Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 September 2012
280. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment; Community and Local Government the steps being taken to protect tenants from paying the household charge in an instance in which the landlord wrongly imposes the charge on a tenant. [40116/12]
View answerThe Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011 and the Local Government (Household Charge) Regulations 2012 provide the legislation underpinning the household charge. Under the legislation, an owner of a residential property on the liability date of 1 January 2012 is liable to pay the household charge by 31 March 2012, unless otherwise exempted or entitled to claim a waiver.
Section 1 of the Act provides a definition of “owner” for the purposes of the Act, which, in relation to a residential property, means—
(a) a person (other than a mortgagee not in possession) who—
(i) in the case of a residential property that is let under a lease or held under a tenancy for a term not exceeding 20 years, is entitled to receive the rent under that lease or tenancy whether in his or her own right or as trustee or agent for another person, or
(ii) in the case of a residential property that is not so let or so held, would, subject to paragraph (b), be so entitled if the residential property were so let or so held, whether in that person’s own right or as trustee or agent for another person,
or
(b) where the property is let under a lease or held under a tenancy for a term exceeding 20 years, the person (other than a mortgagee not in possession) who is the lessee under that lease or tenant under that tenancy.
A tenant holding a lease of less than 20 years’ duration, whether in public or in private rented accommodation, is not an owner of the property in which he or she is living and is therefore not liable in respect of that property. The household charge is a charge levied on the ownership of property, not on its occupation, and a non-compliant owner of a property, not the tenant, will be pursued for payment.
