Anti-Eviction Taskforce Block Sheriff From Repossession

Sheriff for Louth, Mairéad Ahern, was prevented from evicting a man, with “substantial arrears” on a €220,000 mortgage, from his home by the recently formed Anti-Eviction Taskforce.

Eugene Dooley, 35, the man being evicted from the basement apartment on Chapel Street, Dundalk, helped to found the anit-eviction group about six weeks ago.

Around ten other members of the group were with him when the sheriff arrived on Tuesday.

The group of men waited inside Mr Dooley’s apartment and as Sheriff Ahern entered they walked towards her filling the hallway and blocking her from getting closer to Mr Dooley’s apartment. The sheriff then left the scene but said she would return.

Supporters of Mr Dooley filmed the sheriff at the apartment.

Speaking to the Irish Times after the sheriff had left Mr Dooley, a quantity surveyor, said he took a mortgage on the basement apartment with Permanent TSB in 2008.

“It is the common story of getting into difficulties and arrears. But I am only six years into my 30-year mortgage – who is to say my situation won’t change? I want to keep paying but based on what I can afford.”

Members of the group later delivered a copy of a High Court judgment by Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne to the courthouse in Dundalk, which they wanted the sheriff to have.

The group claimed the judgment meant that the attempt to evict Mr Dooley “and most other mortgage-holders in Ireland” was illegal.

They said that the judgment found there was a loophole that could be used if a demand to pay the mortgage in full had not been made before the end of 2009.

However, Mr Dooley also said he had not been represented in court during the proceedings against him and he had been unable to go to court when the order was being made to evict him.

Mr Dooley said he has an appointment to discuss his mortgage with Permanent TSB later this month and he would suggest that he keep up his repayments but at a lower amount than at the start of the mortgage term.

(H)