Judgement Mortgage

I am trying to help a frient to get on top of bills and have just discovered a bank has registered a judgement mortgage for €14000, should she start to pay or is it now too late. Thank you.

Can I add to the OP's question:- does the value of the judgement mortgage increase as time goes by, by (say) a certain percentage every year until the house is sold ?

From memory a judgment mortgage sum attracts simple interest at a certain rate. years ago it was 4% but i think it may now be 8% or so and i think someone suggested that the rate should be reduced to lessen the liability.

A judgment attracts interest from the date of the judgment (not the date of registration of the judgment mortgage) at Court rate (about 8% iirc).
the judgment mortgage secures the debt against the property - i.e. anyone buying it buys it subject to the debt, so if your friend is thinking of selling, it will have to be either paid off, or an arrangement that the debt will be paid out of the proceeds of the sale will have to be made.
If your friend doesn't attempt to pay off the debt, in theory the creditor can apply to court for a well charging order, which gives them a power of sale over the property, and ultimately they can apply for an order for possession and order for sale.

In short, it's not too late to start paying off, but for the reasons above, it would be a very good idea to start paying it off.

The other option is to bury the head for 12 years and hope that the creditor forgets about the debt and the Statute of Limitations period runs, and then apply to get it cancelled on the basis it's statute barred, but that is obviously a very risky strategy.

In any event a Judgement Mortgage expires after 12 years. It can also be cancelled if the solictor that swore the affidavit made mistakes as to the description of the debtor. It is a very common error and it invalidates the whole judgement mortgage.

Also in todays world of negative equity, a Judge is not going to grant a well charging order where the proceeds of the house would not pay off the original mortgage (which has priority over the JM) and the JM. The bank may do absolutely nothing with the JM as there is a good chance a debtor may sell his house of his own accord with 12 years.

Also if mistakes have been made by a lazy solicitor and they seek a well charging order, you can have the JM ruled invalid and hit the bank for costs.

Thank you all for the advice.