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Inaccurate family home declaration potential consequences

  • 18-08-2024 12:56am
    #1
    Cionarb
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1 ✭


    A few years ago an unmarried couple bought a house together. One of them was recently divorced at the time and had this accurately reflected in the family home declaration. The other was also divorced, but over 15 years and in another country. No record of that marriage / divorce exists in this country. This was not reflected in the family home declaration. Status was "single" rather than "divorced".

    Assume that there is zero percent chance of any issue arising from this partner's long-ago ex-spouse resurfacing in Ireland.

    What other potential consequences may be faced?

    Can it be corrected?

    If the couple were to get married to each other now does that negate or replace the old family home declarations?



Comments

  • #2
    Victor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,457 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Was this a declaration to the lender? The Land Registry?

    An offence may have been involved and the person would be best advised to speak to their solicitor (as in not a solicitor shared with their partner). They will likely need a solicitor to sort any declaration anyway.

    That said, prison time is unlikely. However, lenders and officialdom might be unimpressed and subject the person to increased scrutiny.



  • #3
    Marcusm
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,379 ✭✭✭✭Marcusm


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058364916/inaccurate-family-home-declaration-potential-consequences

    was the declaration made with fraudulent or deceptive intent? If not then there might be an offence under the Stat Decs Act but that is a monetary penalty rather a prison sentence (even assuming that a family home declaration is covered as a Stat Dec).

    If the former spouse never lived In The house or even in the country, the solicitors should do their due diligence rather than requiring a formal declaration but I know to my own cost that this would require thinking.



  • #4
    3DataModem
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,003 ✭✭✭3DataModem


    The family home declaration has a few purposes; one key purpose up to a while ago was to formally confirm the amount of stamp duty that was payable, as family homes vs investment properties had wildly different stamp duty rates. Now the most important aspect is to ensure an owner is not selling a family home without the knowledge of their spouse, as the FLA (1995) states that these sales are void, which has pretty serious implications for all parties (and all solicitors).

    Now to address OP: the main risk is that the 15-years-gone spouse could make a future sale more difficult by popping up and saying "I used to be married to this person" and then creating a massive headache for the vendor's solicitor and driving purchasers away.



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