# Is it legal to raffle your home?



## truthseeker (12 Aug 2008)

This is really a thread inspired from a thread I saw over on Boards - but Boards being what it is no one could state the actual legalities involved, and most of the thread consisted of silly comments, so I thought Id ask the question here and see if anyone could clarify the situation.

Say I bought a property for 350k in 2006. I had a deposit of 8% so my mortgage loan amount was 322k (92%).
Prices have fallen.
Now my property is only worth 300k.

So now Im in negative equity. I cant sell in current market without losing money.

What is to stop me holding a private raffle or draw, limited to say 4000 tickets, at 100 euro a ticket (or 40,000 tickets at a tenner a ticket) and the prize is my property. This way I make enough to pay off the mortgage, the prizewinner gets a property mortgage free, and I also end up with a few bob left over as a deposit on a new place if I wished.

Boardsies are claiming its illegal - but nothing to back up claim. I have no idea if its illegal or not - is it?


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## z103 (12 Aug 2008)

> What is to stop me holding a private raffle or draw, limited to say 4000 tickets, at 100 euro a ticket


I doubt you'd be able to sell the tickets. 4000 is an awful lot of something to try to sell for €100, especially when the odds of winning are 1/4000. 40,000 would require an even larger advertising budget.
The legalities are probably moot because of this.


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## Mel (12 Aug 2008)

A place in North Cork used to raffle a new house to raise money for the GAA or something like that. It was only a couple of years ago, I can't remember the name of the place, it was a small town/ village. I think they did it more than once anyway.


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## Pique318 (12 Aug 2008)

As such a thing is technically a Lottery, you need to adhere to the rules of the Lotteries and Gaming act (or whatever it's called) and have to be approved/licenced. You can't just go and do it yourself as it would be akin to organising illegal gambling, afaik.


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## The_Banker (12 Aug 2008)

Mel said:


> A place in North Cork used to raffle a new house to raise money for the GAA or something like that. It was only a couple of years ago, I can't remember the name of the place, it was a small town/ village. I think they did it more than once anyway.


 
Yes, I think it was Churchtown which is outside of Mallow. Oliver Reed lived there in the last few years of his life.


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## lightup (12 Aug 2008)

Did a guy in Spain do this recently?  I remember reading something about it.

I don't know anything about the legalities of it here though, sorry.


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## DeeFox (12 Aug 2008)

Some Developer outside of Killarney recently advertised that the first forty people to sign contracts would be entered into a draw and one of them would "win" their house. Don't anything about the legalities of this though...
Desperate times call for desperate measures!


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## thundercat (12 Aug 2008)

I saw an episode of Oprah before where a couple asked people to write an essay explaining why their home would be desirable/dream home along with a $100 cheque. The winner got a home for $100 and the couple made more than what they could have at auction/on the market. Don't think it would work over here though.


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## Ash 22 (12 Aug 2008)

Theres a house raffle running at the moment I think its around Longford for some community development group with tickets for 100 euro. Heard it on radio a while back.


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## bullbars (12 Aug 2008)

A few Gaa clubs have done this in recent years.


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## mercman (12 Aug 2008)

Didn't the infamous Barney Curley raffle his house outside Mullingar years ago ???


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## moondance (12 Aug 2008)

It's also been done in UK:

[broken link removed]


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## DavyJones (12 Aug 2008)

The_Banker said:


> Yes, I think it was Churchtown which is outside of Mallow. Oliver Reed lived there in the last few years of his life.




It was Churchtown, between Charleville and Buttevant. They did raffle a house.


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## Simeon (12 Aug 2008)

mercman said:


> Didn't the infamous Barney Curley raffle his house outside Mullingar years ago ???


"Infamous", Mercman? Get a grip. Why do you use the word?


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## Welfarite (20 Aug 2008)

This from the UK and [broken link removed]for the Lotteries Act


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## Gordanus (29 Aug 2008)

Back in the early 80s a good few houses were raffled in Dublin, as prices had sunk so low.  In my recollection, it couldn't be an out-and-out raffle, there had to be a question in it - usually of the type 'who won last year's All-Ireland football Final?' (questions that the uninterested-in-sport found impossible!), and then all those who answered the question correctly were entered into a draw, which had to be supervised by I think a senior Garda.


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## z106 (29 Aug 2008)

Didn't some developer only last year flog all his houses bar one (11 of 12 i think) and put all teh purchasers into a draw for the remaining one as a way to entice buyers?


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## teachai (29 Aug 2008)

Its your home. How you sell it is up to you. But if you hold a raffle it's got to be licensed. 

And you can't pull out if you don't sell the required number of tickets. 

And don't forget the additional costs of ticket printing, etc. 

Most of these limit the number of tickets to be sold which encourages buyers as they get better odds.


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## The_Banker (30 Aug 2008)

Slightly off topic but along the same lines... I am in the early stages of organising a sponsored walk. It isn't a lottery or a raffle but obviously there will be monies collected by walkers being sponsored. 
Is a permit required from the local Sergeant/Super of the Gardai. Has anyone organised one before?

(Mods: Apologies if this is in the wrong section, I seem to be getting my knuckles rapped alot lately)


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## Welfarite (1 Sep 2008)

AFAIK, you'll need a permit as it's a "street collection", as such.


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