Close to 40 home repossession cases came before

Longford Circuit Court last week.

It comes after figures released last month showed 49,000 homeowners nationwide were being taken to the courts over mortgage payment difficulties.

The Leader attended a sitting of Longford Circuit Court last Wednesday, presided over by County Registrar Imelda Brannigan.

A total of 37 cases were mentioned, the majority of which were either adjourned or put back for a return date at the beginning of April.

Almost all of the proceedings heard involved some of the State’s biggest lenders:Bank of Ireland, AIB, EBS, KBC and Permanent TSB.

Interestingly, it was the last-named mortgage provider which had the most repossession cases before the court.

The State-rescued bank returned a total of nine cases, closely followed by KBC (7) and EBS (6).

Ulster Bank had four cases in for mention while the State’s two largest banks, Bank of Ireland and AIB, appeared the least, with five cases between them.

Subprime lenders, Springboard Mortgages and Start Mortgages, together with Australian firm Pepper, made up the remainder during a quick-fire morning session.

In a further insight into the mortgage problems facing some families, only a handful of homeowners showed up as their cases were called out.

One of those involved an application by a well-known lender to seek possession of an unnamed property and an order for sale.

Another distressed mortgage holder, who represented himself, told of the difficulties he was having in trying to establish contact with his bank’s legal representatives.

Last week’s sitting comes hot on the heels of recent research carried out by the country’s biggest stockbroking house, Davy.

That showed the Irish court system is ill-equipped to deal with the 31,000 Irish mortgage holders against whom banks have initiated legal proceedings.