The High Court has granted Start Mortgages DAC leave to renew for one year an order permitting execution of a possession order over a home in Limerick. The ruling concerns renewal of the execution order; it does not itself direct that the property be repossessed during that year.
Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty delivered judgment on 15 June 2020. The original possession order was made on 30 June 2008. Start Mortgages obtained leave to issue execution in November 2018, and that order was renewed in July 2019. It sought a further renewal as the 12-year anniversary of the original order approached. The defendant, Barry Piggott, consented.
The court considered whether section 11(6)(a) of the Statute of Limitations 1957 barred renewal after 12 years. The judge held that renewing leave to execute an existing possession order was not an “action on a judgment” within the meaning of that provision. She followed the reasoning in Ulster Investment Bank Ltd v Rockrohan, where the Supreme Court upheld the distinction between a fresh action and supplementary steps to enforce an existing order.
The judgment said the lender had refrained from enforcing the possession order while payments were made and both sides sought to reduce the debt rather than sell the property. The defendant had lived there as a family home. The judge also referred to the lender’s reluctance to risk making him homeless during the pandemic. She said the parties’ cooperative approach and the payment history supported renewal, and that refusing it could frustrate their shared efforts to keep the homeowner in his home while repaying the lender.
The court granted leave to renew the execution order for a further year under Order 42, rule 20 of the Rules of the Superior Courts. The ruling resolved the limitation issue for this application and authorised renewal; the source does not state that the possession order was executed.