Consent Clause on Corporation Houses for Sale

Hi All
Myself, my girlfriend and our baby are looking to buy a house to settle down in, we taught it might be a good time to buy with house prices coming down.
I currently own an apartment which i lived in but because we are looking for a house I have rented it out to save money for buying a house.
We went to view a house in harmonstown/artane area and the estate agent explained that this is a Consent Clause on the property and since I already had a property that this would exclude use from purchasing any Corporation House.
This is the first Ive heard of this and I just taught Id put it out there and see if anyone else has come across this and has any advice.
The estate agent did say that this only applies to people who orginally owed or purchased the house when it was first built. So if a house had changed hands more than twice than the law does not apply

Has anyone any advice on this situation?
The reason why we dont live in the apartment that I owe is that its too far away for my girlfriends mother to mind the baby while we are in work and we would perfer to buy a house near family.

Thanks
Gary

Estate agent is correct. The fact that you already own a property and especially that it is rented out may disqualify you. Council will not consent to sale to investors- you can put your case to them on the basis you want to live there but they will prefer FTB. Could your girlfriend buy it in her sole name?

we have discussed this and we decided against that option. Does anyone now how do they enforce this law ? Do they investigate into it when you go to buy a property or do you have to declare this yourself?

You have to sign a declaration which is then lodged with your solicitor. That's the way it worked when I was going to buy a former council house.

plant43 said:

You have to sign a declaration which is then lodged with your solicitor. That's the way it worked when I was going to buy a former council house.

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So, if they did this and the solicitor already knows they have another place.............should the solicitor "grass" them to the Local Authority?

Opinions, anyone ?

mf

I know of a solicitor who facilitated someone I know paying FTB stamp duty when they'd already owned and sold a house in another European country.

Up to the solicitor's conscience?

mf1 said:

So, if they did this and the solicitor already knows they have another place.............should the solicitor "grass" them to the Local Authority?

Opinions, anyone ?

mf

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I would hope/expect all solicitors (or 99.9%) would have the integrity to tell the Local Authority as is their duty - it's only a small step up from not 'grassing' them in this circumstance, to misrepresenting FTB status on behalf of the client and defrauding the tax man etc.

If your own solicitor isn't honest in his dealings with others on your behalf, can you trust him/her to be honest in his dealings with you?

mf1 said:

So, if they did this and the solicitor already knows they have another place.............should the solicitor "grass" them to the Local Authority?

Opinions, anyone ?

mf

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Yes they should.

I was considering adding in "I would be surprised if any solicitor would facilitate this and even if they did, I would be looking for a new solicitor asap because they couldn't be trusted".

mf1 said:

So, if they did this and the solicitor already knows they have another place.............should the solicitor "grass" them to the Local Authority?

Opinions, anyone ?

mf

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Personally wouldn't 'grass them' but I would not act for them in that instance and would make it clear to them that I do not approve and why.

What would you do?

Hi all,
thanks for you input on this subject. From your replies I take it the procedure is signing a declaration and then giving it to your solicitor to do the legal admin with and thats it? would I be right in saying this or is there more to it?
So ... if you did have a house and you didnt declare it how would they check up (if they even do), as this looks to be a huge loop hole if thats the case?

thanks

Haven't sold a corporation one recently, but South Dublin Co. Co. and Fingal Co. Co. require the purchaser to get the revenue to sign a form stating you are not claiming mortgage interest relief on another property.