Hope this isnt an insensitive/silly question but from your time spent in court, did you get any insight into how other cases are being treated? Are people being given any leeway to go and try and do deals with banks? Have you seen many repossessions of family home being granted even where payments, partial or otherwise, are being paid each month?.
I'm really glad to answer any questions so please, ask as much as you like.
Before I was in court myself I had read so many articles, reports, forum chats etc about repossession and two things
seemed apparent. The attitude of courts in different areas varied widely and secondly, it was unlikely that you would have your home repossessed if you were making some type of payment.
I can only speak about the Dublin court as I've no experience of any others.
did you get any insight into how other cases are being treated?
The Registrar speaks very kindly to the people before her, especially on their first appearance. She will exlplain very clearly that no order for repossession will be made at the first hearing. There will be representatives from MABS and the ISI there who will be bale to provide advice and assistance too. The court is operated very much in consideration that it will be most peoples first experience of a court.
Are people being given any leeway to go and try and do deals with banks?
I went to the court before my hearing to see how it worked and I was surprised that what I had imagined was very different to what was happening in practice. The Registrar was quite strict against the plaintiffs(banks) and defendants for cases that were on the second or later hearing. On a number of cases she clearly stated that her court was not an "adjournment jurisdiction". By this she means that if cases come before her, it should be expected that an order for possession is sought as quickly as possible or esle the case is struck out. She did not seem to look favourably on allowing time for negotiation and gave the impression that the time for this was before the case came before the courts. This was directed at both plaintiffs and defendants. In the cases where she did give an adjournment, many were stated as "peremptory". This means that the adjournment is final and the case will be dealt with on the next day.
Have you seen many repossessions of family home being granted even where payments, partial or otherwise, are being paid each month?.
Yes, I have seen this,not in many of the cases though. As I mentioned above, she clearly stated in her court that the result of the case being brought is that it will ultimately need a possession order or a strike out. I get the impression that it will reach this sooner in upcoming cases than it has previously.
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My experience of the court prior to my hearing hugely influenced our decision to consent to the repossession. The government had stated that banks were just issuing repossession orders to get borrowers to engage. If this is the case, it is clear that the Registrar in Dublin frowns upon the practice.
It could be worth having a look at this thread too:
http://askaboutmoney.com/threads/du...-repossession-increases-significantly.196963/
If you do find yourself facing a court date, make sure you attend. Although daunting, there is plenty of support available.