[Media] Foreclosures urged for service charge arrears

jd

http://www.independent.ie/business/commercial-property/foreclosures-urged-for-service-charge-arrears-3049005.html

Apartment management companies should be allowed to dispossess those member owners who willingly and persistently fail to pay their management service charges. Otherwise there is a serious risk that some owner management companies (OMCs) may go bust.

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He proposed the creation of a dedicated court to fast track collection cases, saying "this would be a far more cost-effective and efficient debt collection system for these struggling companies".
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"It is the mounting level of arrears from those owners who have never paid their service charges, even when times were good, that is the problem and of much greater concern to OMCs."

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.. the OMC should be able to make it a condition of sale that any arrears pass to the successor in title.
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"That will have the effect of arrears being discharged at the time of a sale and by the apartment owner who incurred them," he said.

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Marcusm

They should probably castigate the legal advisers who drew up the leases under which the service charges are payable if the situation is truly that the property can be sold without arrears being dealt with. That's simply incompetence, likewise if the lease does not provide for the threat of forfeiture (note nt foreclosure), likewise incompetence is in play.

athtrasna

I don't know how a property can be sold without debts to the management company being discharged - maybe with houses in a managed development but certainly if it's an apartment the management company has to release certain paperwork in order for the sale to proceed.