Should I put house in my partner's name only?My partner and I will be hopefully trading up from my one bedroom apartment to a more suitable family home later in the year. I bought the apartment in 1998, my partner has never owned property. As he is now a first-time buyer, will we be considered as first-time buyers for stamp duty purposes?
Would putting his name only on the deeds of a new house get around any stamp duty implications?
The key criteria to be a first-time buyer is that the person has not, on any previous occasion, either individually or jointly, purchased or built on his/her own behalf a house in Ireland or abroad. So that firmly rules you out and as you are buying jointly with another person your status impacts on his - in order to obtain the relief, all of the purchasers must qualify as first-time buyers.
The idea of putting his name solely on the deeds is a terrible one for so many reasons that could bring major problems down the road. For example, you don't say whether you are married or not.
If you are, then your house purchase will be considered to be the family home with all the legal protections that implies - so the Revenue will be unlikely to accept that he is in fact the sole purchaser. If you are not married, you are considering a very dangerous route, especially since you are presumably putting in a substantial amount of money from the sale of your apartment, and you could end up in a legal quagmire if you split up.
In any case, your new mortgage lender will almost certainly insist that the names of both parties to the mortgage appear on the deeds - they'll be wanting that for their protection and so should you.
New development has polluted our local stream
Over Easter we visited our very remote holiday cottage in the north west of Ireland - after an absence of nearly a year.
There is a small stream bordering the property which we now think is polluted - we suspect septic tank/outflow problems from a large and now greatly extended house nearby.
Any advice on what do we should do? We don't want to ask the people directly as we don't know them.
Report your concerns to the environment section of your local authority, noting dates when you first noticed the problem, the extent of it, any fish kills and so on. (Look on line or in the phone book for contact details).
Do everything in writing and keep all correspondence. If you feel the local authority is not responding in the way you had hoped, contact the Office of Environmental Enforcement with your concerns.
The OEE exercises a supervisory role in respect of the environmental protection activities of local authorities andacts as a resource to members of the public who have exhausted all other avenues of complaint. (Contact details and a complaint form from www.epa.ie).
It may be that locals have already noticed a problem with the stream and are already on the case (although that shouldn't stop you making your complaint).
Send your queries to Property Questions, The Irish Times, The Irish Times Building, 24-28 Tara Street, Dublin 2 or email propertyquestions@irish-times.ie. Unfortunately, it is not possible to respond to all questions. The above is a representative sample of queries received. This column is a readers' service and is not intended to replace professional advice. No individual correspondence will be entered into.
