HOME REPOSSESSIONS take an average of more than 3½ years from first mortgage default to eviction, according to a study carried out by a Dublin solicitors’ firm.
The study examined orders for possession granted at the High Court in the last quarter of 2010 and of 2009. It found the length of time taken for legal proceedings from first default on mortgage repayments to eviction had increased by five months.
The study was carried out by a firm of Dublin solicitors with experience in repossession actions at the High Court.
Orders for possession, taken by lending institutions against borrowers who fail to meet their mortgage repayments, have increased over the last two years. Some 327 were granted at the High Court in 2010, compared to 293 in 2009.
In the first three months of this year 117 orders were granted, almost double the number granted in the first quarter of 2010.
The study found orders for possession granted at the High Court in the last three months of 2010 took an average of two years and 10 months from the first time a borrower defaulted on a mortgage to the granting of an order.
And with an average six-month stay, or delay of execution, on orders for the repossession of family homes and a further three months for the relevant sheriff to act, it took an average of 43 months from the first time a borrower defaulted to eviction from their home.
In the last quarter of 2009, the average time from default to eviction was 38 months.
Meanwhile, a Government proposal to extend the 12-month moratorium on legal action against defaulting homeowners to two years will not help address the problem of unsustainable mortgages, the Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac) have said.
Paul Joyce, senior policy researcher with Flac, said the proposal will only “put off the evil day” for families with unsustainable mortgages.
The current moratorium on bringing legal action has given extra time to borrowers in arrears to allow them rectify their situation. But those who have ended up facing the courts anyway have been in deeper debt.
The average mortgage arrears of those against whom orders for possession were granted in the High Court in 2009 was €32,500. But in the first three months of 2011, the average figure was €43,500. And in the majority of cases this year, the debt owed by borrowers exceeded the original loans they had taken out.
Mr Joyce said there were a significant number of mortgages that were unsustainable. Families who bought at the top of the market with large 100 per cent loans and who had other personal debts and had lost income were in “unsustainable mortgages”, he said.
“A two-year moratorium is fine, but what happens to people over the course of the two years living with that?” he asked. “The pressure on people and families and relationships to try and keep the show on the road is huge.”
A lengthened moratorium should not be introduced without a suite of measures, Mr Joyce said.
