A man is taking a High Court action challenging whether mortgage lender Start Mortgages is properly authorised to lend in the Irish market.
Mr Justice Michael Peart gave Robert Gunn from Lyre, Lisselton, Co Kerry, permission to take the challenge.
Mr Gunn, who was employed in the construction sector but is currently unemployed, took out a loan of €210,000 with Start Mortgages in September 2007, secured against his family home.
Arrears built up after he became unemployed in May 2008 and Start Mortgages have now sought possession of his home.
Mr Gunn says he has lived there all his life and his family have lived there for three centuries.
He claims that Start Mortgages says it is legally authorised in the State but he says the company relies on a Statutory Instrument from 2004, in which the Consumer Director of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Mary O'Dea, prescribed Start Mortgages as a credit institution in the State.
Mr Gunn's legal team says Ms O'Dea has no authority, power or function to make such an order.
They say that the power to prescribe a credit institution is vested exclusively within the Central Bank of Ireland.
The action is being taken by lawyers from New Beginning, a group set up to help people who are at risk of having their homes repossessed.
The case will be back before the High Court on 16 December.
There will be a stay on the possession proceedings being taken by Start Mortgages against Mr Gunn pending the outcome of this challenge.
