Families face nightmare of repossession

The owners of 1,500 homes across the county are facing the renewed prospect of repossession by the financial institutions who provided them with mortgages they now cannot afford to repay.

This week has seen more than 100 of these home owners – many with young school-going children – before Galway Circuit Court having been issued with legal proceedings by the lending institutions.

Fifteen repossession orders made – a mix of family homes and investment properties – while others were granted stays on the order for several months so that they could try and come to an arrangement with the banks and lending firms.

One family from East Galway asked to remain in their home until their son completes his Leaving Cert next year as they didn’t want his routine disrupted by a change of home. This was granted.

Many of those before the Repossession Court in Galway this week had obtained mortgages for investment properties while others admitted having been lured into availing of mortgages for properties that they could not realistically afford.

Barrister and Galway County Councillor James Charity said that it was an “across the board” situation in the court in terms of who were being issued with proceedings from the banks.

Cllr Charity is representing several home owners and families who are facing the possibility of being homeless in a matter of months.

Some householders decided to ‘bury their heads in the sand’ by not turning up in the Repossession Court and this resulted in the banks being granted an automatic ruling in their favour.

Many of those before the court this week were those who had availed of mortgages which they are now not in a position to repay – some have fallen six and eight months into arrears.

But the frightening aspect to all of this is that there are 1,500 householders who are now apprehensively waiting to be added to the court repossession lists over the coming months as they are waiting for their cases to be heard.

“This week alone we had more than 100 repossession cases listed before Galway Circuit Court, many of which were family homes. Unfortunately, this is a trend being replicated right throughout the country at present and the numbers are simply staggering.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.