Privatised Water Supply In Blanchardstown Development Contaminated

by eeekkkk Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:38

Call for legislation on management agencies

26 June 2005  By Susan Mitchell
As growing numbers of people embrace apartment living, often touted as a hassle-free approach to modern life, many are facing problems they never anticipated when they put pen to paper.
Michael Noonan, who recently established the Institute of Residential Management Companies, said the legal intricacies and lack of regulation of the management of apartment complexes could cause problems for buyers.
Noonan has been involved in the property business for 20 years and assisted the management companies of about 200 apartment developments in the Dublin area.
He said that the dearth of legislation governing management agencies could cause friction between apartment owners and the agencies appointed to maintain the developments.


Disputes between developers, management agencies and management companies occur on a regular basis, he said.
“It's a quagmire, and one of the reasons is that management agencies are completely unregulated. There is no standard.
“No legislation exists to hold the management agency responsible for anything. A legal responsibility whereby they have to act in the best interest of the management company needs to be introduced.”
Problems between owners and management agencies also arise out of a lack of understanding of company law and responsibilities, according to Noonan.
Apartment owners sometimes feel aggrieved over the fees charged by management agencies.
“People look at their individual purchase and fail to realise that the entire development could be worth €20 million or €40 million,” he said.
“Many will rant and rave about a maintenance budget of €20,000 for the year. On the other hand, agents can sometimes look on it as a blank cheque.”
According to Noonan, insurance companies are also increasing premiums for apartment developments as “they are insuring a risk that is much greater than they had realised'‘.
“I know of a development where the insurance company took the view that the development was being mismanaged.
“The management company had no sinking fund - or money in its account to meet any liability that could arise.
“It owed the ESB €45,000 and the ESB came in and cut off the power.”
Noonan said the management company of the development was overdrawn by more than €600,000 a few years ago.
“Owners wouldn't cooperate with the agent,” he said.
“The owners had legitimate defect issues with the developer and refused to pay their service charges. I effectively spent two years massaging owners' egos to get them to comply. The owners of three-bedroom units there are now paying €5,675 in annual service charges.”
Noonan said that such a case was not unusual, and many management companies do not have the funds to meet a liability. “A lift has a life span of up to 20 years, but if you have heavy usage that will shorten to 10 years,” he said.
“The owners of apartments at Custom House Harbour [in Dublin] had to fork out €20,000 for the lift to be repaired a few years ago, for example. They had no sinking fund.”
A bigger job, such as a roof repair, could cost €200,000.
“People need to think long-term. That's the bigger picture,” he said.
Although developers are supposed to transfer the title on the common areas of apartment developments after the last unit has sold, Noonan said “the waters can get very muddy. Small technical problems can arise that can go on for years'‘. “When the developers remain the directors, the management agency often runs a development without real direction from anybody,” he said.
“Management companies are here to stay, and more and more people are opting for apartment living.
“Legislation needs to be enacted, and owners need to take responsibility.”

by eeekkkk Sun Jun 26, 2005 21:23

gal aspects’

26 June 2005  By Susan Mitchell
Apartment owners are often unaware of or unwilling to research the legal implications of owning an apartment and dealing with management companies, according to experts in the area.
“Each apartment owner automatically becomes a member of the management company when they purchase their unit,” said Pádraic Bermingham, a partner at Dublin accounting and advisory firm Bermingham Condron.
“The directors of a management company are appointed by the members to oversee the affairs of the company.
“Essentially, the management agency is appointed by the directors to collect service charges, pay maintenance costs etc.


