A HIGH Court judge has said it is “extraordinary” that in some cases of repossession, people who are in receipt of rent from investment properties do not pass the rent on to the mortgage lender.
Some 17 orders for possession were granted at the High Court yesterday, among the highest numbers granted in any one sitting.
Commenting on an application by Ulster Bank for an order for possession of a buy-to-let property with arrears of almost €44,000, Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne noted the borrower was actually receiving rent for his property. But he had not passed it on to the lender to whom he owed €185,000.
“It is extraordinary how many people seem to think they can take the rent and not pay [the mortgage],” she said.
Counsel for the lender said his client, who had 28 properties, “had his head in the sand” and had been “overwhelmed by the extent of his liabilities”, but “the penny had finally dropped”.
He put some property on the market last Friday, counsel said, and he was trying to address his problems.
The judge acknowledged the borrower was engaging with the lender, even if it was “at the 11th hour”, and she agreed to adjourn the case to give him time to address matters.
Start Mortgages Ltd applied to repossess a home in Kilkenny. The court was told a couple transferred their home to their son in 2002 with an agreement they could continue to live there.
He took out a mortgage of €154,000 in 2006. He bought a separate property in Carlow, partly with a mortgage from another lender, and lived in it for a while before renting it out and moving back with his parents. He moved out again after four weeks.
“Unbeknownst to them, he stopped paying the mortgage,” counsel for the lender said.
The lender had agreed with the parents that they could remain in the house until the end of January 2012 and they had agreed not to contest the repossession order. But they had failed to reach agreement with their son, who appeared to be evading the service of court documents.
Ms Justice Dunne granted the order and said legal costs should only be charged against the son.
In a case taken by Stepstone Mortgage Funding Ltd, a father appeared in court for the second time to plead on behalf of his daughter.
The court was told the couple involved were in arrears of €32,000 with their home. They had two children, but were now separated.
The father told the judge he had hopes of a reconciliation and had been encouraging them to get counselling. “I’ve seen a softening in their attitude,” he said.
But counsel for the husband said she was not optimistic. She had initiated family law proceedings on behalf of her client, she said, and she asked the judge not to make an order pending the conclusion of those proceedings.
The mortgage was “relatively small” and they both had good equity in the house, which could be sold as part of a separation agreement.
The judge adjourned the case to allow the property to be valued and told the father his daughter should attend court the next time.
Ms Justice Dunne also agreed to adjourn a case against a man who had made no mortgage payments for nearly two years and owed arrears on his property in Co Meath of almost €30,000. The man had lost his job in the construction industry.
He told the court he had a contract with the ESB to sell some of his land and he would use the proceeds to pay his debt. But the contract was subject to planning permission for an interconnector being granted.
He asked for additional time and was given until mid-May to see if he could “finalise matters”.
In a separate case involving Start Mortgages, a Monaghan couple who remortgaged their home with a loan of €100,000 in 2006, got into “immediate difficulties”, the court was told. The couple, who had two children, now owed arrears of almost €60,000.
Ms Justice Dunne granted an order for possession of the property with a stay, or delay, of six months.
