Property owners of vacant commercial buildings in Leitrim facing huge additional cost
Property owners of vacant commercial buildings in Leitrim and the rest of the country are facing huge additional cost imposed by the Government
New legislation being proposed by Government will mean that any commercial premises in Leitrim which is currently vacant will be levied with a bill of 50% of the full rates payable. Currently the situation is that all commercial properties in Leitrim do not pay commercial rates if they are vacant. The legislation will come into effect in 2014.
The pending Local Government legislation refers to changing the current process of waving commercial rates on business properties that are vacant. This new proposal is referred to in “Part 5, section 31″ of the pending legislation.
“This is huge, not just for a county like Leitrim but for every county.
“It will now mean that Local Authorities will start charging the owners of vacant business properties 50% of the commercial rate they would pay if trading. in this economic climate it will crush towns and villages leading to in some cases buildings being demolished”.
I am calling on the government to remove this from the proposed legislation.
A small number of large urban local authorities, have historically had separate legal provision enabling a refund of 50% of rates on vacant properties. While the same criteria for refunds apply, 50% of the rates paid is refundable to the owner of vacant premises in these cities. These legislative provisions are
- section 71 of the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1930;
- section 29 of the Limerick City Management Act 1934; and
- section 20 of the Cork City Management (Amendment) Act 1941.
The majority of local authorities are, however, subject to the provisions of the 1946 Act.
The amalgamation of Limerick City requires that the relevant Management Act is being repealed which means that the legislation governing the refund regime in the county (100%) will apply across the new amalgamated Limerick City and Council.
The Local Government Bill 2013 (section 31(b)) currently reduces the 100% refund regime to 50% for all local authorities bringing it to the same level as Dublin and Cork cities by amending the 1946 Act.
