NEW REGULATIONS on home repossessions in the Circuit Court signed into law by the Minister for Justice last month could result in homeowners losing their homes without a judge agreeing to the repossession.
The regulations give powers to county registrars to make an order of possession against a homeowner if he or she has not appeared before the registrar by a specific date or made contact with the court within 10 days of being notified of the legal action.
They also speed up proceedings by reducing the number of steps lenders need to take to obtain an order of possession at the Circuit Court. The previous system involved a lender making a case against a borrower using an ejectment summons.
Borrowers could respond to that and have their cases heard, but if they did not respond the lender had two more stages before an order of possession could be granted by a judge.
Under the new system, the initial procedures have been reduced to one step. The lender must set out in full in the initial documents the details of their claim for possession and the case will be listed before a county registrar.
Where a case is defended, the county registrar may send it forward for trial or approve a settlement. Where a case is not defended, the registrar may make an order for possession.
Statutory Instrument 264 of 2009: Circuit Court Rules (Actions for Possession and Well-charging Relief) 2009, was signed into law by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern on July 8th.
The regulations were submitted by the Circuit Court rules committee, which includes judges and legal practitioners. The Department of Justice said the aim of the regulations was to make the repossession process less expensive for the borrower and reduce lenders’ reliance on litigation.
However, Noeline Blackwell, director general of the Free Legal Aid Centres (Flac), said the new regulations meant the lender incurred “up-front costs” and these would be passed on to the borrower even if they responded straight away to the legal action.
“This potentially makes it much easier and quicker for a lender to obtain a judgment and much more expensive for a borrower,” Ms Blackwell said. “It also means that a home can be repossessed without a judge ever seeing the case. While county registrars are great people, that sort of work should be done by a judge.”
She called on Mr Ahern to withdraw the regulations.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said the new procedures ensured any lender contemplating legal action would have to fully prepare rather than use the court process to frighten people into compliance.
Defaulters would also receive a full picture of why they were being taken to court. Initial hearings before the county registrar were also likely to be less costly and intimidating than a judicial hearing.
She said the Minister had received correspondence from one practitioner who acts for financial institutions requesting that the procedures be reconsidered.
“But on the face of it, it seems the rules are providing borrowers with more information to enable them to address any demand for possession, while facilitating at an early stage any reasonable prospect of settlement, and thus further contributing to containment of costs incurred,” she said.
“The rules have just come into operation and obviously they will be monitored closely to keep their impact under review,” she said.
