Businessman given no further time to sell Meath properties, court rules

Francis Harte, who owned nine properties and land in Co Meath including valuable development land in Navan, wanted the court to allow him another year on top of two years previously given to him by the court to sell off properties in settlement of a judgment obtained against him by Ulster Bank in 2015.

The execution of the judgment order had been stayed until March 2017 to allow Mr Harte to organise the sale of the properties.

Shortly after the extension, Mr Harte's loans were assigned by the bank to the Promontoria (Aran) Ltd fund. Mr Harte then engaged with Promontoria in negotiations.

Mr Justice Senan Allen, refusing Mr Harte's application to extend the stay for another year, said that having engaged for about a year with Promontoria, and having secured a number of extensions on consent, he was now making the argument that since Ulster Bank had transferred his loans, the bank could not now argue it was prejudiced by a further extension of the stay.

Mr Harte "wants it both ways", the judge said. But, under court rules, he was entitled to join Promontoria as a plaintiff with Ulster Bank and he did so.

Mr Harte had said sales had been agreed on a number of properties and others were under negotiation, but the information he provided was "rather light on detail", the judge said.

By the time the extension of the stay application came back before the court last January, none of the sales he had referred to previously had not got to the point of signed contracts, never mind completion, he said. Booking deposits had been paid in relation to two other properties not previously mentioned, the judge said.

Last February, in a letter from Mr Harte's solicitors, it was stated he was in negotiation with an unidentified major development company in relation to one of his properties.

It was said that those negotiations had reached a critical stage and that it was extremely important that the defendant could continue to negotiate with the development company.

In May, Mr Harte said he had "changed tack somewhat" from trying to sell individual properties to selling a block of development land in Navan.

He was in negotiation with a major developer with overseas operations though it was not clear if this was a different company from the previous one he mentioned, the judge said.

In September, his solicitors said he was concentrating on the sale of two properties, of 16 acres and 12 acres, on the Trim Road in Navan. He sought more time to complete those.

Promontoria expressed concern that Mr Harte might have unrealistic ideas about prices and "every offer appeared to be met with an instinctive reaction to hold out for more", the judge said.

That may be so, the judge said, but the central issue was who was to have the final say as to when, and what price, the property was to be sold for.

The judgment against him and the charge he gave the bank over the property "has the effect that he is not entitled to have the final say", the judge said.

The application to extend the stay for a further 12 months is inconsistent with Mr Harte's declared intention last September that he would dispose of the land "in the near future", the judge said.

Mr Harte had been afforded extraordinary latitude to achieve an orderly disposal of the properties but had not availed of that opportunity, the judge said.

His application was therefore refused.