Note on Proposed Change to Regional Property Certificate Charge.
Fermanagh and Omagh District Council co-ordinate and manage the Regional Property Certificate Service on behalf of 11 Councils and other statutory partners. This includes collection of fees which are subsequently distributed on a net basis to each Council, based on the number of certificates issued for each respective area, normally on a bi-annual basis.
The last fee change was in July 2019 when VAT was introduced following a HMRC ruling that this represented a chargeable service. It was confirmed at this time that this was not a statutory fee and Councils had the powers to amend at their discretion.
It is proposed that the fee is increased to £70, inclusive of VAT, which is in line with the Local Council Property Certificate fee as this will avoid any confusion amongst the shared customer base. Other aspects of charges, including the charge for other sites and maximum fee, will not be affected. The proposed change to the fee structure is as follows:
| Standard Fee | £50.00 |
| Current Fee | £8.33 |
| Suggested Increase | £58.33 |
| Vat @ 20% | £11.67 |
| Proposed Fee | £70.00 |
| Fee for additional sites (Vat incl) | £7.00 |
| Maximum application fee | £70 + £7 for each additional site = £280 (30 sites) |
SOLACE have been consulted and have approved this change and it will also be advised to the Law Society as the representative organisation for solicitors in NI, with an effective date of 1 April 2021.