Trevor Sargent
Ceist:645 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress being made to end the system of ground rents. [26732/01]
Vol. 543 No. 2
645 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress being made to end the system of ground rents. [26732/01]
Provision has been made in existing landlord and tenant legislation to prevent the creation of new ground rents and for the purchase of existing ground rents. In particular, the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act, 1978, has prevented the creation of new leases reserving ground rents on dwellings while the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No. 2) Act, 1978, already provides a statutory scheme for the purchase of the fee simple in the case of dwelling houses. The purchase price in most cases at present is about 15 times the ground rent. To date, more than 74,600 people have purchased their ground rent under this scheme. There is no obstacle to a tenant negotiating directly with the owner of the ground rent for its purchase without reference to the 1978 (No. 2) Act.