Andrew Carey
andrew@limerickpost.ie
BANKS and lending institutions that have failed to engage with distressed borrowers have been heavily criticised for their “outrageous tactics to get young families out on the street just so they can sell a house”.
The comments came during last Friday’s hearing of the County Registrar’s list at Limerick Circuit Court dealing with more than 200 applications from lending institutions to repossess the homes of distressed borrowers.
Responding to the application by Ulster Bank to repossess the home of a young Limerick family, solicitor Ger O’Neill told county registrar Pat Wallace that on three occasions during the summer he wrote to the bank informing them that the family were taking up the mortgage to rent scheme.
He got no response and nor were any of his follow-up phone calls returned.
“It’s a disgrace to think that they can act like this and put a family out on the road without any reply. They refuse to correspond and they need to sign off on the scheme for it to be advanced. The seem to acknowledge my calls, but can’t phone me back. It’s a family home and they want to put them out on the street.”
Refusing the bank’s repossession application, Mr Wallace adjourned it to next January and said that he was “directing the bank to respond to the letters, engage and outline their position to the court”.
In a number of other similar cases, he ordered that the banks engage with lenders and for the majority of the remaining cases, he encouraged borrowers to continue with their efforts in repaying borrowings.
One solicitor told the court how she was surprised to see her client in the repossession process because she had paid her mortgage in full. “It is clear that the right arm of the bank does not know what the left arm is doing”, she said.
Mr Wallace adjourned the matter for six months to allow engagement between the parties.
A farmer who owed the bank €500,000 said he was selling over 40 acres of land to help clear his debt.
The 200 cases listed before the Limerick Court last week was described by Limerick Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins as “another demonstration of how the banks are failing to deal with distressed borrowers”.
Deputy Collins, who sat in the body of the court for proceedings, said that one woman had offered the bank money but they refused to accept it and told her that they just wanted to proceed with the repossession.
“In another case, an elderly lady told the court she was trying to offer money to the bank but they were trying to lock her out. She was even trying to pay the stop-gap in her mortgage with her visa card.
“Another lady who had to take two years off work to look after her very very sick daughter found herself dragged before the court on repossession proceedings.
“There is an agenda with the banks to repossess properties and throw people out of their homes rather than to engage with them”, he said.