“ They do not generally provide any additional function. It is up to the directors to decide if they want to complete this function themselves or hire in the services of a managing agent.
“In practical terms, the directors are normally unpaid and inexperienced, and usually hire in the services,” he said.
Apartment owners are obliged to pay an annual service charge for the upkeep of common areas in their development.
The site developer has responsibility for the common areas until the transfer of the common areas to the management company.
While the transfer of common areas to a management company should take place once the last apartment within the development is sold, the reality can be quite different, according to Rachael Keane, a solicitor specialising in conveyancing with Dillon Eustace solicitors in Dublin.
She said she had seen cases where the transfer of the common areas was outstanding for more than 10 years.
In some cases, apartment owners feel that the development has not been completed to a satisfactory standard and so are reluctant to accept responsibility for the common areas.
In the past, developers have been slow to transfer the common areas in a development to the management company, as stamp duty is then payable.
However, legislation was recently introduced to encourage the transfer of the common areas in a much more timely fashion.
“It is no longer in a developer's interest to own the freehold, but apartment owners are often reluctant to accept the transfer until everything has been done,” said Keane.
Apartment owners who refuse to pay an annual service charge could delay the future sale of their apartments.
Bermingham said that apartment owners had to remember that management companies had the same Companies Registration Office (CRO) filing requirements as other companies incorporated in Ireland.
Companies which are limited by guarantee are legally obliged to have an audit completed on their financial statements.
Bermingham said that this process provided a “valuable check on the stewardship of the company's affairs'‘ in cases where multiple unconnected parties were involved.
The director of corporate enforcement, Paul Appleby, has revealed that his office is currently receiving an increasing number of complaints about management companies.
The complaints typically allege failure by the directors to discharge their legal obligations and to respect the rights and entitlements of the companies' members.

by redjade Sun Jun 26, 2005 15:58

Go to the Video/DVD rental store and rent out 'Erin Brockovich' - fantastic film about how activism can work. Show the video somewhere publicly and for free - then that should inspire people to fight back.

--- --- --- ---
--- --- --- ---

From Erin's site:
http://www.masryvititoe.com/erin_brockovich.shtml
Erin Brockovich was hired to work at the law firm as a file clerk. While organizing papers in a pro bono real estate case, she found medical records in the file that caught her eye. After getting permission from one of the firm's principals, Ed Masry, she began to research the matter.

Erin's persistent investigating eventually established that the health of countless people who lived in and around Hinkley, California, in the 1960's, 70's and 80's had been severely compromised by exposure to toxic Chromium 6. The Chromium 6 had leaked into the groundwater from the nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Compressor Station. In 1996, as a result of the largest direct action lawsuit of its kind, spearheaded by Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry, the giant utility paid the largest toxic tort injury settlement in U.S. history: $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents.

Erin's tireless investigating inspired the hit movie "Erin Brockovich", which highlighted her legal triumph and personal challenges.

. . . .

Official Erin Brockovich Movie website
http://www.erinbrockovich.com/story.html

IMDB.com's Erin Brockovich
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195685/

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Oh, and don't forget Lois Marie Gibbs...

Read:

Love Canal History Collection
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/lovecanal/

Learning from Love Canal: A 20th Anniversary Retrospective
by Lois Marie Gibbs
http://arts.envirolink.org/arts_and_activism/LoisGibbs.html

Love Canal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal

Families Against Cancer & Toxics
http://www.familiesagainstcancer.org/?id=159
''The Love Canal residents resort to a lawsuit and were amazed to discover that it is not illegal to poison people in this country. Everything is done openly and legally, with permits and licenses. They even admit that a certain number of people will be harmed. It is a societal permission for cancer. It is like getting a hunting or fishing license - you get permission to kill a certain number of deer, of a certain weight, at a certain time of year. One difference is that when hunting, you are never permitted to take the babies. With pollution permits it is almost always the babies!''

Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich

The real Erin Brockovich

by hs - sp (per cap) Sun Jun 26, 2005 15:28

we spent the day up there yesterday campaigning, the waters been switched back on but obviously people are still distrustful. One woman told me she never got the first notice so her family were drinking the contaminated water for days. Its incredible, we found out as well the management company run a clamping "service", which cost 90 euro. Also that they don't seem to be cleaning up or looking after the grounds as often as they're supposed to. fingal county council have to be forced to take over the running of the estate, (estate incidently is a wwrong word, tyrrlestown is more like a fair sized irish town with about 2,000 houses and apartments including many 4 and five bedroom ones). On a more general democracy level, this has been done without the consent of elected cllrs.

