Lessons from revisiting the Possession Courts in Dublin, February 2018

[Brendan Burgess]

It's a couple of years since Séamus Coffey, Karl Deeter and I reported on our visits to the Registrars' Courts around the country. I was in the Dublin Court on Thursday 8th and Friday 9th, to see if much has changed.

Of course, this is the Dublin court only. Practices vary around the country.

36% of borrowers attended court or were represented - that is up from 24% two years ago.

Profiles of the one order granted against family home
Lender KBC
Borrower attended court with solicitor and barrister
6 months stay
€50k arrears on a mortgage of €222k
Paid €30k in November 17 as promised last time in court.
Previous payment was €200 in May 2014
"Paid" €1,500 in December and January but into wrong account in KBC

Comment: It doesn't seem very clever to pay a €30k lump sum. If he had that money, he should have been paying €3k a month regularly. If he continues paying his mortgage, KBC will probably not enforce the order. They will just hold it over him to get him to keep paying.

Lessons for borrowers facing repossession proceedings

• Pay as much as you can
  
• Engage with the lender - in particular send in an SFS with all the supporting documentation
  
• Ask the lender for a meeting well in advance of the court date. If they refuse, it will look good for you.
  
• Show up in court - even if the bank tells you that they will be applying for an adjournment
  
• Bring all your paperwork to court with you - you might be asked for it
  
• If an employee of the bank told you something, make sure you know the name of the employee and the date of the call - Don't say "one of their staff told me over the phone that they would do a deal with me."
  
• Don't rely on legal arguments - if you are paying your mortgage, you won't need them
  
• There is no need for a solicitor or barrister - they often just get in the way
  
• The Registrar will listen to your story carefully and give you plenty of time. She will be polite as long as you don't mislead the court or play games
  
• Don't leave things to the day before the court case - that annoys the Registrar. Submit your SFS in good time. If you are making a payment, make it in good time.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

What hasn't changed since two years ago

• Still no evidence of a tsunami of repossessions
  
• Banks and their legal teams astonishingly disorganised and incompetent - civil bills have expired before being served; one case struck out for want of prosecution; solicitors on record just not showing up.
• Registrar still exasperated by the banks' disorganisation.
  
• Very, very difficult for a lender to get an order

What has changed

• The length of the adjournments, 3 or 4 months, is much shorter - I presume because there are fewer cases to be dealt with
  
• Very short adjournments in a few cases where Registrar seemed inclined to grant an order but gave the borrower one last chance
  
• Quite a few cases where the borrower has been paying the mortgage in full for a few years but unable to deal with arrears from 4 or 5 years ago
  
• 21 cases from vulture funds. Tanager: 11; Shoreline:3;Promontoria:3, Havbell:3; Mars 1
  
• Trackers getting a mention. Two cases adjourned because there was "no averment on the tracker mortgage" on file. Some borrowers chanced their arm by claiming they wanted to know if they were affected by the "tracker scandal". The Registrar gave them short shrift.
  
• 3 cases adjourned due to Tanager vs. Ralf Kane case
• 36% of borrowers attended court or were represented - that is up from 24% two years ago.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

It's a relatively small sample of 92 cases, but AIB/EBS/Haven had 42 cases, while Bank of Ireland had only 6.

Two years ago, Bank of Ireland had the fewest cases, despite their reputation for being the toughest to deal with.

This would be easy enough to check by looking at the court lists for a few different courts in recent months.

Brendan

 

[Browner]

Great report Brendan.
Thank you for the update.