A JOBLESS electrician planning to emigrate to Canada next week has told a court he may give back the family home he claimed he could not afford to keep.
Gavin O’Brien told county registrar Susan Ryan yesterday the repayments on his home at Drynam Road, Swords, Co Dublin, were €3,000 a month.
He said that before he left for Canada next Wednesday, he would offer Irish Nationwide Building Society €1,000 a month towards the repayments and, if it was not happy with that, it could take the house.
Anne Lawlor, for the building society, said she did not believe the bank could enter an arrangement where it would be allowing current arrears of €50,000 to increase monthly by €2,000.
Mr O’Brien told Dublin Circuit Civil Court he lived with his girlfriend, who was not identified, in the house.
“With the construction industry in the state it is in, it is impossible to get a job and I am emigrating to Canada on the 21st of this month,” he said. “My girlfriend will follow me out a month later.”
He told Ms Ryan he planned to rent the house for €1,000 a month, which he would pass on to Irish Nationwide. He would top up this repayment as best he could from Canada.
Mr O’Brien, who represented himself in court, said his brother was a “sleeping partner” on the Irish Nationwide mortgage, but that the house belonged to him.
“There are two other properties paying their mortgage and have equity in them,” he said.
His brother Damien O’Brien, although named in the proceedings, was not in court and was not legally represented.
Ms Ryan said she would grant the building society an order for possession with a stay for two months to allow Mr O’Brien to put his proposals to them.
Mr O’Brien told the court: “If they are happy with that, they are happy. If not, they can just go ahead.”