Sold House, May have to pay Nppr charge.

maynooth_rules

We have just sold our house and were waiting for money to come into our account. We have just been informed that we may be responsible for unpaid NPPR charge. This charge was from a previous owner but we may be liable for it. It's €7200 so a sizeable amount of money (most of it is penalties) . Solisitor is holding it back. She has informed us that someone in the council has told then the charge was paid, but as of yet the cert has not been received by our solisitor.
How should we proceed with this. We are furious that we may be liable for this, through no fault of our own. Our solisitor has said not to worry but the fact they want to hold back this money does have us worried.
When we purchased the house initially, it was from the same solisitor firm (different solisitor).

iggy

When u purchased the house initially your solicitor should have looked for nppr certs before you bought the house.

Gloomtastic!

iggy wrote: »

When u purchased the house initially your solicitor should have looked for nppr certs before you bought the house.

This. Their fault and they should be liable.

maynooth_rules

The solisitor who dealt with our case has since retired. But the fact that it's the same firm who have dealt with us is what has me furious. I don't see why we should pay for something that was overlooked by them. But I don't know how to deal with it. They have all our funds, and have basically said they will only release it minus the nppr charge

is_that_so

Isn't this one of things that can be set against the value of a house in advance of a sale? Thought solicitors checked all of that.

StoptheClocks

Your'e solicitor should have spotted this. The same thing held up the purchase my house. My solicitor insisted that the seller had the correct paper work for each year.

PhilipJ

Perhaps contact the Laws society of Ireland to discuss it?

Contact details below

Complaints and Client Relations Section, Law Society of Ireland, George's Court, George's Lane, Dublin 7.

Tel: 01 879 8700, fax: 01 879 8785 or email complaints@lawsociety.ie
www.lawsociety.ie

riclad

A basic part of a solicitors job is to check theres no bills or debts
due on the house ,
theres no loans or charges due including nppr ,
if you have to pay it you should complain to the law society.
Maybe the price of the house could be reduced by 7200 ?

garhjw

I think it’s called a certificate of discharge in relation to the NPPR. solicitor should have boxed that off.

rightmove

StoptheClocks wrote: »

Your'e solicitor should have spotted this. The same thing held up the purchase my house. My solicitor insisted that the seller had the correct paper work for each year.

Same as that , solicitor will ask the vendor for these details as pre contract questions

drunkmonkey

Liabilty is with the previous seller from what I can see. It was up to them to pay it. They've commited an offence if they don't have the cert your solictor should inform them of the same and hand over your money in full.

The Local Government (Charges) Act 2009, as amended, provides for a number of offences related to the NPPR charge. The main offences relate to failure to declare a liability to a NPPR charge, failure to pay it and to provide information that is false or misleading. The Act also provides for fines and other sanctions for persons found guilty of offences.

maynooth_rules

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Liabilty is with the previous seller from what I can see. It was up to them to pay it. They've commited an offence if they don't have the cert your solictor should inform them of the same and hand over your money in full.

The Local Government (Charges) Act 2009, as amended, provides for a number of offences related to the NPPR charge. The main offences relate to failure to declare a liability to a NPPR charge, failure to pay it and to provide information that is false or misleading. The Act also provides for fines and other sanctions for persons found guilty of offences.

The previous seller was a bank sale, which probably won't make things easy for us.

drunkmonkey

maynooth_rules wrote: »

The previous seller was a bank sale, which probably won't make things easy for us.

Then it's the banks liability. Call the finance department in your local authority in the morning and ask them do you owe it. It'll be quicker than waiting on the solicitor.

gar32

Call the tax office yourself. I was able to check past payments for a property on the phone.

Good luck

Darc19

I wouldn't be overly worried.

As this seems to be your primary residence it was assumed that nppr didn't come into the equation and it came up late in the transaction.

Councils are notoriously slow at sending out the certificate. Seems to have to go through several layers of bureaucracy, joke of a system.

It would / should have been a standard request when you bought it unless it was built but never occupied. In that case some supporting documents will be needed.

It can take 3-4 weeks for some councils

Baby01032012

riclad wrote: »

A basic part of a solicitors job is to check theres no bills or debts
due on the house ,
theres no loans or charges due including nppr ,
if you have to pay it you should complain to the law society.
Maybe the price of the house could be reduced by 7200 ?

They’re selling not buying. Reducing price of the house reduces the amount they receive?!

ifeelstupid

Try and get a name of someone to contact in the finance office of Co Council. Get in touch with them and they may issue Certificate of Discharge to you (so long as the NPPR has been paid already). Bring it to the solicitor and they should be able to discharge all your funds.

It will be the solicitor for the buyers that is digging their heels in - they have to authorise your solicitor that it is okay to pay out the money.

Edgware

It is a sizeable amount and it was the solicitors responsibility to have it covered. You could spend a lot of money trying to sort it but depending on the funds being held back you might as well suck it up. Some solicitors are useless.

JustMe,K

maynooth_rules wrote: »

We have just sold our house and were waiting for money to come into our account. We have just been informed that we may be responsible for unpaid NPPR charge. This charge was from a previous owner but we may be liable for it. It's €7200 so a sizeable amount of money (most of it is penalties) . Solisitor is holding it back. She has informed us that someone in the council has told then the charge was paid, but as of yet the cert has not been received by our solisitor.
How should we proceed with this. We are furious that we may be liable for this, through no fault of our own. Our solisitor has said not to worry but the fact they want to hold back this money does have us worried.
When we purchased the house initially, it was from the same solisitor firm (different solisitor).

why not call the council yourself to check if it was paid, be nice as pie, ask for their help in speeding up issuing the cert?