The High Court has ordered a Galway couple to leave a 5.4-acre site at Rosshill, Roscam, after allowing an appeal by the company which bought the land for €700,000 in 2019.
Planetwhite Limited purchased the property, contained in Folio GY97199F, from Promontoria (Aran) Limited. It knew at the time that Eamon and Deirdre Hogan were keeping horses on the land and that vacant possession was not being provided.
The site had previously secured a loan of about €2.2 million advanced to the Hogans by Ulster Bank in 2008. The bank transferred its interest to Promontoria in 2015. By 2017 the judgment records that the debt had risen to about €2.5 million. Demands for repayment were not met.
Promontoria later sold the land to Planetwhite. The company was registered as full owner in November 2019 and brought Circuit Court proceedings in August 2020 after the Hogans refused to leave. The Circuit Court struck out the claim in February 2025, prompting the appeal.
Mr Justice Oisín Quinn found that Planetwhite’s registration under section 31 of the Registration of Title Act 1964 was conclusive evidence of ownership in the absence of fraud or mistake. Neither was pleaded or proved.
The Hogans had argued that their occupation amounted to a burden affecting the registered title. The court rejected that argument. It held that section 72 of the 1964 Act protects existing legal rights of occupation, such as a lease or licence, but does not create one merely because somebody is physically occupying land.
The court also found that Promontoria had power to sell the property following default under the mortgage. Any defect in the exercise of that power would, under the applicable legislation, give rise to a potential damages remedy rather than defeat Planetwhite’s title.
Planetwhite was declared entitled to peaceful possession. The Hogans were restrained from using the land and ordered to remove their horses and other livestock, with the timetable and costs left for further submissions.