High Court approves Personal Insolvency Arrangement for debtor who has mortgage over his family home, despite the objection of one creditor to the arrangement, on the grounds that the relevant legislation enables the court to limit the veto which a creditor has in respect of a family home or principal private residence mortgage debt.
High Court - ex tempore ruling - application pursuant to the s.115 (a) (9) Personal Insolvency Act, 2012 (as amended) - statutory provision pursuant to which a debtor can seek to preserve his or her entitlement to remain in occupation of a family home - statutory provision allows court to limit extent of veto which creditor might have in respect of a family home or a principal private residence mortgage debt - debtor has mortgage on his family home - this constitutes a relevant debt under the legislation - mortgage is on his principal private residence - accordingly, rejection of a Personal Insolvency Arrangement by creditor does not of itself mean that Personal Insolvency Arrangement will fail - one creditor refused to accept arrangement - application brought - service on all the relevant creditors has been shown - debtor instructed Personal Insolvency Practitioner to bring this application - whether there is reasonable prospect that the debtor will resolve his or her indebtedness without recourse to bankruptcy - Court is satisfied that there is such a reasonable prospect - whether proposed arrangement will enable the debtor not to cease to occupy his family home or his principal private residence - whether mortgage is sustainable - Court satisfied that this is so - whether debtor has been seeking in the last two years to pay the mortgage debt - Court finds that he has - Court finds Personal Insolvency Arrangement is fair to all creditors - proportionality of arrangement - Court satisfied that return for creditors will be better than the return that they could hope to achieve under bankruptcy.