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Scrappage Scheme Rules Relaxed for Spouses

Married-Couple
Posted by Shane Teskey on 4 March 2010 in New Cars

Good news! The Revenue Commissioners have clarified and relaxed some of the acceptance criteria for cars registered or insured in the name of a spouse!

When the scrappage scheme was first introduced one of the conditions was that the vehicle must have been insured for 12 of the previous 18 months. However many potential buyers complained that the rule was being interpreted differently meaning that the vehicle must have been insured in the name of the registered owner for 12 of the previous 18 months.

Disappointed Buyers

This prompted a large number of comments to our original blog post from buyers disappointed that although their car satisfied all the other relevant conditions, it didn’t qualify under the revised insurance rule.

This was because a large number of registered owners were insured as named drivers and consequently not specified on the actual insurance policy.

Good News for Spouses

Good News for Spouses

Good News for Spouses

The good news for buyers is that the legislation has been amended to take account of this common situation and now reads as follows;

“(5) For the purposes of subsection (2)(c) and (h), any reference to ‘person’ may, in the application of those provisions, be construed by the Commissioners as a reference to the person concerned or to that person’s spouse.”.

This means the vehicle to be scrapped may now have the policy of insurance or the registration of the new vehicle in the name of the spouse – however the Minister for Finance underlined in debating this amendment that this does not include other family members.

But what exactly is a ‘Spouse’?

In their advisory comments Revenue indicated that it is up to the dealer to satisfy themselves what exactly a spouse is and who the qualifying spouse is in the application for scrappage.

“While this opens up the scheme somewhat, it does pose some challenges to the dealers who will have to determine exactly what a spouse is and who is a spouse. It may prove quite challenging to determine whether two people sharing a name with the same address are brother and sister, father and daughter or spouses and whether two people with different names sharing an address are a married couple who have retained their own names, living together without any State recognition or simply housemates or flat mates who see an opportunity.”

The Oxford dictionary presently defines spouse as a noun meaning ‘Husband or Wife’ so it may be worth bringing a copy of your marriage certificate to your local dealer if you’re thinking of available of the scrappage scheme!

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4 comments so far

Reply
Sarah
October 31, 2010 at 8:08 pm #

Hi,

My Dad died in August and my Mum is now looking at availing of the scrappage scheme. His car and insurance was registered in his own name and my Mums name is not detailed on the policy. She has her own car and insurance policy but wants to trade in his car as it is a 94. Can she do this as spouse? The car is now hers as next of kin.

Thanks
S

Reply
Shane Teskey
November 1, 2010 at 5:00 pm #

Hi Sarah,

I was sorry to hear about your loss. I’m confident that your Mum will qualify for scrappage as your Dad’s spouse. Just be sure to bring some sort of identification to the dealership that shows she was married to your Dad and all should be fine.

Regards,
Shane.

Reply
Geraldine
November 5, 2010 at 6:28 pm #

Can I trade my son’s 10 yr old car and avail of scrappage deal. I am named on my son’s polciy.

thanks
Geraldine

Reply
Shane Teskey
November 17, 2010 at 11:01 am #

Hi Geraldine, if the car is in your Son’s name the new one will have to be in his too. He could transfer it on to you afterwards though.

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