The Court of Appeal has dismissed Jerry Beades’s appeal against an order allowing KBC Bank Ireland plc to seek execution of a possession order over two Dublin properties.
The appeal concerned a High Court order made in July 2018, which granted the bank leave to issue an execution order under Order 42, rule 24 of the Rules of the Superior Courts. The underlying possession order, made in 2008 in favour of IIB Homeloans Ltd., had been affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2014.
The properties, at 31 Richmond Avenue, Fairview, and 21 Little Mary Street, were mortgaged to secure facilities of €1.2 million approved in 2003. The judgment records that the Richmond Avenue property had been divided into seven occupied residential units. Little Mary Street comprised three occupied residential units and part of the premises used by an organisation. The lender did not enforce an execution order issued in 2015 after it found third parties in occupation.
In 2018, the High Court found that €2,068,765.17 was due as of 30 January that year and that the last loan payment had been made in February 2008. It granted the bank leave to execute the possession order and formally amended the proceedings’ title to substitute KBC Bank Ireland plc for IIB Homeloans.
Beades challenged, among other things, the transfer of the bank’s rights, the absence of a separate assignment of the possession order, alleged overcharging and disclosure of personal data, and delay in enforcement. The Court of Appeal held that the 2009 statutory transfer vested the mortgage and related proceedings, judgments and orders in KBC Bank Ireland plc by operation of law. It said a separate assignment of the possession order was unnecessary and that the formal amendment of the title was not legally required, though it could be made for clarity.
The court also rejected the arguments about the procedural rules, the transfer of loan information and the bank’s entitlement to transfer the loans. It said the overcharging allegation could not answer the execution application in this appeal. On delay, it upheld the High Court’s exercise of discretion, finding a good explanation for the delay and no countervailing prejudice demonstrated.
The appeal was dismissed on all grounds. The judgment stated the court’s provisional view that the respondent should receive its appeal costs, with either party permitted to seek a brief further hearing on costs within 14 days. The judgment also records that KBC Bank Ireland plc had disposed of its interest in the mortgage and subsisting mortgagee rights before the appeal hearing; it does not identify the successor in this account.