Property Management Companies

DerryRed

I bought a house about 4 months in a courtyard development with a variety of Duplexes and Apartments. Part of the deal was that we have had to pay an annual maintenance fee of €1000.

The builders are now gone the Management company has taken over the running of the development. However it seems to me like they are not pulling their finger out. For example access gates to the underground parking remain broken for 2 weeks and their are loads of issues with parking that need to be resolved - people parking in the wrong places and most annoyingly using up visitor spots.

Now I know that after 1 year we have the right to form our own residents committee and either keep the same maintenance company or get in a new one. My questions is - who does the buck stop with if the current maintenance company are not doing their job? If we have issues with them who do we complain to. Anyone on the boards had a similar experience?

homeOwner

I live in an apartment complex and am on the board of directors of the management company for the complex so I have some experience of this.

Until your first AGM, (which will be about 1 year from when the first people took possession of the apts), you can only deal with the management agency. Get on the phone to them and keep at them till they do something about the issues you have. If you get no joy, write to them and keep complaining until they do something - call into them in person if need be.

When the time comes around go to the AGM and get yourself elected onto the board of directors or get friendly with someone who is elected. The person in charge of your apartment complex will be at that meeting - if you have had no luck getting a response from them during the year, challange them at the meeting as to why they have been ignoring you and demand answers - they work for you! If they are that bad, there will be alot of irate people at the meeting so they will have to give answers.

Once on the committee you should be scheduling regular meetings with the agent (we meet every 10 weeks or so) and start getting the outstanding issues taken care of.

If you are not getting any responses from the agent, the directors are entitled to "sack" the management agency and get another one or do the work yourselves (this is a v. v. time consuming option).

Be aware that the builders will probably be on the board of directors until all the apartments are sold, and if they are still on the board when the AGM comes around you are not going to be able to sack the management agency without their agreement.

AndyWarhol

homeOwner wrote:

Be aware that the builders will probably be on the board of directors until all the apartments are sold, and if they are still on the board when the AGM comes around you are not going to be able to sack the management agency without their agreement.

Ah yes, developers on the committee. This is the way it usually happens. The property developer gets in a builder (usually his mate) to build the complex (€€€) who then sells them (€€€) through an estate agent (also usually his mate) before handing over control of the development to a property management company (also usally his mate). That's business you might say and fair play to the developer.

What's wrong in my opinion is that the developer (clever ones) will keep a couple of apartments for himself which he can rent out over the next 20 years or so. It's not only rental income he gets, but also a disproportionate amount of power on the management committee which effectively means one person can decide who the management company will be (usually his mate). Most residents wouldn't be bothered with committee meetings as a lot of them are tenants and even if an active group of unhappy tenants managed to organise themselves, they can be kept sweet indeed persuaded otherwise by clever political tricks.

I don't think people should be controled like this. Once the management company is appointed, they can effectively charge what they like because the residents are legally bound to do so. This topic is currently being discussed at Dail level, but is at very early stages and will probably take a lot of time before a decision as to what to do can be made (if at all). This is the reason why I would never buy an apartment from a developer.

homeOwner

AndyWarhol wrote:

What's wrong in my opinion is that the developer (clever ones) will keep a couple of apartments for himself which he can rent out over the next 20 years or so. It's not only rental income he gets, but also a disproportionate amount of power on the management committee which effectively means one person can decide who the management company will be (usually his mate).

Yes but the rest of the residents can chose not to nominate or second the developer at the AGM, we are in the process of looking into getting rid of the developers off our director's comittee as they didnt show up at the AGM this year. The rules are that you have to turn up to be voted back in. Our management agency is looking into this and if they declare that they cannt be taken off for a no-show, we are going to say that we are all due the same priviledge and therefore cannot be ever taken off the directors committee, which I dont think the management agency are going to like. The rest of us are all banded together and we have power in numbers, we will out-vote the developer on any issue we dont agree with....but to be fair, so far he has stayed away and the maangment agency is very good. ...so far....

Victor

AndyWarhol wrote:

What's wrong in my opinion is that the developer (clever ones) will keep a couple of apartments for himself which he can rent out over the next 20 years or so. It's not only rental income he gets, but also a disproportionate amount of power on the management committee which effectively means one person can decide who the management company will be (usually his mate). Most residents wouldn't be bothered with committee meetings as a lot of them are tenants and even if an active group of unhappy tenants managed to organise themselves, they can be kept sweet indeed persuaded otherwise by clever political tricks.

I wonder if you could claim oppression under the Companies Acts

AndyWarhol

Victor wrote:

I wonder if you could claim oppression under the Companies Acts

Hi Victor, perhaps you might enlighten us?