A farmer in Co Longford has told the Irish Farmers Journal that he will fight the sale of his land by so-called vulture fund Promontoria, and take the matter to court if necessary.

The farmer, who wished to remain anonymous stated that receivers, EY, sold his family farm without consent for less than half its value.

“In my opinion, it was all done behind my back. I had been in contact with EY, a man called Liam Morrow. He guaranteed he would get the best price possible and he didn’t,” the farmer said.

The 36ac farm, based south of Longford town, was originally set at a guide price of €230,000 by a local auctioneer earlier this year, but was sold by the online company BidX1 for just €100,000 on 1 June.

Land sold through the bidding auction BidX1, is subject to an immediate binding contract, with complete anonymity granted to the buyer.

“If I had been offered the land at that price I could have bought it back myself. I won’t be letting any stranger onto the farm. There has to be some law against a vulture fund selling a farm for €100,000 that’s worth €250,000 and leaves me with €150,000 worth of debt,” the farmer said.

“No one is just walking in and taking my land. If this ends up in court so be it.”

In emails seen by this newspaper between the farmer and EY, Morrow states, “…we are keen to co-operate with you and secure a swift sale at maximum value in order to minimise any potential shortfall that you might have to the secured lender.”

In 2017, the farm was included in an Ulster Bank loan sale to Promontoria, a subsidiary of the US vulture fund Cerberus, which worked with Capita Asset Services to appoint EY as receivers in October 2017.

“Currently, there’s no transparency in the process, it’s all underhand and that needs to change,” the farmer concluded.

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