Housing (Sale of Local Authority Houses) Regulations 2015

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 484/2015
• Year: 2015

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 6th November, 2015.

I, ALAN KELLY, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 11 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992 (No. 18 of 1992) and sections 3 and 32 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 (No. 22 of 2009), as adapted by the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 2011 ( S.I. No. 193 of 2011 ), and sections 4 and 30 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 (No. 21 of 2014), and, in so far as it relates to section 11 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992 , with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (pursuant to the Finance (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2011 ( S.I. No. 418 of 2011 )), hereby make the following regulations:

Citation

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Housing (Sale of Local Authority Houses) Regulations 2015.

Commencement

2. These Regulations come into operation on 1 January 2016.

Interpretation

3. In these Regulations—

“Act of 1997” means the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 (No. 21 of 1997);

“Act of 2014” means the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 (No. 21 of 2014);

“anti-social behaviour” and “estate management” have the meanings given in section 1 of the Act of 1997;

“Part 3” means Part 3 of the Act of 2014;

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

“purchaser” includes, in relevant cases, joint purchasers;

“tenant” includes, in relevant cases, joint tenants;

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

Classes of houses excluded from sale

4. A housing authority shall not sell under Part 3 a house that—

(a) has been specifically designed for occupation by one or more than one elderly person,

(b) has been provided to facilitate the transition from institutional care to community-based living of persons with an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual impairment,

(c) has been specifically designed for occupation by travellers, where more than one such house or dwelling is provided on the land concerned,

(d) is a caravan, mobile home or a structure or a thing (whether on wheels or not) that is capable of being moved from one place to another (whether by towing, transport on a vehicle or trailer, or otherwise),

(e) has been transferred to a planning authority in accordance with an agreement under section 96 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (No. 30 of 2000), including a house provided on land or on a site 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 house is on the land the subject of the planning application to which the agreement relates,

(f) in the opinion of the authority, should not be sold for reasons of proper management of the authority’s stock of housing accommodation or on account of the house’s structural condition, or

(g) should not be sold for the time being on account of proposals the authority has to carry out reconstruction or improvement works under section 12 of the Housing Act 1988 or for the regeneration of the area in which the house is located.

Minimum period in receipt of social housing support

5. (1) Subject to paragraph (2), the minimum period for which a tenant is required to have been in receipt of social housing support for the purposes of making an application to purchase a house under Part 3 is one year on the date of the making of such application.

(2) Where a tenant referred to in paragraph (1) is a joint tenant, one of the tenants shall fulfil the requirement in paragraph (1).

Minimum annual income to apply to purchase

6. The minimum amount of annual income, determined in accordance with section 24 of the Act of 2014, that a tenant is required to have in order to apply to purchase a house under Part 3 is €15,000.

Purchase application

7. At the time of applying to purchase a house under Part 3, a tenant shall provide the following information to the housing authority:

(a) the intended source of funding for the purchase money in respect of the house;

(b) information sought by the authority to enable it to comply with section 24 of the Act of 2014 and any direction issued under that enactment;

(c)(i) convictions in the 5-year period prior to the date of application for offences by any household member under sections 5, 6, 7, 14, 15 or 19 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 (No. 2 of 1994), and

(ii) court orders made in the 5-year period prior to the date of application in respect of household members under—

(I) sections 3, 3A or 4 of the Act of 1997,

(II) section 257D of the Children Act 2001 (No. 24 of 2001), or

(III) section 115 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 (No. 26 of 2006);

(d) any other information, including updated information, that the housing authority reasonably requires for the purposes of the purchase application or the exercise of the authority’s functions under section 14 of the Act of 1997 or section 23 of the Act of 2014.

Provision of additional information

8. A tenant applying to purchase a house under Part 3 shall, within 4 weeks of being requested to do so by the housing authority concerned, provide to that authority such additional information, including documents and other particulars, as the authority may reasonably require for the purpose of verifying information provided by the tenant in connection with an application to purchase.

Notice about offences

9. An application form for purchase of a house under Part 3 shall include the following statement:

“Section 32(7) of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and section 6 of the Fines Act 2010 provide that it is an offence, punishable on conviction by a class C fine (i.e. an amount not greater than €2,500 but greater than €1,000), 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 house under Part 3 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 . 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 the authority incurred on the sale of a house due to reliance on false, misleading or undisclosed information.”

Purchase price

10. The purchase price for a house shall be determined as the greater of—

(a) the relevant market value of the house, or

(b)50 per cent of the estimated cost to the housing authority of providing, on the same site as the house being purchased and in accordance with prevailing national building standards and design policies for local authority housing, a house designed to accommodate a household in the same class that the house being purchased was designed for, and such estimated cost shall include, among other matters, the cost of site acquisition, legal and other professional fees.

Purchase money and charged period

11. Where a tenant’s annual income is less than or equal to €20,000, the purchase money for the house shall be determined by the housing authority as the monetary value of 40 per cent of the purchase price for the house and the charged period shall be 30 years from the vesting date.

12. Where a tenant’s annual income is in the range of €20,001 to €29,999, the purchase money for the house shall be determined by the housing authority as the monetary value of 50 per cent of the purchase price for the house and the charged period shall be 25 years from the vesting date.

13. Where a tenant’s annual income is equal to or in excess of €30,000, the purchase money for the house shall be determined by the housing authority as the monetary value of 60 per cent of the purchase price for the house and the charged period shall be 20 years from the vesting date.

Payment of purchase money

14. (1) The purchase money for the house shall be paid to the housing authority in full in advance of the completion of the sale.

(2) Where any portion of the purchase money is being financed by way of a loan by a housing authority to the purchaser under section 11 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992 (No. 18 of 1992), then "paid" in paragraph (1) means the completion by the purchaser of a mortgage contract in respect of such loan.

Combined transfer and charging order

15. (1) The transfer order and charging order for the sale of a house under Part 3 shall be in the combined form set out in Schedule 1.

(2) A housing authority shall, on making an order referred to in paragraph (1), give a copy of the order to the purchaser.

Qualification of valuers

16. A person who—

(a) is denoted in the Property Services Register as having a licence in force to provide property services relating to the purchase or sale of land, and

(b) has knowledge of and experience in the valuation of houses and land in the area concerned,

is suitably qualified to determine the market value or relevant market value of a house or site, as the case may be, for the purposes of Part 3.

Charging order statements

17. Statements given under sections 26(4) and 27(2)(b) of the Act of 2014 shall be in the appropriate form set out in Parts 1 and 2, respectively, of Schedule 2.

Amendment of Housing (Local Authority Loans) Regulations 2012

18. The Housing (Local Authority Loans) Regulations 2012 ( S.I. No. 408 of 2012 ) are amended in Regulation 3 by inserting the following...