Occupation of Property by approved 1(1)(j) Essential Employees

Approved 1(1)(j) essential employees will be able to occupy property owned by a company, that company being beneficially owned by the employee for the duration of that employee’s full time employment for which consent has been granted.

In order to avoid conflict with the current Housing Regulations it will be necessary in all cases for an undertaking to be completed by the employee in order for the company to be granted consent to acquire any specific property.

In order to do this, the following undertaking should be completed : J category undertaking  (16KB )

Where an existing essential employee occupies a property purchased by the employer in the trading company’s name, any purchase/transfer to the employee’s company would take place as above.

Where a separate holding company has been formed in order to purchase individual separate properties, the employer will need to request a formal revised consent to the original acquisition of the property seeking the consent of the Minister to transfer the shares to the employee. 

In order to the this, the following form must be completed : J employer seeking transfer of shares (4KB )

The employee must also complete an undertaking enabling additional conditions to be imposed on the revised consent issued.

Approved essential employees are only permitted to purchase and occupy accommodation which is not specifically restricted to persons with local residential qualifications, which means they can only purchase and occupy properties classified as 1(1)(a) - (j).

Occupation conditions are imposed on properties at the time of a transaction. With individual residential properties, under current policy any property having a sale price in excess of £250,000 is automatically categorised as being available for persons under Regulation 1(1)(a)-(j), under that figure restricted to 1(1)(a)-(h). With the development of multiple units such as flats and apartments, occupancy conditions are established at the time of development, and are carried forward through subsequent sales.

The purpose of differentiating between 1(1)(a)-(h) and 1(1)(a)-(j) properties is to offer a degree of protection to the locally qualified market against the higher purchasing powers of the 1(1)(j) category sector. In addition, on development land the imposition of 1(1)(a)-(h) conditions for newly created property should act as an encouragement to the developer to provide more modest dwellings than would otherwise be provided if all accommodation was classified to include 1(1)(j) category. As a concession Nurses and Teachers, being by definition generally lower paid of the essentially employed categories are entitled to occupy 1(1)(a)-(h) accommodation.

Where an employee completes a continuous period of ten years' essential employment in the Island under this Regulation, the Housing Minister accepts that employee as having residential status in their own right under Regulation 1(1)(e). His status is no longer dependent on his continued essential employment, but residential qualifications will be lost if he should emigrate, subject to the “five year break” rule. The non qualified spouse of an approved 1(1)(j) category employee also qualifies at the same time.

The child of a person qualifying under Regulation 1(1)(j) is granted residential status in their own right once an aggregate period of ten years residence has been completed which must commence prior to their twentieth birthday and is subject to the parent(s) remaining qualified during the time in which the requisite period of residence is completed.