Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 11-15 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.
Property
I purchased a property, a semidetached house in an estate, with my wife about 14 years ago. It is held in the joint names of my wife and myself, and we are currently renting the property. We sometimes disagree about the future management of the property, with one partner considering sale now and the other wishing to hold on. What is the position regarding disposal? Must both joint owners agree, if the property is to be sold, or can one joint owner insist that the property be sold, even though the other owner may not wish to follow this course? Conversely, can the refusal of one partner to sell mean the property cannot be sold? Can one owner dispose of their half-ownership to a third party, whilst the other owner retains their share?
Mr D.M., e-mail
Like most things held in joint names, how one can proceed is generally determined by the contract between the two parties at the time the asset was purchased. This is somewhat confused in your case since, as spouses, there may well not have been any such explicit agreement in place at all.
It is impossible to give a definitive response without some more detail but I think one partner will find it difficult to sell the property out from under the other. Equally, I think one partner will find it difficult, unless the other agrees, to sell a half interest in the property to a third party.
Yes, the refusal of one partner to pursue a particular course of action - in this case, the sale of the property - means that course cannot be pursued. You cannot insist she adopt a certain course, in the same way that you would be loathe to see her have the power to insist you follow a course against your will. The joint investment, insofar as I can determine, was entered into willingly and it would therefore seem up to the partner wishing to make the change in policy to persuade the other partner of the wisdom of such a move or continue the existing position.
There is always the possibility of going to court, as happens when partnerships fall apart, but unless you could show that your partner was acting unreasonably, I think you would find it very hard to get a court that will intervene in the investment policy of two married adults. I take it from the wording of your letter that this is not your principal residence. You would want to bear in mind, therefore, that any sale would lead to a capital gains charge and future investment in property would fall under the terms of the second Finance Act 2000, which imposes heavy tax penalties on investors, unless they fulfil certain criteria.
Home-makers' credits
A couple of weeks ago, you wrote about home-makers' credits and said that they applied to people who had taken time off to mind children before they were introduced in 1994. The Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs assures me the measure was not retrospective. What is the position?
Mr J.D., Dublin
There has been a lot of interest in home-makers' credits. However, some confusion has arisen over eligibility. The credit was first introduced in April 1994 and, as I said, it did also benefit those who may have taken time off to mind children before that date. However, it will only benefit them from April 1994, assuming they are still off work and eligible under the rules of the scheme at that time.
Basically, those who are under 66, have been in insurable employment, are resident in the State and leave work to care for children under 12 or incapacitated children/adults are eligible for the credit.
Up to 20 years can be taken as credits by any one person.
The effect is that these years are discounted when the department tots up the average number of PRSI contributions you have made during your working life to determine eligibility for the contributory old age pension. By using the credits, you improve your chances of getting or maximising the pension.
Investment portfolios
A number of readers have written in about the contributor who holds an investment portfolio upon which he and his wife are not dependent. The bulk (about 75 per cent) of the portfolio is invested in Royal Bank of Scotland shares and he wanted to know if now was an appropriate time to switch out of sterling denominated shares given current exchange rates and future currency forecasts.
They point out, quite correctly, that allowing any one share to form 75 per cent of one's portfolio is dangerous in the extreme and allude to the case of Eircom. Of course this is correct. Balance is vital in any portfolio. Those people who did dip a toe into equities with Eircom are now much wiser about the risks of putting all one's eggs in the same basket.
However, it is not always possible in a limited space, such as Q&A to tackle every issue raised by questions. In general, we try to stick to the specific points raised and those immediately relevant to them. It is no more possible to tackle vagaries of investment policy in such a forum than it is to address all the vagaries of, say, the bacon reports.
Having said that, one correspondent points out quite correctly that Mr F.A.L. in Galway - our original correspondent, who is considering the wisdom of switching out of sterling equities - does need to consider capital gains tax as part of the equation. This will be levied at 20 per cent of the net profit on any shares he sells, apart from an annual individual allowance of £1,000. He can also offset expenses incurred in the sale, such as stockbrokers' fees, and will need to adjust the original purchase price to allow for inflation before calculating the gain. The Revenue Commissioners provide an indexation table to allow investors to work out what they can allow for inflation.
Currencies
I am returning home from Britain and have £35,000 sterling from the sale of my house to convert into pounds. Where is the best place for me to get the highest rate? I have a bank account with the Bank of Ireland and am in the process of getting a mortgage with First Active.
Mr A., e-mail
Off the top of my head, I haven't a clue which of the financial institutions would give you the best deal. With the sterling/euro rate changing constantly and feeding through to the sterling/pound rate, keeping tabs on whom is doing what is difficult. The various institutions also have different policies on margins and some are more flexible where larger sums are concerned.
Your best bet, given the sum of money involved, is to call each of the main financial houses and see what their rate that day is on the sum you are seeking to convert, including commission, which still applies to non-euro zone deals.
As Ireland is not seen as the State most competitive on commission on exchange rates, you might try a couple of the larger institutions elsewhere in the euro zone and see what they would be prepared to offer. It might be to no avail but you never know your luck.
