I sold my home and used the proceeds to buy a smaller home for myself and two other properties, which I rent out.

Insurance for landlords

I have all three properties (buildings and contents) insured with Allianz but they are charging me very large sums of money for the two rented properties and they exclude accidental damage on those two properties.

Is there any insurance company that specialises in insuring rental properties and offers better value?

Ms S.K., email

There is certainly one broker who specialises in providing cover for owners of investment property. Dublin-based S A Faughnan Brokers runs an insurance service for members of the Irish Property Owners Association and is well up on what is available in the market. Its number is 8728066.

With the recent explosion in the ownership of second properties, I am sure that there are a number of others.

Of course, there are greater risks attached to rented properties. Occupation by non-owners always increases the prospects of claims and there is the prospect of damage during periods of non-occupation. There is also the added cost of liability insurance.

Mind you, if you think the position is bleak for landlords, you should try finding insurance as a tenant.

Non-resident account

My sister, who is Irish, has lived in the UK for about 20 years. She is due to receive a small share of our deceased mother's estate, approximately €40,000.

As she intends to retire back to Ireland within the next five to 10 years, she would like to put this money on deposit here and start building up her retirement nest egg. This would mean she would be opening a non-resident account here.

From a tax viewpoint, is there any disadvantage to doing this, as opposed to just putting the money in her account in England and waiting until she comes home to transfer it to an account here?

J.K., email

Strictly from a tax viewpoint, there is nothing to stop your sister leaving her inheritance windfall here in a non-resident account. Despite the recent furore, there is a perfectly legal entitlement for people who live outside the State to claim non-resident status on their bank accounts here.

Mind you, even the exemption from Deposit Interest Retention Tax is unlikely to compensate your sister for the loss of interest on a similar deposit in the UK.

The most competitive one-month rates in the Republic are around 2.75 per cent. In Britain, you would get closer to 5 per cent. Of course, your sister should consider the currency exchange risk if she were to move the money to the UK.

With an inheritance of €40,000, your sister will not face capital acquisitions tax (better known as inheritance tax) here and the thresholds in Britain are even more generous.

Given the interest rates, I think your sister will probably need to look at the advantages of moving the money to the UK and bringing it back with her when she retires. The gain on interest is likely to more than offset any loss on commission charges and, although no-one can predict the future exchange rates, sterling has been a strong currency relative to the euro thus far.

Shared house purchase

My brother is looking to purchase his first house to get on the property ladder but is unable to do so. My wife and I are looking to make an investment but do not want to get too much into debt. The three of us were thinking of buying a house jointly.

As my wife and I are not first-time buyers but my brother is, what will be the effect on stamp duty?

Mr P.D., email

As far as I can determine, the purchase of the property will not be treated as a first-time transaction as long as any of the purchasers are not first-time buyers.

I am not aware of any provision to allow stamp duty to be reduced so that your brother's portion of the purchase price can be taxed at the rates applicable to first-time buyers.

Your brother will face a stamp duty bill that will be up to 1.5 percentage points higher than would have been the case had he bought on his own or with other first-time buyers, depending on the value of the property you purchase.

Even with newly built property, the fact that you and your wife are not owner occupiers would seem likely to undermine the prospects of your brother avoiding stamp duty.

PAYE worker records

My mother, now aged, 77, was self-employed for the 15-year period she worked before she retired aged 69. She is not eligible for a State pension as her income falls outside what is required. However, she worked for a period in the mid-1950s as a PAYE employee and I was wondering if this would make her eligible for any form of State pension? We have tried getting records of her existence as a PAYE worker during this period and have not been able to.

Ms B.O'H., Dublin

I don't think your mother is going to find herself eligible for contributory old-age pension, which is the one for which means are not taken into account. To qualify, she would have had to have a minimum of 260 full-rate PRSI contributions and minimum yearly average of 10 such contributions from 1953 or the subsequent date she started working to the end of the tax year before her 66th birthday.

If she started work before 1953, she can also include contributions paid then. Every two pre-1953 contributions will count as three contributions. The use of pre-1953 contributions counts only towards a special half-rate pension.

Similarly, if your mother paid a mixture of full and modified PRSI contributions down the years - including in her time as a self-employed person when she could have paid Class S contributions - she might be eligible for a pro-rata pension.

Having said that, if her only contributions date from a few years in the mid-1950s, it is unlikely she would have enough to meet the minimum requirements.

In terms of tracking down her payments, the tax office should be able to help. If you know who your mother worked for in that period and where they were based, it should be possible to determine which tax office would have handled her affairs at that time, or those of her employer. Those records should still be there, I would have thought.

Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.