Presenter Gilson’s parents lose their €1m home as fund refuses final offer of €300,000
NOEL and Aileen Gilson, parents of TV presenter Glenda Gilson, lost their €1m Dublin home yesterday to Shoreline Residential Dac after the investment fund refused a final offer of €303,000 to settle their outstanding debts against their mortgage.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane said in the Circuit Civil Court she considered the €800,000 valuation the Gilsons had put on their Castleknock, Dublin, home as “conservative” and advised them to sell it before the bank did.
Judge Linnane said the outstanding liability against the property in College Gate, Castleknock, was just under €400,000 – so there was still substantial equity left in the property. She said that if Mr and Mrs Gilson sold their home now they would still be left with enough to trade down to a mortgage-free smaller home and pay off their debt.
The judge granted the couple a six-month stay on her order for possession to the bank to give them time to sell the property.
The Gilson’s four-bedroom, three-bath house is listed for sale with an asking price of €830,000.
Barrister Rudi Neuman, counsel for Shoreline Residential, told the court that the Gilsons had offered to pay €303,000 against the outstanding debt, consisting mainly of repayment arrears on their loan, but this had been refused by the bank.
They had initially offered €150,000 to settle the debt, and last month their counsel Aoife Beirne said they were prepared to make an increased offer of €275,000. This was declined, as was the new offer of €303,000.
Mr Neuman, who appeared with Beauchamps Solicitors, said he had been instructed to proceed with the bank’s application for possession of the property.
The court heard Mr Gilson, now a retired painting and decorating contractor, had bought the site in 1992 and built the house himself. He and his wife, both of whom are now pensioners, had borrowed €300,000 in May 2008 to be paid back over a period of 10 years. The purpose of the 2008 loan had been to refinance an existing mortgage and clear an outstanding €100,000 liability in respect of Mr Gilson’s business. Arrears had begun appearing in 2010 and the couple had been written to as early as 2014.