A mother of four on social welfare has been given six months to get out of the €700,000 period house her bank claims she bought as an investment property and turned into a family home.
Judge Margaret Heneghan, in a special vacation sitting of the Circuit Civil Court, made an order directing jobless Mary White to give the three-storey seven-room property in fashionable Dublin 6 back to the bank.
Barrister Anne Lawlor, for Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank, said that since 2010 Ms White had not made a single repayment on three loans totalling €469,000 which she had taken out 10 years ago and now owed €209,806 in arrears.
She said the balance currently outstanding to the bank was €569,960 and rising because of interest charges.
"The bank has done everything in its power to assist Ms White but because of her financial position repayment or servicing of the loans is unsustainable," Ms Lawlor said.
Fiona Cassidy, arrears support unit manager with the bank, told the court the loans were secured on 190 Upper Rathmines Road, Dublin 6. In October 2009 the bank had demanded repayment of all sums with interest which Ms White had failed to discharge.
She said the bank sought to repossess and sell the house where Ms White's four children, two of whom were dependent , lived with her partner Paul Healy.
Ms Cassidy said there may be other people living in the house but she was unaware of their identity.
In 2011 the bank held back on possession proceedings when Ms White put the property up for sale but she refused an offer of €600,000 because it was inadequate to pay off the mortgages and meet a judgment against the property by Sandford Park School, Ranelagh, and a High Court judgment against it by Paul Healy.
An advertisement on www.property.ie described the 2,616 sq ft house as a bay fronted period town house featuring a number of marble and cast iron fireplaces, ornate ceiling roses and cornices with a south facing rear garden and original polished timber floors.
The court heard the house was an investment property when the loans were drawn down but later, unknown to the bank, it had become the principal private residence of Ms White, also a co-owner in a house, Merje, Baltrasna, Ashbourne, Co Meath.
Ms Cassidy said the loans consisted of €150,000 granted to take over an AIB Residential Investment Loan; €239,000 equity release for extension of the family home and €80,000 was for renovation of the family home.
She said every reasonable effort had been made to apply the requirements of the Central Bank's Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears to the loans and a number of moratorium facilities had been granted. The bank had withdrawn its forbearance to facilitate alternative repayment plans. The Mortgage Appeals Board agreed the debt was unsustainable.
Judge Heneghan heard that the current open market capital value with vacant possession and good marketable title was today in the region of €700,000 just over half its value at the peak of the boom. There was still equity in the property and Ms White and her family would still benefit from that.
Ms White, who represented herself, stated in almost 30 pages of affidavits that the bank was seeking her home for wrongful gain and theft and alleged its officials had engaged "in unscrupulous actions" in which they had committed acts of perjury. She said the court had been provided with fictional written documents.
She said she had mounted a €2 million action through the High Court for defamation of character against the bank which she accused of reckless acts in which it had caused her alarming upset by notifying a third party, Paul Healy, of the litigation against her.
Judge Heneghan said she had meticulously read all documents in the case and was satisfied the application for possession was properly before the court. She said Ms White was registered as a co-owner of Merje, Baltrasna, Ratoath Road, Ashbourne.
She accepted that in the circumstances that repayment of the loans were unsustainable and granted the bank possession of No 190 with a stay on execution of her order for six months. She awarded costs against Ms White.
Ms White's last words to the court were: "I have been on social welfare since 2004. Now everything has been taken from me."
