Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising the issue. Section 10(2) of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012, as amended, provides that a residential property shall be exempt from the local property tax, LPT, where it is situated in an unfinished housing estate. Section 10(1) of the Act defines an unfinished housing estate as a development of two or more buildings that is specified in a list prescribed under section 10(3) of the Act by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government for the purposes of the Act. Section 10(4) of the Act prescribes a range of circumstances to which that Minister shall have regard for the purposes of that section.

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has recently prescribed and published this list, which is set out in the Schedule to the Finance (Local Property Tax) Regulations 2013 and was compiled by local authorities utilising the categorisation employed for the purposes of the national housing survey 2012. The survey was carried out over the course of summer 2012 by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in conjunction with local authorities and the housing agency. The categorisation methodology for the survey was different from that used in 2011 and which provided the basis for the waiver from the household charge. That earlier categorisation related largely to the level of on-site activity at the time the 2011 survey was carried out and had less to do with the physical character of a development. The 2012 survey was based purely and objectively on the state of completion of a development. Only developments that were deemed by local authorities to be in a "seriously problematic condition", regardless of whether a developer was on or off site, were included.

For the purposes of preparing the final list of developments to which the exemption from the LPT would apply, local authorities were asked by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to confirm or update the then existing list as appropriate. The decision as to whether an estate is on the list of unfinished estates is in the ambit of local authorities and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, and not in the ambit of the Department of Finance or the Revenue Commissioners.

I understand the Senator is concerned about the criteria to be applied in the calculation of LPT for unfinished estates that are not on the list of unfinished estates published by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, that is, those which do not qualify for an exemption from LPT. The Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012, as amended, provides how a residential property is to be valued for LPT purposes.

LPT is a self-assessed tax and it is a matter for the property owner, in the first instance, to calculate the tax due based on his or her assessment of the market value of the property. While properties in a particular housing estate may not have qualified for an exemption from LPT on the grounds that the estate in question is not regarded as incomplete to a substantial extent, owners of residential properties in such estates should take all aspects that they consider relevant into account in arriving at an honest value for their properties. Such factors would include the state of completion of roads, footpaths, lighting facilities, and water and sewerage facilities within the housing development concerned. The charge to LPT is based on the chargeable value of the residential property and this is defined in the 2012 Act as the price that the unencumbered fee simple of a residential property might be expected to fetch in a sale on the open market were that property to be sold on the valuation date of 1 May 2013 in a manner that would secure the best possible price for it.