LPT Local Property Tax issue

pappe

I have bought house recently and I have paid the latest LPT taxes through my wages.
However it appears that in my case the previous owner didn't pay the previous LPT taxes, and I just discovered it now, because Revenue sent me a letter stating they will get all arrears not paid for the property I am currently the owner of, from my wage, in 14 days. I called the revenue to clarify the matter. They asked me to find out through my solicitors who was the previous owner and if any previous receipt. If I don't find this information I am still liable of paying the arrears .
The arrears are also much higher (double) than originally.
What system is this? I wonder why do I need to do this job, spending money for solicitor and a lot of efforts for this? Isn't their job to pursue the previous owner ?

Can somebody suggest what would be the best thing to do in this case?

Very appreciated

danger_here

Reading between the lines, it seems like they are saying it was your responsibility to check up if any liability was fully paid by the previous owner when you bought the house. The short answer here from your perspective might be to suck it up, be done with it and chalk it down to experience.

Beyond the case that the previous owner paid it and the cash simply disappeared somehow at Revenue (most unlikely hence why they are asking for receipt), they just didn't pay it. Afaik there is a LPT code you can give during house sale to check up it the LPT has been paid in full. Maybe your own solicitor (if applies here) didn't check. Chasing the previous owner up for it now might be more hassle than it's worth, although you could go down that road.

The LPT system seems so flawed in its early days that I imagine in a few years time if a previous owner has LPT unpaid they will simply hold up the sale or something similar. Most likely Revenue don't have a robust system in place at the moment for such a simple scenario as what you described.

In my LPT experience (a) they chased my deceased father rather than me for it (b) misapplied the HHC payment I made so that one payment had a credit while the HHC was still showing as unpaid (c) never responded to any emails I sent.

I think Revenue are ultimately one of the good guys in Ireland but the LPT implementation is slightly bizarre compared how to how other countries run these things.

danger_here

Reading between the lines, it seems like they are saying it was your responsibility to check up if any liability was fully paid by the previous owner when you bought the house. The short answer here from your perspective might be to suck it up, be done with it and chalk it down to experience.

I don't think at this stage Revenue can differentiate between the previous owner and current owner. They seem happy enough to identify a property with LPT due. It's slightly bizarre but I think the only info they might have is when you registered the property for LPT. Lets assume the previous owner didn't ever...

Beyond the case that the previous owner paid it and the cash simply disappeared somehow at Revenue (most unlikely hence why they are asking for receipt), they just didn't pay it. Afaik there is a LPT code you can give during house sale to check up it the LPT has been paid in full. Maybe your own solicitor (if applies here) didn't check. Chasing the previous owner up for it now might be more hassle than it's worth, although you could go down that road.

The LPT system seems so flawed in its early days that I imagine in a few years time if a previous owner has LPT unpaid they will simply hold up the sale or something similar. Most likely Revenue don't have a robust system in place at the moment for such a simple scenario as what you described.

In my LPT experience (a) they chased my deceased father rather than me for it (b) misapplied the HHC payment I made so that one payment had a credit while the HHC was still showing as unpaid (c) never responded to any emails I sent.

I think Revenue are ultimately one of the good guys in Ireland but the LPT implementation is slightly bizarre compared how to how other countries run these things.

turnikett1

Alternatively go to your county council with your PPSN, although the previous owner's PPSN might be needed too, they will have all the records and receipts of payments since they were the ones who originally handled the HHC in 2012

Apart from that you're gonna have handle all this with the solicitor, sorry...

Citizenpain

Do you have any of the documentation for the house purchase

your solicitor should have got confirmation/ receipts for the LPT

mickdw

This was all checked by your solicitor prior to purchase. There is no doubt about it. They will have confirmation of what had been paid. They would have made you aware of this also at time of purchase. Anything less and they are negligent.
I figure this is just revenue not making the connection between the property you now own and the payments they received from the previous owner.
Get in touch with your solicitor and they should be able to Send a simple letter to revenue with degala of payments made.

XrayMike235

It is your solicitors fault. They should have checked that there was no outstanding tax arrears on the house before the contract was signed, this includes the household charge, the local property tax, the nppr tax (or a certificate of exemption from the nppr) and septic tank registration (if applicable). If you currently own the house and any of these charges are outstanding you will be liable for them, plus penalties as they are in arrears at this stage. Your solicitor should have gotten receipts from the vendor to indicate all outstanding charges had been paid.

Mr. Incognito

mickdw wrote: »

This was all checked by your solicitor prior to purchase. There is no doubt about it. They will have confirmation of what had been paid. They would have made you aware of this also at time of purchase. Anything less and they are negligent.
I figure this is just revenue not making the connection between the property you now own and the payments they received from the previous owner.
Get in touch with your solicitor and they should be able to Send a simple letter to revenue with degala of payments made.

