buying - questions

otto500

Hi. In the middle of buying a house now I have a few problems if anybody could help.

Went sale agreed December. Deposits paid, contracts signed in January with a closing date in January.

Mortgage was drawn down by solicitor but there was a problem with the vendors so the closing date passed.

10 days later we hear nothing so we contact the solicitor and are given a second closing date.

That date has now passed and we have been given a 3rd closing date.

At this stage we are now paying a mortgage, rent, house insurance, mortgage protection, have brought furniture and have missed 3 days work each...

Now I get contacted by the solicitor stating that the vendors solicitor wants more money for local property tax for the remainder of 2015 as it has already been paid by the vendor...

Do I legally have to pay it or can I refuse? It's not much money but I think it's cheeky asking for it since I'm about 600euro out of pocket due to them changing the dates.

Thanks

RobbieTheRobber

otto500 wrote: »

Hi. In the middle of buying a house now I have a few problems if anybody could help.

Went sale agreed December. Deposits paid, contracts signed in January with a closing date in January.

Mortgage was drawn down by solicitor but there was a problem with the vendors so the closing date passed.

10 days later we hear nothing so we contact the solicitor and are given a second closing date.

That date has now passed and we have been given a 3rd closing date.

At this stage we are now paying a mortgage, rent, house insurance, mortgage protection, have brought furniture and have missed 3 days work each...

Now I get contacted by the solicitor stating that the vendors solicitor wants more money for local property tax for the remainder of 2015 as it has already been paid by the vendor...

Do I legally have to pay it or can I refuse? It's not much money but I think it's cheeky asking for it since I'm about 600euro out of pocket due to them changing the dates.

Thanks

Yes essentially you have to pay the property tax for the reminder of the year (of which you will be the owner of the property).

The below link is to the law society site and details their recommendations to solicitors on how to split the LPT.

http://www.lawsociety.ie/Solicitors/Practising/Practice-Notes/Local-Property-Tax/#.VN3rAPl_tp0

I dont think the solicitor will complete the sale (pay stamp duty etc) until all outstanding issues such as the LPT are resolved.

otto500

Thanks!

comuirch

We bought a house early in 2014 and the situation is that the registered owner of the property on the 1st November of the previous year is responsible for payment of the property tax for the next year. In our case the previous owners paid the 2014 property tax as they were the owners at the "Liability Date". I've copied the extracts below from Citizens Information:

Liability date

You are a liable person for the Local Property Tax if you own a residential property on the liability (or ownership) date. The liability date is 1 May 2013 for the year 2013 and, for following years, 1 November in the preceding year. So for 2014 the liability date was 1 November 2013.

For 2015 the liability date is 1 November 2014.

The vendors solicitors are chancing their arm. You have no liability to pay the 2015 property tax. You may agree to pay vendor for the portion of the year for which you own it but you certainly aren't obliged to. I wouldn't especially given how they've jerked you around.....

otto500

comuirch wrote: »

The vendors solicitors are chancing their arm. You have no liability to pay the 2015 property tax. You may agree to pay vendor for the portion of the year for which you own it but you certainly aren't obliged to. I wouldn't especially given how they've jerked you around.....

That's exactly what I was thinking at the start. Was it a case of them essentially looking for me to refund them the property tax that's paid...

As I said it's not too much money, but they seem to be taking the piss at this stage.

Clive

otto500 wrote: »

That's exactly what I was thinking at the start. Was it a case of them essentially looking for me to refund them the property tax that's paid...

As I said it's not too much money, but they seem to be taking the piss at this stage.

Although you are not liable to Revenue, the guidance from the Law Society is that the LPT should be apportioned that way, it's not necessarily the vendor pulling a fast one.

TheDriver

I think your solicitor needs to be tougher here on closing this sale, they are liable for penalties if a contracted closing date has passed. I know it usually happens and people just say fine but it sounds like they are pushing it out a bit too much, at your expense

colm_c

Your solicitor really shouldn't have drawn down the mortgage until much closer to the closing date after doing all of their 'checks' with the vendors solicitor.