mortgages €970,283.88 for a €315,000 mortgage over a 37-year period.
The homeowners had drawn down the mortgage at the height of the boom in 2006, but continued to struggle with monthly repayments of €2181.27.
As a result, arrears totalling €73,449.25 had accumulated.
The case was one of 76 heard at yesterday’s weekly chancery summonses hearing in the High Court, in which repossession of homes and lands reached record levels.
The majority of properties handed over to mortgage lenders were purchased during the height of the boom in 2006.
Subprime lender Start Mortgages was granted nine of the 15 orders handed down.
Possession of a Co Waterford property was handed over to Start, after the homeowners failed to pay 21 monthly mortgage repayments.
The mortgage holders took out the mortgage for €170,000 on the property in June 2006, but began defaulting on the €1108.02 monthly repayments less than a year later. As a result, arrears in excess of €20,000 accumulated on the loan.
In another case, the lender was granted possession of a residential investment property in Co Kildare, for which arrears of €15,000 had accumulated.
Some €160,000 had been lent in July 2006, and the first default came just three months later.
A five-month stay was granted in the hope the defendants might come to an arrangement with the lender. They had made a payment of €13,000 toward arrears in February last year.
Start mortgages were also granted possession of a property on which no mortgage repayments had been made since November 2007. Arrears of €24,481.11 had accrued.
The homeowner told the court he had seven people interested in purchasing the property, and that it was likely one of them would be able to get the financing to do so.
The judge granted an order against the homeowner, but awarded him five months’ stay in the hope someone would buy the property.