Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009

Repayment of adaptation grant.

99.— (1) This section applies to a grant paid to a person under article 5 of the Housing (Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability) Regulations 2007 ( S.I. No. 670 of 2007 ), for the purpose of providing additional accommodation, pursuant to an application received by a housing authority on or after such date as may be prescribed.

(2) (a) Where a dwelling in respect of which a grant was paid is sold before the expiration of 5 years from the date of payment of the grant, the vendor shall pay to the housing authority an amount equal to a percentage of the grant.

(b) The percentage referred to in paragraph (a) is—

(i) 85 per cent of the grant paid where less than one year has passed since the date of payment of the grant,

(ii) 70 per cent of the grant paid where one year or more but less than 2 years has passed since the date of payment of the grant,

(iii) 50 per cent of the grant paid where 2 years or more but less than 3 years has passed since the date of payment of the grant,

(iv) 35 per cent of the grant paid where 3 years or more but less than 4 years has passed since the date of payment of the grant, and

(v) 20 per cent of the grant paid where 4 years or more but less than 5 years has passed since the date of payment of the grant.

(3) As soon as practicable after the grant is paid to a person, the housing authority shall make an order charging the dwelling with an amount that shall be expressed in the order in the terms set out in subsection (4).

(4) The terms referred to in subsection (3) are that the amount charged is an amount equal to the amount (if any) that may subsequently become payable under subsection (2) in respect of the dwelling.

(5) An order under subsection (3) shall be deemed to be a mortgage made by deed within the meaning of the Conveyancing Acts 1881 to 1911 and to have been executed, at the time of the making of the grant, in favour of the housing authority for a charge of the amount referred to in subsection (4).

(6) Accordingly, the housing authority shall, as on and from the making of an order under subsection (3)

(a) be deemed to be a mortgagee of the dwelling for the purposes of the Conveyancing Acts 1881 to 1911, and

(b) have, in relation to the charge referred to in subsection (5), all the powers conferred by those Acts on mortgagees under mortgages made by deed.

(7) Where a housing authority makes an order under subsection (3), it shall, as soon as practicable thereafter, cause the order to be registered in the Registry of Deeds or the Land Registry, as appropriate, and it shall be a sufficient description of the amount in respect of which the charge to which the order relates is being registered to state that amount to be the amount referred to in section 52 (4) of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009.

(8) An order under subsection (3) affecting a dwelling which is registered land within the meaning of the Registration of Title Act 1964 shall be registrable as a burden affecting such land whether the person named in the order as the owner of the land is or is not registered under that Act as the owner of the land.

(9) Any amount that becomes payable to a housing authority under subsection (2), may, without prejudice to any other power in that behalf, be recovered by the authority from the person concerned as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(10) For the avoidance of doubt, neither an order under subsection (3) nor a charge that arises under it shall be regarded as a conveyance for the purposes of section 3 of the Family Home Protection Act 1976 .