A Cork farming family has gained an injunction against a receiver from selling their farm at what they say is only half its value.

Michael Walsh and Alice Mullins value the land they farm at €1.75m, but it was being offered by auction through an online auction website with an advised minimum value of only €830,000.

The couple borrowed from AIB in 2009, with the loan becoming impaired before being sold to so-called vulture fund Everyday Finance in 2018.

Proceedings were taken seeking an injunction preventing a planned sale of the farm by online auction.

Total

In all, five parcels of land owned by Walsh and Mullins formed the security for the original loan and are now in the possession of the receiver.

Four of these are in Cork and one in Co Clare, with three of the plots in forestry. The injunction only applies to the two parcels of land being farmed.

The plaintiffs did argue that the €515,000 valuation applied on the three commercial forestry parcels was only half their value,and furnished evidence of having received an offer of €1.075m for those parcels.

Justice Rory Mulcahy has not granted an injunction against the sale of these parcels.

He agreed with a contention by the defendants (the receiver and Everyday Finance) that “any loss suffered by the plaintiffs will be readily compensatable in damages if they succeed at trial” defined as, “the difference between the sale price for the properties and the price which they would have achieved had the defendants discharged their duties and obtained full market value.”

However, in relation to the farmland, the judge asserted “the long-standing understanding of the courts that the loss of an interest in property is not always compensatable by an award of damages.”

Full value

“Should the properties be sold at an undervalue, then the plaintiffs may obtain the full monetary value of the properties, but the properties will all be lost to the plaintiffs.

“Where a property has special value to a party, the loss of that property may not be recoverable.”

For that reason, he granted an injunction in relation to the two parcels of farmland.