FOR PEOPLE FACING the prospect of going to court to stay in their homes, the labyrinth of the Irish legal system is just one more worry.
With that in mind, Community Law & Mediation, FLAC and the Phoenix Project, with the support of the Citizen’s Information Board, have written guides to possession proceedings.
The guides cover proceedings in the Circuit and High courts and the authors say they were compiled to help those in mortgage arrears.
Figures released for the second quarter of this year by the Central Bank show that while the total number of mortgage arrears are in decline, with the figures standing at 126,005, the number of long term arrears (over 720 days) is on the increase, currently standing at 37,066, an increase of 17% on the previous quarter.
“Solutions for this ‘hard core’ of intractable cases will be difficult to find, without substantial write-down,” say the authors.
“In the meantime, an increasing number of people in this category are facing court applications for possession with no ability to pay for legal assistance and no accommodation options available to them once court ordered possession takes place.
“This is borne out by the Central Bank statistics which show that in the last twelve months, 9,688 new sets of proceedings have been initiated to enforce the debt/security on a Principal Dwelling House mortgage.”
They argue that there is a need for ongoing legal support for those in mortgage arrears.
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