Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 July 2018
534. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if there is leniency available from penalties for persons who have inadvertently failed to pay a non-principal private dwelling charge. [29024/18]
View answerThe Local Government (Charges) Act 2009, as amended, provides the legislative basis for the Non Principal Private Residence (NPPR) charge. The NPPR charge, which has since been discontinued, applied in the years 2009 to 2013 to any residential property in which the owner did not reside as their normal place of residence.
The self-assessed charge was set at €200 per annum and liability for it falls, in the main, on owners of rental, holiday and vacant properties. Section 6 of the 2009 Act, as amended, provides that the owner of a liable property who fails to pay the charge, in addition to him or her being liable to pay the charge, is liable to pay to the relevant local authority a €20 late payment fee in respect of each month or part of a month in which the charge, any late payment fee, or any part of such charge or fee, remains unpaid.
Part 12 of the Local Government Reform Act 2014 also deals with the collection of undischarged liabilities relating to the NPPR charge. The Act provided for a period from 2 March 2014 to 31 August 2014 during which time no new late penalties were applied to existing liabilities. If payment was not made in full or if settlement terms were not agreed by the end of that period, an additional late payment fee of €120 per liability date applied on 1 September 2014. As the charge applied in each of the years from 2009 to 2013, there were five liability dates – 31 July 2009 and 31 March for each of the years 2010 to 2013. In addition to this late payment fee to be applied per liability date, the entire NPPR liability is then increased by a factor of 50% and frozen.
Under the Act, it is a function of a local authority to collect NPPR charges and late payment fees due to it, and all charges and late payment fees imposed and payable to a local authority are under the care and management of the local authority concerned. In this regard, application of the legislation in particular circumstances is a matter for the relevant local authority.
Under section 77 of the Local Government Reform Act 2014, my Department issued guidance to local authorities concerning matters relating to arrears of the NPPR charge and late payment fees to ensure that a consistent national approach is adopted. The guidelines, which are available at http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/migrated-files/en/Publications/LocalGovernment/Administration/FileDownLoad%2C37899%2Cen.pdf, encourage local authorities to take a proactive approach to ensure that any outstanding NPPR liabilities are discharged in the most equitable, efficient and economically beneficial manner and include guidance in respect of dealing with hardship cases. It is expected, in the majority of cases, that local authorities will collect the full NPPR charge liability from owners. In some cases, this may be by means of arrangement by instalment. All non-compliant owners or owners with queries should log on to www.nppr.ie or, alternatively, contact their local authority to discuss any matters they wish to clarify and to make any outstanding payments.
Should an initial claim of hardship be rejected by a local authority, the claimant should also be afforded, if requested, a further appeal to a more senior officer in the local authority. Ultimately, should a subsequent appeal be unsuccessful the complainant should be notified as early as is possible. Claimants should also be informed that if they are still not happy with the determination they can appeal to the Office of the Ombudsman.
