[Article] Many private apartments sub-standard

Slice

From today's IT, by Olivia Kelly

Three-quarters of private apartment schemes in Dublin have inadequate fire safety provisions, and a large number are dirty, have no security measures and are inaccessible to disabled people, according to the biggest apartment survey ever undertaken by Dublin City Council.

The wide ranging and highly critical report based on an assessment of almost 16,000 private apartments built in Dublin over the last 30 years, has found that a large proportion of schemes are sub-standard in their maintenance, design and management.

Of the 193 separate complexes assessed by the council over the course of 2006, few had ever been refurbished, even though half were more than 10 years old, and the vast majority did not cater for residents "from childhood, to adulthood, to retirement", the council said.

The report found 75 per cent of complexes had poor fire safety. In some developments there was "no evidence of any fire-fighting equipment or evacuation plans" and gated developments and ones with electronic access systems caused difficulties for emergency services. The surveyors reported a "lack of clarity" about who in the complex was accountable for fire safety and said they could not determine in many cases who was responsible for dealing with breaches of fire safety and even management agents did not know who was responsible.

Almost one-third of developments showed no signs of regular cleaning.

"Internal areas often show evidence of discarded takeaway food cartons, cans and bottles, vomit, urine and other human soils," the report states.

Management agents said that in inner city areas there was "extreme forms of anti-social behaviour by residents particularly at weekends".

In more that one-third of developments the surveyors said that no security systems were in place.

In complexes where security was present, it was generally in the form of CCTV systems. Caretakers offered the "most effective" form of security, the surveyors said, but these were only present in 11 per cent of developments.

One-third of schemes had no lifts, despite having multiple floors. Almost 50 per cent of schemes are "not easily accessible" to people with disabilities.

Schemes built after 1998 had the best provision for disabled people, but even in these developments more than one-third had poor levels of accessibility. More than half of those built from 1987 to 1997 had poor accessibility, while 70 per cent of those built before 1986 did not properly provide for disabled access.

Only three developments surveyed had designated outdoor play areas for children. There were creche facilities in just nine developments and eight of these were built since 2000. Just over a quarter of all developments had open space that was suitable for use by children, but most of these developments were in suburban Dublin. In the inner city less than 10 per cent of developments had any outdoor space that was safe and suitable for children.

Assessment of the apartments, surveys of apartment owners and management companies and detailed analysis of the accounts of management companies, where provided, were conducted by a team of surveyors from an environmental and planning background.

Their report, Successful Apartment Living Part 2 , follows a report published earlier this year which dealt with the size of apartments and led to the council introducing new standards for minimum sizes of apartment. This new report has broader scope and deals with the quality of apartment living and the standard of management companies.