Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 4 May 1994

Vol. 442 No. 3

Written Answers. - Sale of Local Authority Houses.

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

58 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment if he will make new regulations allowing local authorities sell houses without fee simple in cases where they have a problem with the fee simple and where the ground landlord cannot be traced in view of the fact that a number of tenant purchase procedures throughout the country have been held up; and if he will consider an arrangement whereby local authorities could sell the houses to their tenants on condition that the fee simple would be passed on to the purchaser subsequently when the land came into the possession of the local authority.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment (Mr. Stagg):

Dwellings, other than separate and self-contained flats, being sold by a local authority under a tenant purchase scheme in accordance with statutory provisions, must be disposed of in fee simple. There are no proposals to amend this requirement which derives from the provisions of the landlord and tenant code prohibiting, in the case of dwellings other than separate and self-contained flats, their disposal by way of lease and, consequently, the creation of new ground rents. Procedures exist under the landlord and tenant code enabling local authorities to purchase the fee simple of a property where the landlord cannot be traced.