THEY HAVE WAYS of making you pay: anyone selling a property and thinking they might escape having to pay the €100 household charge can think again.

Unlike an electricity bill or a gas bill, an unpaid household charge attaches to the property.

The Government is using the sale of property as another collection point for the charge and according to solicitor Pat Igoe, included in his pre-contract enquiries to solicitors for vendors “is a requirement seeking the receipt for the household charge covering at least to date of closing. I do not need to see it at that stage. But I do need confirmation pre-contract that I will get it at closing.

So, vendors will have to pay it on selling. I have had a few cases already. Principles dont count for anything when it comes to conveyancing Im afraid. Its the law, they have to pay it.”

Not that it’s the only time that the sale of property forces the vendor to clear outstanding charges. Where a development is run by a management company, homeowners can’t sell their property unless they are up to date with management fees.

Darren Chambers of Lisney says that, in his experience, around 40 per cent of the market is made up of executor sales.

So if the person whose name is registered on the property has died, “whoever inherited the property or the person acting on behalf of the estate has to pay the charge”.