A woman has been granted full ownership of the €320,000 home she used to share with her former partner.
Judge Matthew Deery told Amelia Morris in the Circuit Civil Court yesterday he felt she was entitled to a 100 per cent beneficial interest in the house at Cherry Avenue, River Valley, Swords, Co Dublin.
He said that from the evidence it appeared her former boyfriend Derek Dunne had walked away in a 2001 break-up, telling her he wanted nothing more to do with the house.
Ms Morris said she had entered a relationship with Mr Dunne in 1994 and they had bought the house, in which she still lived, in February of that year. It had cost £58,000 (€73,660) and after borrowing from her credit union and his family for a deposit, they had raised a mortgage.
He had worked in the office of a freight company and she had worked as a childminder and both had contributed towards mortgage repayments from a joint bank account.
Ms Morris said she and Mr Dunne had got themselves into debt and in 1999, had remortgaged the property and raised €30,000 to pay off debts, refurbish the house and take a holiday. At that time the mortgage had been equivalent to the full value of the house.
"In 2001 we separated. He just walked away and said if I could keep up the repayments I could keep the house," she said.
The mortgage now outstanding on the house was €81,000 and the property had been valued at €320,000. Since the break-up, she had continued to meet the mortgage repayments.
He granted Ms Morris a declaration that she was entitled to a 100 per cent beneficial interest in the property and also that the existing joint ownership had been severed.
He granted Mr Dunne liberty to apply to the court up to July 19th and directed Ms Morris's legal team to notify him by registered letter of the making of the court's orders. Mr Dunne was not in court or legally represented and had not contested Ms Morris's application.