Housing (Incremental Purchase) Regulations, 2010

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 252/2010
• Year: 2010

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 4th June, 2010.

I, MICHAEL FINNERAN, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by sections 3 , 32 (6) and 49 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 (No. 22 of 2009) and the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Delegation of Ministerial Functions) (No. 2) Order 2009 ( S.I. No. 407 of 2009 ), hereby make the following regulations:

Citation

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Housing (Incremental Purchase) Regulations 2010.

Commencement

2. These Regulations come into operation on 14 June 2010.

Interpretation

3. In these regulations—

“PPS Number”, in relation to an individual, means the individual’s Personal Public Service Number within the meaning of section 262 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 (No. 26 of 2005);

“planning application” has the meaning assigned to it by section 2(1) of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (No. 30 of 2000);

“the Act of 2009” means the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 (No. 22 of 2009); and

“traveller” has the meaning assigned to it by section 2 of the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 (No. 33 of 1998).

Dwelling classes

4. An incremental purchase arrangement may apply to all classes of dwelling that comply with the provisions of section 44 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 (No. 22 of 2009), other than—

(a) dwellings provided by a housing authority that were not, at the time of allocation to a household under an allocation scheme, reserved for incremental purchase by order made by the manager under section 151(1) of the Local Government Act 2001 (No. 37 of 2001);

(b) dwellings provided by an approved body that were not, at the time of allocation to a household, reserved for sale under an incremental purchase arrangement in accordance with section 45(4) of the Act of 2009;

(c) dwellings that have been specifically designed for occupation by one or more than one elderly person;

(d) dwellings that have been specifically designed for occupation by travellers, where more than one such dwelling is provided on the land concerned;

(e) dwellings transferred to planning authorities in accordance with agreements under section 96 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 , including dwellings provided on land or on sites so transferred, where the transfer is made for the purpose of providing housing referred to in section 94(4)(a)(i) of the said Act and the dwellings are on the land the subject of the planning application to which the agreement relates; and

(f) caravans, mobile homes or structures or things (whether on wheels or not) that are capable of being moved from one place to another (whether by towing, transport on a vehicle or trailer, or otherwise).

Exclusion from incremental purchase

5. A housing authority or approved body may not sell a dwelling under an incremental purchase arrangement to a person who previously purchased a dwelling from a housing authority or an approved body under section 90 of the Housing Act of 1966 (No. 21 of 1966) or Parts 3 or 4 of the Act of 2009.

Application to purchase

6. A household shall, at the time of applying to purchase a dwelling under an incremental purchase arrangement, provide the following information to the housing authority or approved body concerned—

(a) in respect of each household member:

(i) surname and forename,

(ii) sex, date of birth and marital status (where applicable),

(iii) PPS Number,

(iv) current address, and

(v) employment status,

(b) in respect of individual household members, as appropriate:

(i) employment type and occupation,

(ii) employer and place of employment,

(iii) annual or weekly gross income and annual or weekly deductions from gross income,

(iv) convictions in the 5-year period prior to the date of application for offences under—

(I) sections 5, 6, 7, 14, 15 or 19 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 (No. 2 of 1994),

(II) section 117 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 (No. 26 of 2006), or

(III) section 257F of the Children Act 2001 (No. 24 of 2001), and

(v) instances in the 3-year period prior to the date of application where arrears of rent were due to the housing authority concerned in respect of any dwelling or site let to the individual by the authority;

(c) in respect of the accommodation currently occupied by the household:

(i) nature of the tenure,

(ii) name and address of the landlord or agent,

(iii) weekly rent payable, and

(iv) confirmation of whether rent supplement is payable to the household in respect of the accommodation and, if so, the amount of weekly rent contribution payable by the household; and

(d) any other information requested by the housing authority or approved body.

7. A household shall, within 4 weeks of being requested to do so by the housing authority or approved body concerned, provide to that authority or body additional information, including documents and other particulars, sought for the purpose of verifying information provided by the household in connection with an application to purchase.

8. An application form for purchase of a dwelling from a housing authority under an incremental purchase arrangement shall include the following statement:

“Section 32(7) of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 provides that it is an offence, punishable on conviction by a maximum fine of €2,000, for a person to knowingly provide false or misleading information or documents or to knowingly conceal any material fact in relation to the purchase of a dwelling under an incremental purchase arrangement. Section 32(8) of the 2009 Act provides that a housing authority may recover from a person convicted of an offence under section 32(7) any higher expenditure that it incurred on the sale of the dwelling due to reliance on false, misleading or undisclosed information.”

Household income

9. The income of an eligible household shall be calculated for the purposes of these Regulations in accordance with written guidance issued by the Minister to housing authorities (in these Regulations referred to as a “household means policy”).

10. A housing authority or approved body may enter into an incremental purchase arrangement with an eligible household that has an income equal to or in excess of €15,000, provided that the household, prior to the completion of the sale, gives to the authority or body concerned written notice of loan approval or otherwise establishes, to the satisfaction of the authority or body concerned, its capacity to pay the purchase money for the dwelling.

Purchase price

11. The purchase price for a dwelling shall be determined as the total cost to the housing authority or approved body of providing the dwelling, comprising site acquisition costs and any related interest charges, building costs and attributable development costs.

Purchase money and minimum charging period

12. Where an eligible household has an income less than or equal to €20,000, the purchase money for the dwelling shall be determined by the housing authority or approved body as the monetary value of 40% of the purchase price for the dwelling and the minimum charged period shall be 30 years from the date of the combined transfer and charging order.

13. Where an eligible household has an income within the range of €20,001 to €29,999 (both amounts being included in the range), the purchase money for the dwelling shall be determined by the housing authority or approved body as the monetary value of 50% of the purchase price for the dwelling and the minimum charged period shall be 25 years from the date of the combined transfer and charging order.

14. Where an eligible household has a household income equal to or in excess of €30,000, the purchase money for the dwelling shall be determined by the housing authority or approved body as the monetary value of 60% of the purchase price for the dwelling and the minimum charged period shall be 20 years from the date of the combined transfer and charging order.

Combined transfer and charging order

15. The transfer order and charging order for the sale of a dwelling under an incremental purchase arrangement shall be in the combined form set out in Schedule 1.

Charging order statements

16. Statements given under sections 46(5) and 47(3)(b) of the 2009 Act shall be in the appropriate form set out in Schedule 2.

Qualifications of valuers

17. A person who—

(a) holds an auctioneer’s licence or a house agent’s licence under the Auctioneers and House Agents Act 1947 (No. 10 of 1947), and

(b) has knowledge of and experience in the valuation of dwellings or sites in a particular area,

is suitably qualified, for the purposes of this Part, to determine the market value or current market value of a dwelling or site, as the case may be, in that area.

Revocation

18. The Housing (Incremental Purchase) Regulations ( S.I. No. 562 of 2009 ) are revoked.

Amendment

19. The Housing (Local...