Bank granted €2.7m order over loan

A €2.7 MILLION summary judgment order, plus an order for possession of a property in Malahide, Co Dublin, was granted to Ulster Bank yesterday against a medical doctor whose family home and another investment property were repossessed earlier this year by other banks.

Ulster Bank had brought proceedings in the Commercial Court against Dr Sam van Eeden for summary judgment over an unpaid loan of €2.16 million advanced in May 2007 to purchase a property, Orchard House, Swords Road, Malahide.

With interest, some €2.7 million is now due under the facility, which was secured on the property. Mr Justice Peter Kelly granted judgment for the €2.7 million, plus costs, to Andrew Walker, for Ulster Bank. The judge also made an order for possession of the property but, with the agreement of the bank, placed a stay on that possession order until February 1st, 2011, the date after a tenant’s lease for the property expires. Dr van Eeden did not defend the proceedings.

Last June, Dr van Eeden and his wife Zelda agreed to hand back their luxury €2 million home at Knockdara, Seamount Road, Malahide, to Bank of Scotland (Ireland), in circumstances where their mortgage arrears exceeded €250,000. They had borrowed some €1.99 million from BOSI in December 2007 to buy the property. Repayments on that sum rose from €6,500 a month to €9,300. The outstanding balance on the mortgage last June was some €2.08 million.

An order for possession of the Knockdara property was made but a stay for four months was granted. Months earlier, the couple handed back a €1.6 million investment property at Seamount Heights, Malahide, to AIB Mortgage Bank