Apoca Clamping

BigBobE

Came home from work yesterday to find a nice letter from yet another management company for the cul de sac / small estate saying that from the end of August clamping will be in operation run by APOCA.

They will issue permits to home who have paid all fees to management company.
Most of us haven't paid as our homes are privately owned as opposed to some which are still held by the developer (who engaged management company).
My query is where do I stand on clampers. I don't have a drive way outside my home but more a space on the road.

Excuse typos and spelling typing this on a phone

Similar situation as mine.

Bluegrass1

BigBobE wrote: »

Came home from work yesterday to find a nice letter from yet another management company for the cul de sac / small estate saying that from the end of August clamping will be in operation run by APOCA.

They will issue permits to home who have paid all fees to management company.
Most of us haven't paid as our homes are privately owned as opposed to some which are still held by the developer (who engaged management company).
My query is where do I stand on clampers. I don't have a drive way outside my home but more a space on the road.

Excuse typos and spelling typing this on a phone

Do you own the road?

godtabh

Just because you privately own your home it doesn't mean that a management company is still in place to manage common areas.

I own my own house in an estate but still have a management company.

Its a common tactic to introduce clamping to force peoples hands when it comes to paying management fees. Check with your solicitor. While you may own your home it maybe a leasehold type arrangement. If it is I bet you owe management fees. If thats the case expect your car to be clamped every opportunity APOCA gets (At the start alot but they usually fall off on their inspections).

Grolschevik

BigBobE wrote: »

Came home from work yesterday to find a nice letter from yet another management company for the cul de sac/small estate saying that from the end of August clamping will be in operation run by APOCA.

They will issue permits to home who have paid all fees to management company.
Most of us haven't paid as our homes are privately owned as opposed to some which are still held by the developer (who engaged management company).
My query is where do I stand on clampers. I don't have a drive way outside my home but more a space on the road.

Try also the Accommodation and Property forum:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=38

billy few mates

If you don't like the way YOUR management company are managing YOUR estate, you can always get together with the majority of the residents and have them removed.

There's no longer a requirement for housing estates to be run by management companies, if the majority of the residents wish for the estate to be taken in charge by the local authorities they must do this, even if it was a planning condition for the estate to be run by a MC, you can easily apply to have this overturned.
We did it with our estate.

Droguser

billy few mates wrote: »

There's no longer a requirement for housing estates to be run by management companies, if the majority of the residents wish for the estate to be taken in charge by the local authorities they must do this, even if it was a planning condition for the estate to be run by a MC, you can easily apply to have this overturned.
We did it with our estate.

do you mind if i ask, how did you go about this?
thanks

Paulw

billy few mates wrote: »

If you don't like the way YOUR management company are managing YOUR estate, you can always get together with the majority of the residents and have them removed.

But, many management company contracts only allow you to vote if you have fully paid your management fees, which the OP hasn't, so the OP wouldn't be entitled to vote.

NoQuarter

There is no legal basis for a private company to clamp your car. I wont advise you but what I would say is I would cut the clamp off my car for sure.

billy few mates

Droguser wrote: »

do you mind if i ask, how did you go about this?
thanks

No problem.
It was a planning condition for our estate that on completion it was to be run by a management company. When the developer completed the estate he wanted to hand it over to a MC.
When we looked into this we worked out we would either have to engage a MC to run the estate for us or set one up ourselves with each homeowner being a share holder in that company. We worked out tha this would have cost each householder anything between €600-€900 per year.
We engaged a solicitor to see if he could find a way out of having to do this but he failed miserably and told us we were stuck with it as it was a planning condition.
Then one day while researching it further I came across this letter from John Gormley....
http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/Planning/FileDownLoad,16779,en.pdf
to City and County Managers giving guidelines for 'taking in charge' developments in which he says....

The procedures for taking in charge will begin promptly on foot of a request by the majority of the residents in the development or by the developer, as appropriate.
Protocols, including time frames, must be set out by planning authorities to respond to requests for taking in charge;
- Where there are core facilities in existing residential developments which were approved by the planning authority on the basis that they would remain private and be maintained by a management company, these must be taken in charge if the majority of residents request it;

So, we got a petition from the majority of the residents (obviously nobody refused to sign it) and approached the local authority armed with this and a copy of the letter and told them we wanted to be taken in charge.:eek:

They didn't know how to proceed as they said they'd never seen the letter before or had ever had to this so it was decided that as it was a planning condition we were to apply for permission in the normal way to have the condition overturned (which they did after a brief re-think).

Once this was done we no longer had to have a MC to run the estate and the LA took us in charge shortly afterwards.



Very basically what you need to do is get together with your residents association if you have one (not the MC) to petition the residents and once you have the majority of them onboard then approach the LA to apply to be taken in charge like we did, then you won't need a MC so you can just get rid of them.

CTG

BigBobE wrote: »

Came home from work yesterday to find a nice letter from yet another management company for the cul de sac / small estate saying that from the end of August clamping will be in operation run by APOCA.

They will issue permits to home who have paid all fees to management company.
Most of us haven't paid as our homes are privately owned as opposed to some which are still held by the developer (who engaged management company).
My query is where do I stand on clampers. I don't have a drive way outside my home but more a space on the road.

Excuse typos and spelling typing this on a phone

Similar situation as mine.

Have a good look at your lease of easement. If you were promised an unconditional/limitless use of the common areas so far as you pay your service charges then they have to amend the lease (which is unlikely) before they introduce clamping.