Report on Tanager and Start cases in the Possessions Court

[Brendan Burgess]

I was in the Registrar's Court in Dublin today, and here is what happened in the Tanager cases

Case 23 CO'S
Tanager's barrister sought an adjournment to the 14th June. The borrower sought a much longer adjournment.
The borrower said that she had tried to engage with Tanager but that they were not engaging with her.
Tanager's barrister was very robust saying that his story was completely at odds with the borrower.
She had submitted a single page SFS.
Tanager were engaging - she had a meeting which was attended by staff from Lapithus and Tanager.
The borrower had complained to the FSO and the lenders had engaged in mediation, but it came to nothing. It was now going to adjudication. The Registrar asked how long that would take and the borrower told her that she had told the FSO that it was a priority, but got no indication of time. (The of the complaint was not discussed.)


The borrower said that she could not get a deal from Tanager.

The Registrar was not impressed with the borrower and told her that it was wrong to claim that they were not engaging, when she meant that she had proposed a deal which was not acceptable to Tanager.

Furthermore, the borrower had appointed a solicitor who had not gone on record.

Case 27 DW and NMcA
The barrister sought a lengthy adjournment as this was covered by the Ralph Kane case. It was adjourned to the 4th October.
NMcA objected saying that she had not lived in the house since 2010 and consented to an order being granted. She wanted this over with.
The barrister for Tanager said that there was no point in granting an order in the circumstances.

Case 28 MF & LF
The barrister sought a lengthy adjournment as this was affected by the Kane case and because Tanager had offered a discount to the borrowers to pay off their mortgage, and they had indicated that they would avail of it.

Case 41 LMcC
Adjourned to 10 May as it was the first time in court.

Case 49 CD and RD
Case 50 SB and SMcC
In both these cases, the barrister sought a New Return Date because they had not served the papers. In neither case could he explain why they had not served the papers. The Registrar said that this was not acceptable and while she gave an adjournment to 10th May, she would not grant a NRD

There was no discussion of the issue of Tanager calculating the arrears incorrectly
No borrower raised it. And Tanager did not seek any adjournments to amend the affidavits to show the right arrears figures.

I was told afterwards, that an order was granted against a Tanager borrower a couple of weeks ago.
He showed up in court. Tanager had recalculated his arrears at €70k down from €130k.
He had paid nothing for some years.

Lessons learned
Don't assume that just because Tanager has been calculating your arrears incorrectly that your case will not be proceeded with.
Show up in court.
Continue paying your mortgage as much as you can.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

There was one case by Start Mortgages today.

The borrower represented herself. She told the court that Start had issued a new statement showing that her arrears at €15k, down from €45k.

Start had agreed a capitalisation and restructure with her.

Initially, Start wanted an adjournment as they had sent her a revised agreement. Although she had sent it back, there was an error in it. They had not received the corrected agreement. The borrower said that she had sent it back.

The case was suspended and when Start came back, they had found the signed agreement and the case was struck out.

The borrower asked for an explanation of how they had been seeking €45k arrears when they were only €15k. The Registrar said that as it had been struck out, it was of no concern to the court. She should take it up with Start via MABS.

Brendan

 

[IdesofMarch]

Lessons learned

Don't assume that just because Tanager has been calculating your arrears incorrectly that your case will not be proceeded with.
Show up in court.
Continue paying your mortgage as much as you can.

Great Advice from BB, I believe that if you can pay the interest portion of the loan together with some fraction of the capital payments it will be very difficult for the owner of the loan to get a possession order through the courts. PAY WHAT YOU CAN, do not stick your head in the sand, the problem will not go away but just get worse.

My advice to Tanager, get Lapithus (which has a closed office (i.e. do not meet with borrowers)) to become an open office and start engaging more with customers to come to some arrangement. Legal proceedings in this Country are not cheap, there are alternative solutions.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Some more Tanager cases today

Case 24 RF & FF - Adjourned to 16th March. Settlement agreed - house sold.
Case 25 MB & AB - Adjourned to 5th October - affected by Kane case. €17,500 arrears.
Case 28 PM - Struck out - mortgage discharged
Case 36 AH & TH - first time in court so an automatic adjournment to 1 June

Case 44 GC & AC
Both borrowers showed up in court.
"We have made every effort to sort this out. We are overpaying by €50 per month. These arrears are from problems we had in 2013 and 2014 when my husband was ill and couldn't work and I had to cut back to part-time. We paid €1,000 a month during 2015 and 2016. WE have paid €1,500(?) since then which is more than the monthly payment. They told us that they would capitalise the arrears, but now they have written to us saying that "we do not offer mortgage capitalization" We will have the mortgage paid off by the originally agreed end date."

They got the sympathy of the Registrar, and, I think of Tanager's barrister.
The Registrar directed that the solicitor for Tanager arrange a meeting with someone who can make a decision within 28 days.
Adjourned until 1 June.
The Registrar said "If you can sort that out at the meeting, Tanager may well come back in here in June and apply to strike it out. There will be no need for you to attend unless you want to attend to tell me anything."

 

[Brendan Burgess]

And a very interesting Start Mortgages case
No 13 MD

Last time, the Registrar adjourned it "peremptory" against Start. That meant that Start were to proceed with the case or strike it out.
But they have now recalculated her arrears and they have come down from €20k to €5k. She is overpaying by €70 a month, so, according to Start's barrister, they should be able to reach a deal as, at this rate, she will have paid off the arrears anyway in a few years.

The borrower was in court. I was surprised that the Registrar did not make a fuss about dragging someone into court based on arrears overstated by 300%.

Brendan

 

[Brendan Burgess]

I was in the Bray Circuit Court yesterday.

Tanager had 9 cases
Three were adjourned due to Kane. (In one the borrower is paying €136 per month (maybe per week?) and the borrower showed up saying that Tanager had agreed to accept €56,500 in settlement which he was trying to raise from the Credit Union.)
3 were adjourned for no obvious reason.
1 was adjourned because Tanager's legal team did not show up, and another barrister applied for an adjournment on their behalf.

Here are the details of the two other cases where the borrowers were in court.



15 2017/00321

Proceedings not served. Registrar: How did you know the case was on? Tanager sent me a letter. Are you paying anything? I am making full repayments . Are you dealing with arrears. I find it difficult to get any response from them. Registrar: You are not the first.

Adjourned to 9th July

16 2017/00322

Bank applied for an adjournment because proceedings had not been served. But the borrower and his solicitor were actually in the court.

Registrar very annoyed: Why are you issuing proceedings but then holding them and not serving them?

Registrar: How did you hear about these proceedings?
Borrower: I got a computer generated letter from Tanager.

I am in a payment arrangement which we agreed in November 2017. I am paying €1,700 per month, the full repayment should be €2,500 per month.

Registrar to solicitor for the borrower: You are not on record

Solicitor: I can’t come on record as my client has not been served with proceedings yet.

Registrar: This is a type of defamation at worst. It could be seen as bully boy tactics. Beating someone with a court stick on the one hand while doing an arrangement on the other hand.

The bank should not be lodging proceedings without serving them. It is an abuse of the court system.

Tanager’s barrister was very good in mollifying the Registrar.

New Return Date 16th April