An executive home once valued at over £1m but arrested by the Coroner over significant debts has been sold at public auction.

Failte, a four-bedroom detached bungalow located just off Clay Head Road, Baldrine, with panoramic views over Laxey Bay and out to Snaefell, had been on the market since 2021 with an asking price of £1.495,000. But last Wednesday it went under the hammer on the instructions of the Coroner for Ayre and Garff Gareth Leece – and sold after a brief bidding war for £570,000, less than half of the £1.2m outstanding debts. Some 25 potential bidders and other interested parties turned up for the public auction.

Estate agents Deanwood described Failte as an ‘executive detached house’, with a ‘stunning location’ but ‘in need of renovation’.

Just how extensive those renovation works were revealed as prospective buyers inspected the bungalow ahead of the auction and discovered rooms riddled with damp, collapsed ceilings and buckled floorboards.

Auctioneer David Dean invited an opening bid of £350,000 and after a flurry of bids, the hammer came down on a price of £570,000.

Lender Barclays obtained a default judgment and execution against the property’s former owners Failte Property Ltd in January last year in the sum of £1,216,396.

An order for vacant possession was granted by the high court in July.

Failte, a million pound bungalow in Baldrine, is to be sold at public auction

Details of the debts owed by Failte Property were revealed in a court judgment concerning a dispute between Barclays and the Coroner over what fees the latter is entitled to in connection with the disposal of the Clay Head Road property.

Barclays argued that he was entitled only to the sale fee, but the Coroner maintained he should also receive a collection fee.

In a judgment, Deemster Andrew Corlett ruled that the Coroner was entitled to both fees.

He said it made no sense to argue that the Coroner should receive less from a public auction than if they had collected the debt directly.

The court was told that the occupants had vacated the property but the condition of the house was worse than had been expected, mainly due to water ingress.

As a result Barclays was concerned it was facing a larger shortfall than originally anticipated and the sales proceeds would not be enough to cover the debt – which has turned out to be the case.

The home was the owner’s only realisable asset.

Companies Registry shows that Failte Property Ltd was struck off in July 2021. It had one director, a British Virgin Islands-registered company.