Seán Haughey
Question:291 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps, if any, he will take to abolish ground rents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5952/00]
Written Answers. - Ground Rents Abolition.
I have outlined to the House on a number of occasions, by way of reply to parliamentary questions, the position regarding ground rents.
Briefly, the position is that the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents)(No.2) Act, 1978, already provides a statutory scheme for the acquisition of the fee simple by the owners of dwelling houses. Part III of the (No.2) Act provides a special procedure, operated at low cost by the Land Registry, whereby owner-occupiers of dwelling houses may acquire readily and relatively inexpensively the fee simple in their property. The purchase price in most cases at present is about 15 times the ground rent. The Act contains provision for the determination of applications for the purchase of the fee simple in cases where the consent of all the necessary parties is not forthcoming. In such cases the Registrar of Titles will determine the application by arbitration. The Act also makes provision for the circumstance that the ground rent landlord cannot be found. There is also no obstacle to a tenant negotiating directly with the owner of the ground rent for its purchase without reference to the (No. 2) Act.
The Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rent Abolition) Bill, introduced as a Private Members' Bill in 1997, raised constitutional, technical and practical difficulties of a kind which cannot be easily overcome. If and when those difficulties can be met in a way that would substantially improve on the already good and reasonable sys tem that exists for the purchase of ground rent, the necessary legislative details will be announced in the normal way.