This. I would suspect Revenue are chancing their arm and it was paid by the previous owner. I have seen revenue duplicate the same house in the system

pappe

Thank you, your comments were very useful for my case!
There is no mention of LPT in the statement given by solicitor. I suppose then she didn't take LPT into account.
In the last 3 days I sent her already 2 emails asking for an explanation and she did not come back to me with any of them.
I will try to call her directly on Monday. However I have only 10 days left before Revenue will take arrears from my wages, hence I need to have it sorted it out urgently.

Personally I don't find Revenue being fair here neither. They are well aware I bought this apartment after those payments should have been made. I communicate to Revenue (via phone) the Certificate ID for stamp duty and I also mentioned that I can make copies of the contract.
But they insisted I should contact my solicitor for this.
It is not fair that I should pay double because of arrears through my wages when in my situation I could not be aware of this problem. The Revenue letter I received was very intimidating as well.

danger_here

pappe wrote: »

Personally I don't find Revenue being fair here neither. They are well aware I bought this apartment after those payments should have been made. I communicate to Revenue (via phone) the Certificate ID for stamp duty and I also mentioned that I can make copies of the contract.
But they insisted I should contact my solicitor for this.
It is not fair that I should pay double because of arrears through my wages when in my situation I could not be aware of this problem. The Revenue letter I received was very intimidating as well.

www. revenue. ie/en/about/custservice/how-complain-revenue.html

mickdw

pappe wrote: »

Thank you, your comments were very useful for my case!
There is no mention of LPT in the statement given by solicitor. I suppose then she didn't take LPT into account.
In the last 3 days I sent her already 2 emails asking for an explanation and she did not come back to me with any of them.
I will try to call her directly on Monday. However I have only 10 days left before Revenue will take arrears from my wages, hence I need to have it sorted it out urgently.

Personally I don't find Revenue being fair here neither. They are well aware I bought this apartment after those payments should have been made. I communicate to Revenue (via phone) the Certificate ID for stamp duty and I also mentioned that I can make copies of the contract.
But they insisted I should contact my solicitor for this.
It is not fair that I should pay double because of arrears through my wages when in my situation I could not be aware of this problem. The Revenue letter I received was very intimidating as well.

In my opinion, unless you have received a letter from your solicitor advising you that these taxes are unpaid and stating that the vendors are unwilling to pay and will therefore be your responsibility, the solicitor is at fault if in fact the taxes are unpaid.
I don't believe for one minute that this actually happened so most likely the taxes are paid up.
It is standard procedure for all these items to be queried by your solicitor. I really cannot believe that it could be missed.
I would however be camped out at the solicitors office to get clarification on it asap.

Ogham

All they want is some details of the seller. If you don't know who you bought it from - just give them as much info as you can such as solicitor name and address, estate agent, date of sale. Don't ignore it and don't pay it.

vickers209

pappe wrote: »

I have bought house recently and I have paid the latest LPT taxes through my wages.
However it appears that in my case the previous owner didn't pay the previous LPT taxes, and I just discovered it now, because Revenue sent me a letter stating they will get all arrears not paid for the property I am currently the owner of, from my wage, in 14 days. I called the revenue to clarify the matter. They asked me to find out through my solicitors who was the previous owner and if any previous receipt. If I don't find this information I am still liable of paying the arrears .
The arrears are also much higher (double) than originally.
What system is this? I wonder why do I need to do this job, spending money for solicitor and a lot of efforts for this? Isn't their job to pursue the previous owner ?

Can somebody suggest what would be the best thing to do in this case?

Very appreciated

Did you buy it in 2013??

Claiming an exemption under section 8 for a second hand property purchased in 2013 by a non-first time buyer .

Under section 8 of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 (as amended) any person who purchased a second hand property in 2013 and occupies it as a sole or main residence is entitled to an exemption from Local Property Tax (LPT). This exemption is not restricted to first time buyers. If you purchased a second hand property between 1 January 2013 and 1 November 2013 and qualify for this exemption, you can now claim the exemption online by following the instructions below (any person who purchased a second hand property between 2 November and 31 December 2013 (and occupies it as a sole or main residence) is not liable for LPT for 2014 and does not need to claim an exemption for 2014):

http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/lpt/exemptions.html

Chris_Heilong

I think if you have informaton sjowing when you purchased the house that revenue should take the hit and chalk it up to experience, it should be their loss not yours.

Chris_Heilong

I think if you have informaton showing when you purchased the house that revenue should take the hit and chalk it up to experience, it should be their loss not yours.