‘Locked out’ of home but paying mortgage

A KILLALOE married couple, who have been spending almost €1,400 a month on rent and a mortgage for over four years, remain “locked out” of a fully completed four-bedroom house in a local ghost estate. Remarkably, this situation has continued despite the recent sale of the entire estate.
Michele Burke and William Buck, both aged 33, who are renting a house in Ballina, paid a booking deposit on a house at Ard na Deirge, Killaloe on September 7, 2006 and were about to move in December 2009 when a receiver from KPMG was appointed by AIB, after the original developer ran into serious financial difficulties.
The couple insist they are now at their wits end, claiming the new developer’s representative, Brian Whelan, stated services may not be completed in the near future and the developer may re-apply for another extension of the planning permission when the current An Bord Pleanála ruling expires.
Mr Whelan has declined to comment on any of the couple’s claims.
A spokeswoman for AIB said the bank cannot comment on individual cases. “However, the bank does work with all customers on individual issues,” she said.
KPMG receiver Padraic Monaghan also declined to comment.
Prospective buyers were being asked to pay €350,000 for houses in the estate at the height of the boom in 2006.
Ms Burke and Mr Buck claim they have been left in a frustrating “development limbo”, along with John Ryan Snr and John Ryan Jnr, who have also been unable to occupy two other nearby houses, in spite of securing full title deeds from the Land Registry Office.
Ms Burke and Mr Buck have expressed fears they will still be forced to view their properties from behind an erected barrier after failing to secure an estimated timescale for the completion of services in the estate from a local representative of the new developer.
“We are paying a full mortgage and rent, yet we can’t get into our house. We are locked out. Any time we want to check our house is ok we contact Killaloe gardaí to avoid a difficulty with a security company, who have warned us we are trespassing on private property.”
Gardaí are aware the three houses are the subject of a dispute but have not been called out to deal with any alleged trespass detected by the monitored on-site security. A spokesman noted there wasn’t any formal arrangement between the gardaí and any property owner, as the gardaí couldn’t give permission to anyone to look at a building in a civil dispute.
Ms Burke and Mr Buck claim they have been let down by the original developer John D Gallagher, Clare County Council, AIB and the receiver who took over the estate in December 2009 and failed to provide connections to services that would have facilitated occupancy of the finished houses.
Following electricity and gas connections in November 2008, John Ryan Jnr from Caherconlish was about to move into his new home when the site was closed by AIB and it took him over six months to get these services disconnected.

“We need the services to be connected to the three houses as quickly as possible. The roof is on our house; it is fully completed, apart from connections to gas and electricity, an access road and public lighting.
“We have paid every stage payment and are now over €290,000 in arrears when mortgage, rent, insurance and other fees are taken into account.
“The banks have been bailed out, yet there seems to be no protection for home owners who have the title deeds of a property once a builder goes into receivership,” he said.
Mr Ryan used all his savings and the proceeds from the sale of another house to buy the house he can’t occupy in Killaloe, which has cost him an estimated €50,000 in rent.
Now paying €550 a month to rent a house in Harbour Village, Killaloe, the 35-year-old software technician can see the roof of the unoccupied dwelling every day when he goes to work.
John Ryan Snr said he had to withdraw from the proposed sale of his home in Caherconlish for a sum of €315,000, which has now dramatically reduced in value to about €170,000.
The 67-year-old, who was planning to retire in Killaloe, estimates he has already lost in the region of €100,000 in interest payments on a bridging loan, legal fees and other costs.
Clare County Council was asked if it could call in the bond worth €494,000 on the site and request the new developer to complete services if there is no genuine effort made within a reasonable timeframe to carry out this work.
The council stated it is dealing with a large number of estates throughout the county that are unfinished, inadequately completed or not taken in charge.
“The council has been assigning significant resources to try to deal with a range of legacy issues that exist on these estates that have been further compounded by liquidators, receivers and other matters. The council will be using all measures available to it to progress the issues that arise on these developments to a satisfactory conclusion,” the authority stated.
John Phelan of Harry Brann Auctioneers, Killaloe, said about 28 interested parties came to look at Ard na Deirge when the 27-house estate, excluding the three completed ones, was put up for sale by private treaty with a reserve of €400,000 last October.
While the initial process was an open tender one, Mr Phelan stressed it was not unusual that final sealed bids were required when the number of bidders was narrowed down to four last January.
Confirming the estate is now at the sale agreed stage, he stressed he cannot comment on speculation about the buyer or the actual sale price, while it is going through a legal due process concerning contracts.