Mayo repossessions rate highest in region

Mayo repossessions rate highest in region


Banks sought to seize 206 Mayo homes  

Áine Ryan and Anton McNulty

THIRTY-SEVEN County Mayo households may be teetering on the edge of homelessness as figures confirm the number of repossessions granted throughout the county during 2014.
The figure represents just under 20 percent of the 206 repossession applications (Civil Bills) lodged to the Circuit Court against property owners who are behind in mortgage repayments in the county. That shocking number of 37 significantly exceeds the number of repossession orders in the other Connacht counties. There were just nine such orders in Galway, while in Sligo, there were just six.
Many of the Mayo home owners for which Civil Bill applications have been lodged could yet be issued with repossession orders if they are not in a position to negotiate with their banks.

National picture
There were 8,164 Civil Bills lodged last year throughout the entire country, with 1,063 orders granted for repossession. Unsurprisingly, the highest number lodged nationally was in June last year, when banks lodged bills in respect of 1,632 homes.
In Roscommon, the banks lodged 198 applications for repossession, with 22 orders granted; 121 were lodged in Sligo, with six orders granted; and 421 were lodged in Galway, with nine orders for repossession granted.
Independent councillor Frank Durcan claimed at yesterday’s monthly meeting of Mayo County Council that in the next 12 to 18 months ‘hundreds of families’ will be put on the side of the road as they face eviction.
The Castlebar-based councillor made his comments during a debate on the Mayo Tourism Strategy, when he claimed that money should not be prioritised for tourism when people face eviction.
“There are people at home living in fear and they don’t know when the bailiff will be calling. In the next 12 to 18 months, hundreds of families will be put on the side of the road. What will children with no homes say when they see this money being spent. I’ve nothing against it if we can afford it. Our health system is a shambles, our education system is a shambles and villages are closing down.
“I am a member of the Land League and getting calls from people all over Connacht who are in distress. How can we justify spending money on luxuries when families are living on €90 a week? We have other priorities to deal with, we have to deal with jobs, evictions and austerity,” he said, adding that there are ‘many Cromwells in the county’.

Cannot cope
Speaking to The Mayo News last night, Erris Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh said these dramatic figures ‘should not come as a surprise to anyone’.
“For the last number of years these families have been struggling to pay their mortgages, and I am not only talking about families who have lost their jobs. It is often the case that both parents are still working in low-paid jobs but the extra charges, like the USC, are just too much for them,” Ms Conway-Walsh said.
Continuing, she said: “There is a lot of hidden suffering with parents trying to keep their circumstances and stresses away from their children. These people have been made to feel it is their fault while all the power has been given to the banks, with no legislation put in place to force them to try to resolve the issues.”
She said it was ‘disgraceful that banks were taking back these houses and selling them to speculators for what the family owners would have settled for’.
With the issue of housing shortages and homelessness now facing Government each week, the startling figures show that banks’ applications to repossess family homes has far exceeded those for buy-to-let properties.
Mr David Hall, of the Irish Mortgage Holders’ Association said: “The banks can get a rental income from the buy-to-lets whereas with a family home they want the residents out so they can sell it.”