{"id":493975,"date":"2026-05-20T10:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T10:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/493975\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T10:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T10:53:11","slug":"kerry-writes-off-e655000-in-unenforceable-derelict-site-levies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/493975\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry writes off \u20ac655,000 in &#8216;unenforceable&#8217; derelict site levies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/kerry-news_topic-5331488.html\">Kerry<\/a> County Council had to remove all the sites from <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/spotlight\/arid-40350656.html\">its derelict sites register<\/a>, and unpaid levies of \u20ac655k were written off after it was found they were \u201cunenforceable due to various inaccuracies in the files\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>A report from the Local Government Audit Office highlighted the issue, which meant that no derelict site levy was collected in Kerry in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The issues highlighted in Kerry come amid wider issues with the collection of the levy, with over \u20ac26m outstanding nationwide at the end of the same year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe council\u2019s vacant homes office conducted a full review of all derelict site files and associated derelict site levies,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">All 64 sites removed from register<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cFollowing this review, all 64 of the derelict sites on the register at the start of the year were removed. Unpaid levies of \u20ac655k were written off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The audit noted that 29 of the sites had been added back on as of the end of 2024, while 10 new sites had also been added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">All local authorities are required to submit a notice to the Government annually of the properties on their derelict sites register. Any site put on the register is subject to an annual levy of 7% of the market value of the property, which continues to apply until the site is rendered non-derelict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Previous pledge to pursue outstanding levies\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The chief executive of Kerry County Council said the collection of levies was a focus for its dedicated office in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWhere no engagement is forthcoming on the payment of derelict site levies, files are being referred to the legal department to register the charge on the property,\u201d Fearghal Reidy said. \u201cThe derelict sites office will seek payment through the courts where appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Elsewhere in the audit, it found that 2,890 accounts were in arrears on their housing rents in 2024, owing \u20ac1.7m to Kerry County Council.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">However, it noted that \u201ca significant element of arrears\u201d is concentrated among a relatively small number of rental accounts. Of the accounts in arrears, 387 of them owe over \u20ac1,000 each and owe the council a combined \u20ac1.3m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cAs part of [our pro-active] approach, accounts which are falling into arrears are identified at an early stage, and effective measures are implemented to address the situation before significant levels of arrears accumulate,\u201d said Mr Reidy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kerry County Council had to remove all the sites from its derelict sites register, and unpaid levies of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[43,4488,204115,9,10,18,13,14,6,3847,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-493975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-dereliction","tag-irish-examiner-instagram","tag-kerry-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-housing","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116606534078872089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}