The High Court has ordered the sale of a property in County Cavan to enforce a debt owed by one couple to their neighbours, but stayed the order for nine months to give the debtors time to raise the shortfall.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Twomey on 11 October 2017, concerns an admitted debt covered by a judgment for €118,626.98, registered against the defendants’ family home on 15 December 2014. The debt related to building work carried out by the defendants at the property about 14 years earlier. The written judgment uses initials to protect the neighbours from adverse publicity.
The defendants offered €75,000, but the plaintiffs rejected the offer and sought a well charging order and an order for sale. The court said there was no dispute that the debt was owed. It considered whether the property being a family home was a good reason not to order its sale, referring to the approach in Quinn v Smith [2017] IEHC 461.
The judge declined to treat the family-home status as sufficient reason to refuse enforcement. He noted that the property was about 4,000 square feet, had two floors over a basement and contained two self-contained apartments. It was also used in part for bed-and-breakfast or self-catering accommodation. A professional valuation provided by the plaintiffs put its value at €400,000.
The court also considered the defendants’ account of up to €153,000 in other debts secured on the property. The plaintiffs had submitted that sworn evidence before the Master of the High Court put amounts owed to friends below that figure, and that the defendants’ solicitor had sent those friends discharges in October 2016. On the balance of probabilities, the judge concluded that the amounts owed to the friends were less than €153,000.
Even assuming debts of €153,000, the judge estimated that a €400,000 sale would leave about €129,000 after payment of approximately €118,000 to the plaintiffs. Combined with the defendants’ €75,000 offer, that would make about €200,000 available, which the court considered could be enough to buy a home in County Cavan.
The court granted the well charging order and order for sale, while imposing a nine-month stay in recognition of the family home. The judge said the defendants might be able to raise the approximately €43,000 gap between their offer and the debt, allowing them to avoid a sale. The judgment does not state that the debt was paid or that the property was sold.