Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

-----late payment fees and interest due up to the date of death within three months of the date of the grant of representation to the estate of the deceased.

Where a property liable for the charge is being sold, the Bill provides in section 10(3) that the vendor will be required to discharge all outstanding household charges, late payment fees and late payment interest on or before the date of transfer. This should prove a strong incentive for a purchaser and their solicitor to ensure that all outstanding charges are paid before a contract to sell the property is executed.

In section 14 provision is made for data exchange between local authorities and the Private Residential Tenancies Board, the Electricity Supply Board and the Revenue Commissioners. This data should assist local authorities to identify properties liable for the charge. The Private Residential Tenancies Board holds data on rental properties and the ESB's systems can generate data on residential properties where electricity is used. The Revenue Commissioners hold data on certain property transactions, such as stamp duty, VAT and capital gains taxes. In addition, some other amendments and insertions are being made to the Local Government (Charges) Act 2009, which provides for the €200 charge on non-principal private residences. These include definitions and other provisions contained in the Local Government (Household Charge) Bill 2011 in order to mirror, in the Act, the provisions contained in the Bill.

The 2009 Act exempted properties leased to a local authority under the Rental Accommodation Scheme, RAS. The RAS exemption was included in order to encourage take-up of the then relatively new scheme. As the scheme has been in existence for a number of years, an incentive is no longer required. Indeed, similar long-term leasing arrangements with private property owners are now being entered into in respect of meeting social housing needs. As leases under RAS, now a mainstream social housing option, are subject to the same legal framework applying to private leases under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, it is not justifiable that a landlord group should continue to receive added incentives simply from inclusion of their properties in social housing arrangements. Is Deputy Higgins happy with that?

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