First Previous (PART 3 Miscellaneous Amendments of Principal Act)

32 2002

Planning and Development (Amendment) Act, 2002

PART 4

Miscellaneous Amendments of Other Enactments

Amendment of section 2 of Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992.

16. Section 2 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 , is amended by substituting the following subsection for subsection (1):

“(1) (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant (Ground Rents) Act, 1978 , a person (including a housing authority and a body standing approved of by the Minister under section 6 (referred to in this Act as ‘an approved body')) may grant a shared ownership lease of a house (in this Act referred to as a ‘shared ownership lease'), being a lease—

(i) granted for a term of more than 20 years but less than 100 years,

(ii) granted on payment to the lessor of a sum of money being—

(I) in the case of a lease granted by an approved body, not less than 40 per cent and not more than 50 per cent,

(II) in any other case, not less than 25 per cent and not more than 75 per cent,

of the market value of the house, and

(iii) which, in the case of a lease other than a lease granted by an approved body, provides for the right of the lessee to purchase, in one or more transactions, the interest of the lessor in the demised house at a consideration determined in accordance with the provisions of the lease.

(b) No rule of law and nothing in this Act shall operate to confer or be construed as conferring an entitlement on a lessee who is granted a shared ownership lease of a house by an approved body to purchase the interest of the approved body in the house.”.

Amendment of section 3 of Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992.

17. Section 3 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 , is amended—

(a) by substituting the following subsections for subsections (1) to (4):

“(1) The granting of a shared ownership lease by—

(a) a housing authority of a house provided by them under section 56 of the Principal Act, or

(b) an approved body of a house provided by it with assistance under section 6,

shall be subject to such regulations as may be made by the Minister for the purposes of this section.

(2) Every shared ownership lease granted by a housing authority or an approved body and every assurance of the authority's or body's interest in accordance with such a lease shall be expressed and shall operate to vest, on the date specified therein, the interest so specified, subject to such terms and conditions as may be so specified.

(3) Where a housing authority or an approved body has granted a shared ownership lease, then, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Minister, the authority or the approved body, as the case may be, may charge a rent or other payment for the tenancy or occupation of the house concerned.

(4) (a) Where a loan, being a loan made otherwise than by a housing authority, to enable a lessee to make a payment in respect of a shared ownership lease granted by a housing authority is secured by way of mortgage, the authority may enter into and carry out an agreement with the mortgagee.

(b) Where a loan to enable a lessee to make a payment in respect of a shared ownership lease granted by an approved body is secured by way of mortgage, the approved body may enter into and carry out an agreement with the mortgagee.”,

(b) in subsection (5)—

(i) by substituting the following paragraph for paragraph (i):

“(i) in the case of a house leased to a person by a housing authority under a shared ownership lease, the purchase by the lessee of the interest of the housing authority in the house and the determination of the sums of money payable therefor;”;

and

(ii) by substituting the following paragraph for paragraph (k):

“(k) prohibiting the disposal, mortgaging, charging or alienation of a house, otherwise than by devise or operation of law, save with the consent of the housing authority or the approved body, as the case may be.”.

Amendment of section 4 of Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992.

18. —Section 4(1)(b) of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 , is amended by substituting the following subparagraph for subparagraph (i):

“(i) pay a subsidy to a housing authority towards the rent of a house leased to a person under a shared ownership lease by the authority or an approved body, as the case may be,”.

Amendment of section 6 of Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2002.

19. Section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2002 , is amended by inserting the following subsections after subsection (1):

“(1A) A body standing approved of for the purposes of section 6 of the Act of 1992 may acquire, build or cause to be built houses for sale by the body in accordance with this Part.

(1B) (a) References to a housing authority in this Part, other than in sections 7, 8, 10(3)(a)(i), 10(3)(d)(ii)(II) and 10(4)(a), include a body standing approved of for the purposes of section 6 of the Act of 1992.

(b) The reference in section 10(4)(b) to the sale of a house, where a shared ownership lease on such house is granted by a body referred to in subsection (1A), includes the sale of the interest of the lessee in the house.”.

Amendment of section 10A of the Housing Finance Agency Act, 1981 .

20. —The following section is substituted for section 10A (inserted by the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2002 ) of the Housing Finance Agency Act, 1981:

“10A.—(1) In this section ‘National Treasury Management Agency’ means the National Treasury Management Agency established by the National Treasury Management Agency Act, 1990 .

(2) (a) Subject to the prior consent of the Minister for Finance, the Agency may from time to time request the National Treasury Management Agency to perform, on its behalf, all or any part of the functions of the Agency under—

(i) subsections (1), (1A) (inserted by the Housing Finance Agency (Amendment) Act, 1985 ) and (2) of section 10 of this Act,

(ii) section 3 of the Borrowing Powers of Certain Bodies Act, 1996 , and

(iii) section 2 of the Financial Transactions of Certain Companies and Other Bodies Act, 1992 .

(b) The Agency may from time to time, subject to the prior consent of the Minister for Finance, revoke or amend a request made under paragraph (a), but without prejudice to the validity of anything done previously on foot of that request in the terms that it stood immediately before that revocation or amendment.

(c) For so long as a request made under paragraph (a) of this subsection has effect, the National Treasury Management Agency shall, subject to paragraph (d), perform on behalf of the Agency the functions specified in the request.

(d) The functions of the Agency specified in any request made under paragraph (a) of this subsection shall be performed by the National Treasury Management Agency on behalf of the Agency subject to such terms and conditions (including any amendment to such terms and conditions) as the Agency and the National Treasury Management Agency may from time to time agree or, in the absence of any such agreement, as the Minister for Finance may determine after consultation with the Minister.

(3) The Minister for Finance may from time to time revoke, in whole or in part, any consent given under subsection (2) of this section, but without prejudice to the validity of anything done previously on foot of that consent in the terms that it stood immediately before that revocation.”.