In the past they have provided consent for transactions free of charge but under new plans they will cost £50.The department processes around 2,000 consent applications each year, so the move will net them £100,000 annually.
But reaction to the plan has been swift and angry, with one States Deputy vowing to fight it and an estate agent calling it ‘legalised mugging’.Before being allowed to buy any property in Jersey, potential buyers have to complete a form to prove that they have residential qualifications before their transaction can go through court.
Their claim to qualifications is then checked by the Housing Department.Housing president Deputy Terry Le Main says all States committees have been forced to look at ways of raising revenue and charging users for services.’It’s a service which currently costs the public nothing but we have four or five people in the department working on these things and it takes time to research each application.
We have decided that it is something that should be charged for,’ he said.The Deputy said that in future, if the States do away with housing qualifications and replace them with a new migration scheme, the consents might not be necessary.
The introduction of the charge will require a law change and therefore States approval before it can be imposed.Deputy Geoff Southern says he will oppose it.’It’s a stealth tax.
People have to have this consent by law and now we want to start making them pay for it.
‘Once again it shows that the Island isn’t being run by the States – it’s being run by committee presidents imposing the fundamental spending review and they’re going to bleed the Island dry,’ he said.Roger Trower of Broadland Estates has also reacted with astonishment at the news.’The public are being legally mugged again and I’m sure the reaction will be one of outrage.
I bet they spend their extra extra £100,000 on another useless consultant’s report which tells them something they already knew.
We’re paying for States inefficiencies again.’Alan Maclean, the president of the Jersey Estate Agents Association, has also described the proposal as ‘very disappointing’.’Taxpayers are already paying for this through taxation.
Homebuyers are being hit again, as they have been with increases in stamp duty and the capping of mortgage tax relief mortgages.
It’s yet another tax.’
