Minister Announces Bill On House Repossession

The Minister for Justice announced on Tuesday (29 May 2018) that a new bill will be drafted to provide further protections for mortgagors facing repossession proceedings. It will be based on a private member's bill which was published last year but has not substantially progressed (the Keeping People in their Homes Bill). The new bill will apply to repossession proceedings against a mortgagor to whom a personal insolvency arrangement ("PIA") under the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 (the "PIA Act 2012") is not available (namely where it has not been possible to put a PIA together, or where a PIA collapses). It will supplement other measures such as the limited legal aid scheme for defaulting mortgagors ("Abhaile") and the PIA Act 2012, in particular the court's power to overrule a secured creditor's veto of a PIA.