STAMP DUTY payments were defaulted on in 155 property sales this year, the majority of them by solicitors acting for the buyers.
The Revenue Commissioners’ figures were released by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan to Fine Gael TD Brian Hayes.
Mr Hayes said in these 155 cases, of a total of 45,117 property deals, purchasers were left high and dry. “This is a rip-off. If their solicitor does not pay the stamp duty, in full, on the transaction of the property, the property is in effect not registered or stamped. It has recently come to my attention that there are a growing number of cases where solicitors are simply defaulting on their responsibilities to their clients,” the Dublin South West TD said.
With 155 cases for the first five months of 2009, “we are likely to see an increase in this practice by about a third in 2009”.
He said that effectively the Law Society was meeting the financial liability of the defaulting solicitor, and while the Revenue had discretion to mitigate penalties in such cases, it could require new comprehensive legislation to deal with “this growing and new problem”.
Mr Lenihan, in his written response to a parliamentary question from the Fine Gael TD, said according to the Revenue, solicitors defaulted in about 200 cases a year between 2006 and 2008.
“I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that where a solicitor defaults in paying over stamp duty to Revenue, and is ‘struck off’ subsequently as a practising solicitor, the Law Society will appoint new solicitors to complete the cases of the defaulting solicitor,” Mr Lenihan said.
“In such cases the new solicitor will pay the stamp duty to Revenue and be compensated accordingly by the Law Society,” he added.
