Woman told pay €99,000 debt or house will be sold

THE HIGH Court has told an unemployed woman from south Dublin to make arrangements to pay a debt of €99,000 by July or her house will be put up for sale.

The woman, from Blackrock, incurred the debt when a personal injuries claim was taken out against her after a boating accident.

Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne granted six orders for possession at the High Court yesterday. Two orders were granted to Irish Nationwide Building Society and one each to Bank of Ireland, Bank of Scotland, the Educational Building Society and Secured Property Loans Ltd.

Five of the orders had been agreed to by the borrowers in advance of the hearings.

The majority of the 60 cases were adjourned, including all 28 taken by subprime lender Start Mortgage Ltd.

The woman told the court she did not know how she would repay a debt of €99,000 she owed after a boating accident. The accident resulted in a friend of her sons having his arm damaged. He took a personal injuries case and was awarded the money.

Yesterday, counsel for the injured party applied for a well-charging order on the woman’s family home. When a well-charging order is granted, a defendant has three months to pay the debt or the property is put up for sale.

In a letter handed in to the court, the woman said she had been living in the area since 1995. She was self-employed, but her business failed as a result of the construction industry crash.

She said she already had a mortgage of €350,000 on her home which she had difficulty paying and the Irish Nationwide Building Society had agreed to give her an interest-only moratorium. Even this was being paid with the help of her mother and sister. The house was now valued at €455,000.

“I have no means to pay this,” the woman said.

Ms Justice Dunne said if she sold the property there would be very little left.

“You might get €50,000 on the best day if the property was sold,” she said.

The judge said she was reluctant to grant the order if there was any possibility some arrangement could be reached, though the plaintiff was entitled to it.

The woman said she did not believe anyone would give her a loan, but if she found a job she could start paying.

The judge agreed to adjourn the case until July and told her to talk to the plaintiff’s solicitor to try to make some arrangement. She warned the woman an order would be granted in July if she did not come to some arrangement.

Also at yesterday’s session of the court Ms Justice Dunne refused to grant an order for possession against a man who had promised to give his payments from the Department of Agriculture to Ulster Bank Ireland Ltd and then failed to do so. The payments were due under the EU backed Rural Environment Protection scheme known as Reps.

He had taken out a loan of €80,000 in 2005 secured on land in Donegal. He owed arrears of over €25,000. When the case was last in court, the borrower had promised to pass on €13,000 in Reps payments to the bank. But because of an inordinate delay in payments under the scheme, he had not received the money.

The judge adjourned the case until May to allow the payments to come through.