About 1300 estates were exempt from the 2012 Household Charge because they were classed as unfinished. At the time the Dept of the Environment published lists of the exempt estates in each county.
This week it hasbeen revealed that some estates were incorrectly missed off those lists – and some people may have paid the Household Charge when they should have been exempt. No official announcement seems to have been made – just an update to the FAQ on the Household Charge website.
The update states that :
“When compiling the list of estates qualifying for a waiver from the household charge 2012, anomalies occurred in a small number of developments which had been intended to be included for eligibility for the waiver but were not, ultimately included in the prescribed list of estates.”
“The Department has now conducted a review of the list to identify such anomalies, and a revised list has now issued which includes all estates which qualify for the waiver, including those originally identified correctly as well as the corrected entries.”
“Residents who have paid the charge and who now find that their households qualify for a waiver should apply to the Household Charge Bureau for a refund.
Residents who find that they now qualify for the waiver, but who did not pay the charge, must register their waiver with the bureau immediately.”
There doesn’t appear to be a list of all the “new” unfinished estates – so owners will have to check the lists to see if their estate is now listed.
The revised lists don’t affect Property Tax liability. (But maybe those lists were wrong too?)