Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992

Disposal of house mortgages.

13.—(1) The Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance and after consultation with the Central Bank of Ireland, make regulations in relation to the transfer, sale or assignment of mortgages.

(2) Where regulations made under this section are for the time being in force, any contract purporting to effect the transfer, sale or assignment of mortgages in contravention of the provisions of such regulations shall be void.

(3) Regulations under this section may, in particular, but without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), relate to all mortgages or to mortgages of a prescribed class or classes and may include provisions in relation to all or any one or more of the following:

(a) the obtaining of a mortgagor's consent to the transfer, sale or assignment of his mortgage;

(b) information to be given to a mortgagor in connection with the transfer, sale or assignment of his mortgage;

(c) the terms and conditions of the transfer, sale or assignment of the mortgages;

(d) undertakings to be given by the holder of a mortgage or the transferee, purchaser or assignee, as respects—

(i) the varying of the interest rate on the loan to which the mortgage relates,

(ii) procedure and policy in relation to the treatment of arrears of payments due under the mortgage;

(e) the prohibition or restriction of the charging of redemption fees by the transferee, purchaser or assignee;

(f) the insurance of the mortgaged property and its arrangement;

(g) the continuation of mortgage protection insurance, if any;

(h) the application of the provisions of section 26 of the Building Societies Act, 1989 .

(4) In this section—

“mortgage” means a mortgage of a freehold or leasehold estate or interest in a house;

“redemption fee” means, in relation to a loan, any sum in addition to the principal and any interest due on such principal (without regard to the fact of the redemption of the loan) at the time of redemption of the whole or part of the loan.