The sister-in-law of the former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive, David Drumm, has been given a six-month stay on an order to leave her home in Skerries, Co Dublin.
Rachel Drumm, of Foxgrove, Skerries, whose husband, Ken, died in England in October, told the Dublin Circuit Court that since her husband died she has discovered David Drumm was named on the mortgage on her home.
The application to execute a previously granted possession order was brought by Shaula Connaughton Denny BL, on behalf of Mars Capital Ireland, which now owns a mortgage originally issued to EBS.
She told the court the total debt was now almost €2 million, that approximately half of this was interest, and that the house had a value of approximately €600,000. Mars took over the loan in 2021.
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An application for possession of the property was brought by the EBS in 2013 and a possession order issued in 2015. Ms Drumm left the property following the order, however she returned to live in the house three years later and is still living there.
Keith Farry BL, for Ms Drumm, said it appeared David Drumm, who has since been through the bankruptcy process, was also a borrower on the loan. The EBS, he said, didn’t want to execute the 2015 possession order “because it knew of the irregularities” with the loan.
In an affidavit to the court Ms Drumm said it was only in recent months that she got to the bottom of what was going on and had seen computer records indicating correspondence between her late husband, David Drumm, and the EBS, in relation to the loan.
During the three years after 2015 when she lived in rented accommodation, she said, she relied on her late husband in relation to dealing with the mortgage.
“I now believe that Ken had reason to delay EBS because I now know that there was paperwork irregularities around securing the loans on the house which it now appears that Ken purposefully did with the EBS’s knowledge (it is acknowledged in their online notes).”
She said she needed time to investigate how David Drumm’s bankruptcy affected the fact that he was named on the mortgage.
“David also had some convictions in relation to false accounting. Ken was up to his death working with David in the UK and possibly needed to shield him from any fallout from this, so he was not intent and very slow at resolving the issues with the home loan.”
She said that when she was allowed back into the house she had understood a deal would be done so she could stay in it.
Mr Farry said Ms Drumm was making payments to a joint EBS account but when she was locked out of this account by her late husband, she found that he had not been making the payments he was supposed to be making into the account. Ms Drumm has four children, one of whom is under 18 years of age.
Ms Connaughton Deeny said no payments had been made since her client took over the loan and that the total arrears were almost €1 million.
Mr Farry initially asked for the case to be adjourned as he and his solicitor, Barry Creed, had only recently come on record. When Judge John O’Connor indicated he was not inclined to adjourn the case, Mr Farry asked for a sixteen month stay on any order and Ms Connaughton Deeny asked for three months.
Judge O’Connor said there was an “air of unreality” about the case, which had been going on since 2013. While he had huge sympathy for Ms Drumm, and appreciated the housing market difficulties for people looking for accommodation, continuous adjournments did not make a lot of sense. He granted a stay of six months and made no order as to costs.
