The High Court has revised the terms for a Dublin property sale under an existing divorce order, setting a minimum price of €300,000 and directing that the sale proceeds go directly to the wife. If no sale contract is signed before 1 February 2009, the property must instead be conveyed to her, and she must take over its mortgage payments from the date of transfer.
The order was made by Mr Justice Abbott on 19 December 2008, on an application about carrying out an earlier financial settlement. That settlement had required the property at 11 P to be sold at a reserve of €600,000, with the net proceeds held in an account administered by the husband to fund payments to the wife. It also required the husband to pay her €3,146.13 each month for life and a €60,000 lump sum.
The court heard that an agreed sale for about €500,000 had collapsed after a survey identified structural defects. A later prospect of a sale for about €310,000 did not become a contract. Justice Abbott accepted that the financial and credit turmoil had caused an unforeseen fall in property values, leaving the property worth roughly half the original reserve.
The wife’s health had deteriorated and her assets were being reduced by nursing-home costs, the judgment said. The husband reported negative equity on a property he had bought after the earlier judgment, and planning permission for an adjacent plot had been refused. He had also not pursued payment of his share of his mother’s estate, which the earlier judgment had said should not be settled for less than €75,000. His counsel submitted that the inheritance could be consumed by costs.
The husband proposed renting 11 P and paying the wife €1,500 a month in net rent to help meet her care costs. The court instead concluded that the changed circumstances required an adjustment to the still-executory order, while preserving its overall balance as far as possible. It had previously rejected appointing a receiver over the property’s rents as impractical and likely to incur costs disproportionate to any benefit.
Justice Abbott directed that the property be sold and the proceeds paid directly to the wife on closing, by 15 February 2009 at the latest. If no contract was signed before 1 February, it must be conveyed to her. In either event, the husband is discharged from the €60,000 lump-sum obligation. The earlier requirements for holding and investing the sale proceeds no longer apply. The judgment did not change the monthly payments for the wife’s support.