The Local Government (Charges) Act 2009 provided for the introduction of a charge, known as the NPPR charge, on residential property in the sum of €200 per year, payable to the local authority in which the property was located.

The 2009 act provided (among other things) for an exemption from the charge in respect of a residential property that was occupied by an individual as his/her sole or main residence. Section 7 of the act provided that any charge or late payment due and unpaid by an owner of residential property would be and remain a charge on the property to which it relates. The act did not provide that a form of certification was required in the event that the property was exempt from the charge – that is, to say if the property was the principal private residence of an owner on a liability date.

Section 19 of the Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011 amended section 8 of the 2009 act by the insertion of section 8A(4), with effect from 1 January 2012, to provide that, on or before the completion of the sale of a residential property, the vendor of that residential property shall, in respect of that residential property, give to the purchaser (a) a certificate of discharge or (b) a certificate of exemption, as may be appropriate, in respect of each year in which a liability date fell since the date of the last sale of the property.

Problems have arisen in connection with properties that were purchased in the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 before the coming into force of the 2011 act and that are now being sold. This is because, prior to 1 January 2012, it was not possible to obtain a certificate of exemption from the local authority in respect of the property concerned for any liability date. This issue does not arise in obtaining certificates of discharge for years prior to 2012.

The Conveyancing Committee practice note dated 28 August 2009 (also published in the August/September 2009 Gazette, p44) recommended that a solicitor for a purchaser of a residential property (prior to the coming into force of the 2011 act) should seek a statutory declaration from the vendor confirming that the provisions of the 2009 act did not apply, if such was the case because the property was the sole or principal residence of the vendor.

The committee engaged at length with the Department of the Environment to seek a solution to this issue for practitioners, but was advised that the local authorities could only operate within the legislation, which did not provide for certificates of exemption prior to 2012. As a result, the committee has, at the request of the profession, reviewed the legislation in this matter and has decided to issue a practice note advising solicitors that, given the requirements of section 8A(4), a certificate of exemption need only be provided in respect of each year in which a liability date fell since the date of the last sale of the property.

In the event of a sale in the years 2009 to 2011, it was the recommended practice to obtain a statutory declaration from the vendor confirming that the property was occupied by that individual as their sole or main residence and was accordingly exempt from the charge. Therefore, in the absence of any reason to question the validity of the statutory declaration, a purchaser should be entitled to rely on this statutory declaration and to seek a certificate of exemption only in respect of the liability dates since the date of the last sale of the property.