A County Clare woman at risk of losing her rural pub and home is seeking to have the 20 percent interest rate on her mortgage reduced by the courts.
In the first case of its kind in modern Irish legal history, the High Court has been asked to cut the rate charged by a sub prime lender to as little as 5pc.
The court heard the woman had mortgaged her rural Co Clare pub in 2008, which was also her home, to pay off debts and to pay her former husband as part of a separation agreement.
The sub prime lender provided the finance and charged her an annual percentage rate of 19.4 per cent. The woman had received legal advice at the time of taking out the loan, the court heard.
Describing the rate as unconscionable the woman’s legal team argued that she only ever intended the loan to be a bridging facility until she could arrange new finance with a much lower interest rate.
However barristers for the lender said that the woman had the full benefit of independent legal advice and had not objected to the terms and conditions of the mortgage loan when she took it out three years ago.
The case continues.
