County Council Contribution

clusk007

hi all,

Built a one-off house over the past year and moved in last August. The house is around 2500 ft.² and managed to negotiate the council contribution down to €14,000 from an insane €28,000! I am disabled and the house was built to meet my needs so this was taken into consideration when renegotiating the contribution. It was far too much in the first place anyway. How they can expect people to build a house and pay €28,000 on top of that for basically nothing is beyond me.
I had made the arrangement to pay €7000 last year which I did and the final €7000 this month. I am moved into the house with everything completed and was wondering what are the implications of not paying final contribution? I am not saying I'm not going to pay, just wondering what happens when people don't.
Any feedback would be great

No6

They will most likely take you to court to recover the debt it depends on how aggresive the council are in terms of recovering contributions. Some will be more than others, you could of course get in touch with them and tell them you are strugling at the moment and would they consider extending the time you have to pay in smaller installments.

musgravedk

was wondering this myself, is there not something that you are entitled to ask the council for a break down of works they will spend the money from contribution on, and that they must spend this money within a certain time limit or return it to you?

steifanc

there rates are extortionate , i intend to fight them on there rates , there looking for 37K off me for there contributions and 7.5k deposit returnable after my bio cycle is installed . its a crazy amount of money

muffler

Be careful here people as our forum charter does not permit discussion on ways to circumvent the planning process which includes the payment of development contributions. Im referring specifically to the OP.

rayjdav

They are what they are basically, which was available for inspection at the time pre submission of planning and the onus was/is on the applicant to be aware of the impending charges, no matter how severe they may be.

As I understand the Act, they are indexed linked so they only way that they can be reduced legally, on the assumption that they were applied correctly initially, is if the "index link" reduces, so does the rates pro rata.

Sorry to burst bubbles but tired over the years of hearing people wanting to build, take all the happy stuff and complain over the contributions, after been informed of the impending unavoidable charges that go with it.:eek::(

steifanc

they are index linked , they are linked to the Wholesale Price Index (Building and Construction Materials and are suppose to be up dated 1st of January each year . you would think that with all the economic turmoil that the wholesale price index would be dropping , it is in the shops and providers , prices have came down ,and gotten more completive . but the Wholesale Price Index has climbed slight according to the central statics office , figure that !! so the councils rates haven't dropped in the last yrs !.
i was wondering one day why there could be such a difference between to nabouring county's so i started to get into there rates first off what there charging you for .

Class 1:
Roads infrastructure & facilities

Class 2:
Water & Drainage infrastructure & facilities

Class 3:
Community & Parks facilities & amenities

the contritions for both county's were nearly half of each other , so i requested both councils budget and expenditure over a the last five years , in the areas that they associated the contributions to . and was amazed that both expenditures were nearly half of one another reflecting there contribution rates .
to me that seems strange that they were with in a couple of thousand of being half of each other , a couple of thousand in 300/400 million is hard to do .
so who's cooking the books !!

Builderfromhell

I understand that people who do not pay the contribution would not be able to get a cert. of compliance with planning as fees would be outstanding. Also. late payments incur interest at a high rate and these must then be paid.

mickdw

The compliance cert as advised by IEI clearly excludes financial bonds or contributions as this is believed to be beyond the competence of Engineering professional so in most cases, the paying of contributions wont stop a cert being issued.

It would certainly be an issue though cme sale time as the solicitors are bound to check out if all contributions are paid as well as the yearly 2nd home tax (if applicable).
AFAIK under the latest conveyancy rules, the council has to issue a statement saying that nothing is owed etc before sale goes through.

Most councils would be open to spreading out the payment in some way. Talk to them. They may agree €2000 now with full payment over an additional year or something like that.
Also if your contributions included a refundable deposit and if you are now complete, they will knock the refundable amount off the amount due.

danoriordan1402

No way to avoid this I'm afraid - we had to pay 19k upfront on commencing the build, my neighbour who built a year later, owes approx the same amount and bluffed his way through not paying them. Now he is living in his house and they are chasing him for the full amount - he received an enforcement notice already and is being brought to court, being charged interest on the amount and threatened with 5 years in jail and having to knock the house and restore the land to how they were before - at his cost...

Things are tight for the councils nowadays - they will chase you down for every red cent.

imitation

From my own experience my local council worked like an elephant, slow to move, but they never forget (Naturally I paid on time, but you do wonder when it takes months for them to lodge a cheque).

Just because you dont hear from them for a few months doesnt mean they have forgotten and your likely to get a nasty surprise down the line when they come back.

I think you've gotten the best you can out of the situation by arguing down the price and paying in installments.

steifanc

d000

hokey_dokey

i paid 5500 to limerick county council at the end of janruary for my contribution fee.my house is 2700sq ft...i thought that was a bit much at time but not now when i see some of the fees some people have paid here..