This is the second large estate in blanchardstowon with problems of private management companys. Its led to the ridiculas state of people in affordable housing in mullhuddart being forced to pay for services that millionaires in castleknock get as of right. It's completely and utterly crazy.

by john mcdermott - removefiannafail Sat Jun 25, 2005 23:43 Gran Canaria,spain

If this report is true it,s really scary.Fianna Fail seem set on a path which leaves the local authorities outside the provision of such essential services as water,garbage,etc.
George Bush could take lessons from Bertie,s gang on neo- liberalism.
It.s a recipe for Thatcherism at its worst.
It is all about stealth taxes and this government abnegating their duties and responsabilities to the people who elected them.

by sean Fri Jun 24, 2005 21:16

Our water too in this country is fluoridated - a toxic poision is used in making many Irish foods with this. the water isn't safe to drink. we are i believe one of the very few countries in the world which puts hydrofluocilic acid in its water

by Ciaran Fri Jun 24, 2005 17:00

Dav says:
**************************************************
Who do you thinks owns the management company?

It's the residents. And no one else. They took control of thedistribution of their own water supply and made a bags of it.

Generally management companies are owned by the residents, and they outsource the day-to-day running to an accountant.

Another failure of people power. Why? Because people are lazy.
**************************************************
Wrong. Wrong and Wrong again.

If you actually look at the structure of a typical management company you'll find that the residents/owners, while shareholders, hold a minority shareholding. The majority shareholders will be usually, the builder and his or her wife/husband and a couple of solicitors looking after the builders legal dealings. So, as to who controls the management company, the answer is: the Builder, until he/she gets tired of the hassle and then hands it over to an accountant.

Now, management companies should be for the sole purpose of maintaining the estate, grass cutting, litter control, path repairs etc. NOT the critically important function of water supply. That should be solely the preserve of the local authority. Most management companies wouldn't have the technical know-how to look after this in an adequate manner.

Management companies are a little discussed but potent example of local, everyday, humdrum neo-liberalism in action.
An example of where they can lead to was provided in Drogheda recently. An apartment complex almost exclusively occupied by tenants didn't have rubbish collected for several weeks and it piled up and began to pose a serious health risk. Why? Because of a dispute between management company and the landlords who actually owned the appartments. In this instance, residents, ie the people who lived in this development were powerless and couldn't influence the situation. Only the legal owners of a house or apartment are members of management companies. Tenants aren't and so are entirely disenfranchised. Owners/occupiers are in a slightly better position as they are members of the management company, but as they are always holders of a miniscule share they can't do much either. I'd be interested to see how Dav would explain how people can influence management companies in such circumstances.

Finally, management companies are a excellent example of privatisation in action. They are purposefully structured to disenfranchise residents and reduce any influence they have while giving builders and their lackeys cast-iron legal rights to collect often exorbitant "fees". Fees which are often completely unrelated to work actually done by management companies.

The solution? Give responsibility for maintanence of housing estates back to local authorities. Raise taxes to fund this. And dispense with any illusions, which Dav obviously harbours, that managements companies in any way serve the people who actually live in new developements.

by waterworld Fri Jun 24, 2005 15:26

please have at least the decency to actually read the article before you accuse people of being lazy. The company was established and owned by the developers (thats builders dav, people who built the houses).
the people moving in didn't have a choice, and you mightn't have noticed but it's difficult to buy houses these days, its what we call a crisis. housing crisis. Now how about following your own advice about laziness and reading the articles before showing yourself up.

by eeekkkk Fri Jun 24, 2005 15:01

I bet they pay the management company alright - but own it?

by Dav Fri Jun 24, 2005 14:54

Who do you thinks owns the management company?

It's the residents. And no one else. They took control of thedistribution of their own water supply and made a bags of it.

Generally management companies are owned by the residents, and they outsource the day-to-day running to an accountant.

Another failure of people power. Why? Because people are lazy.

by hs - sp (per cap) Fri Jun 24, 2005 13:52

A management company (which usually deals with things like cutting the grass) being put in charge of the water supply, minus regulations. You tell me!

by economic fundamentalist Fri Jun 24, 2005 04:22

so long as growth of GDP is maintained so rich people still invest

without rich people investing in things we'd be done for

what was so dangerous about the water and how did it happen

by Simon Thu Jun 23, 2005 18:06

Private company looks after the water but when something goes wrong public money fixes it?
Correct me if Im wrong!

by Tom Joad Thu Jun 23, 2005 17:34

Good one Simon. You've enlightened us all with your far sighted analysis.

by Simon Thu Jun 23, 2005 17:29

You can fool some people some times but you cant fool all the people all of the time -- Or Can You???
People get what they deserve- Bad government!