Fee Simple Disposal – Ground Rents

This item covers the routine sale of Dublin City Council's freehold ("fee simple") interest in homes that were sold on long leases. The Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) (No. 2) Act, 1978 gives certain leaseholders a statutory right to buy out the landlord's interest. The 1978 legislation also prohibited new leases of private residential houses after 16 May 1978. Council policy says that if you bought your home from the Council before May 1978, it is leasehold, so you don't own the ground it stands on. Homes bought during or after May 1978 are freehold.

Council reports of this kind usually state that the purchase price is calculated under Section 17 of the 1978 Act, using the method in Department of the Environment Circular H.41/78. The purchaser also pays a fee under Section 26(8), as amended by the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Amendment Act, 1984. Where the landlord is a housing authority, the fee simple is vested by a transfer order under section 90 of the Housing Act, 1966. On the Council's website, the price is a multiple of the annual ground rent, which can change monthly, plus any arrears. A Land Registry fee of €135 and an administration fee of €30.39 are also charged.

The Council usually agrees to these sales because applicants have a legal entitlement to buy. In one earlier report, the Council noted that applicants can apply to the County Registrar to order a conveyance, and the Registrar would likely order the Council to pay their costs. The sales matter because they give householders full ownership of the land under their homes. They also end the Council's ground-rent income from those properties.