PRESS RELEASE
Friday 8 February 2008

MORTGAGES: ACTIONS FOR POSSESSION

The Northern Ireland Court Service today published statistics for writs and originating summonses issued in respect of mortgages in the Chancery Division of the Northern Ireland High Court.

During the fourth quarter of 2007, 542 writs and originating summonses were issued. The comparable figure for the fourth quarter in 2006 was 577. There was a 6 % decrease in the number of mortgage cases received in Chancery between Oct-Dec 2006 and 2007.

There were 337 mortgage cases disposed of during the same time period.

A GOVERNMENT STATISTICAL RELEASE
NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. Northern Ireland Court Service collects information on writs and originating summonses issued in respect of mortgages in Chancery Division of the Northern Ireland High Court. This relates to both domestic and commercial properties.
2. Not all writs and originating summonses lead to eviction. A plaintiff begins an action for an order for possession of property. The court, following a judicial hearing, may grant an order for possession. This entitles the plaintiff to apply for an order to have the defendant evicted. However, even where an order for eviction is issued the parties can still negotiate a compromise to prevent eviction.
3. Over the last 5 years, the number of writs and originating summonses relating to mortgages issued by Chancery Division of the Northern Ireland High Court has been:

4. In Oct-Dec 2007, there were 337 mortgage cases disposed of with 339 orders made. A breakdown of the orders made is shown in the graph below.

6. Possession. The court orders the defendant to deliver possession of the property to the plaintiff within a specified time. If the defendant fails to comply with the court order the plaintiff may proceed to apply to the Enforcement of Judgments Office to repossess the property and give possession of it to the plaintiff.

7. Suspended Possession. The court may postpone the date for delivery of possession if it is satisfied that the defendant is likely to be able, within a reasonable period, to pay any sums due under the mortgage, or to remedy any other breach of the obligations under the mortgage. A suspended possession order cannot be enforced
by the plaintiff without the permission of the court, which will only be granted after a further hearing.

8. Sale and Possession. If the plaintiff seeks possession of property which is subject to an ‘equitable mortgage’ (i.e. normally one created informally by the deposit of deeds rather than the execution of a mortgage deed) the court may order a sale of the property to enable enforcement of the equitable mortgage and that the defendant give up possession for that purpose. The sale price is subject to approval by the court.

9. When a case is disposed of it may have more than one final order made.

10. On 15th November 2004, the Chancery Office introduced the Integrated Court Operations System (ICOS); which was rolled out across all court business. From this date, all the analysis for mortgage statistics comes from ICOS. As it is a different system, caution should be taken when comparing figures from before the 15 November 2004.

11. The statistics are taken from those available on 31st January 2008 and are provisional.

12. Figures on mortgage possession actions are published on a quarterly basis. The publication date for the figures covering the first quarter of 2008 will be 9th May 2008.

If you have any further queries in this or other court related matters please contact:

The Press Officer
Northern Ireland Court Service
Windsor House
9-15 Bedford Street
Belfast BT2 7LT
Telephone: (028) 9032 8594
Fax: (028) 9043 9110