The High Court has ordered possession and sale of a family home in Finglas, Dublin 11, to realise assets for creditors of two discharged bankrupts. The sale is stayed until 3 July 2025, and the Official Assignee’s costs of the application are to be costs in the bankruptcy.
Mr Justice Kennedy delivered the judgment on 15 April 2024. The application was brought under section 61(4) of the Bankruptcy Act 1988 by Michael Ian Larkin, the Official Assignee in the estates of David Hill and Orla Hill. The couple were adjudicated bankrupt on their own petition on 14 November 2016.
The property is registered in David Hill’s sole name. The Official Assignee acknowledged Orla Hill’s beneficial interest and that she lives there with her children. The judgment records that the sale would have a significant impact on them. It also says there were no other assets available to realise for creditors. The property was valued at €325,000 as of 24 January 2023.
Orla Hill objected to the application, disputing the valuation and arguing, among other things, that the Official Assignee was prevented from pursuing a sale because her mortgage payments had been allowed as part of her reasonable living expenses. She also raised family-law and constitutional-rights points. The court said she had provided no alternative valuation and no meaningful details to support several of those other objections. It rejected the estoppel argument, finding that allowing mortgage payments as living expenses did not prevent the Official Assignee from seeking a sale.
The judge held that the property remained vested in the Official Assignee for creditors because the application had been issued and served before the third anniversary of the bankruptcies, preventing the family home from automatically revesting. He also concluded that changes in the property’s value did not alter that vesting: the equity available to creditors would be determined by the sale.
The court considered the competing interests of creditors and the family under section 61(5). It agreed that the Official Assignee had accommodated efforts to find a solution, including a possible purchase of the Official Assignee’s interest, but no workable offer had emerged. The court granted the requested possession and sale orders and gave the applicant carriage of the sale. The judgment did not order an immediate sale: the stay runs until 3 July 2025.