There was an error in the drafting of the legislation. From memory, and subject to correction, it was intended that if you bought a new house(?) (ftb?) between 1.1. and 31.12. 13 that the exemption continued to 13.10.2016. Because of the error, everyone who bought a house in that period got the exemption but to be lost in the circumstances outlined.
I've had a number of unusual, don't quite fit, sets of circumstances ( all on sales and purchases of property) and , anecdotally, my view is that Revenue are being quite lenient on LPT in most circumstances - allowing special clearance at much lower valuations than sale prices and allowing exemptions to continue in situations where it is less than obvious that that should happen. IMO, the main drive to date, by Revenue, has been to gather, country wide, the database of property owners, lost when residential domestic rates were abolished.
Every time there is a sale of a property, the LPT situation is relevant and Revenue have tied in the LPT property ID number to the (almost mandatory) payment of stamp duty - which requires disclosure of both sides PPS numbers.
2016 will be very interesting in LPT terms, especially in Dublin where sales prices in most circumstances exceed LPT valuation. The self assessment situation will, I think, see Revenue taking whole swathes of an estate, for example, and checking out the self assessed value of each owner as against others in the estate and published sale prices.
mf