can private property be taken over by county council?

vino

Registered User
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Hi there,

I hope some of you can offer some advice. Myself and other residents are at our wits end. We live in an apartment complex of which there are four blocks. We are on our third managing agent. We have a major problem with illegal dumping. The bin sheds are an absolute disgrace. It's not unusual to go to the bin shed and find a bed or a bath. We tried to resolve the issue by locking the sheds and having keys allocated to each resident. Bins are now being left outside the shed. This is just one problem we have.

The managing agents are not doing anything. Unfortunately there are residents who are not paying fees. They're not paying because nothing is being done. Anyone with an ounce of cop on would realise that's just going to make the problem worse. I called the MA a few weeks ago after being inside one of the other blocks. They are an absolute disgrace. If I lived in one of those blocks I would be heartbroken. Holes in the walls, doors hanging off hinges, broken letterboxes etc. I asked why legal action had not been taken against owners who had not paid fees. He said it had. I told him I knew that they could get a judgement which would allow them to enter the property and take goods to the value of the money owed. He said they were in the process of doing this. I said I wanted to see all correspondence between MA and solictors.

I've just had a phonecall from another resident to say that the MA are now refusing to remove the rubbish at all. The bins are piled outside the bin shed as we speak. It looks like they are refusing to do any work here at the moment.

I could go on and on here but I hope this gives some sort of idea of what we have to put up with. I heard from one resident that another resident had suggested that if this MA goes the council will take over. Can anyone tell me if this can happen? I would be happy for the council to take over but is it possible. A resident called the council a while ago to ask if they could help and they said they couldn't because it's private property.

What can we do? Is there any point going to a TD? It is beyond me why the government can allow this to happen to people. We've just put our apartment up for sale and I wouldn't let anyone come to view the place the way things are. : (
 
I know that this sounds harsh but it wasn't the government that let this happen, it was the owners of the apartments. IMHO, I can not see the council wanting to get involved. They will say it is for legal reasons but there is obviously budget reasons that would discourage them from taking on more work.

In the scheme I live in, there are security camera's, if you put a bed/ tv/ counch etc. in the bin area, you are tracked down, tod to remove it and the apartment owner is fined €150 - 200 which is added to their fee. They can not sell the apartment until the discharge this debt.

With regards to non payment of fees, interest rates are applied to people who do not pay. These rates of interest are in line with Icelandic interest rates of approx. 15-20% pa. This tends to focus peoples attention.

I would recommend that the management company hold an EGM. They should present to that meeting a costing for returning the development to an acceptable standard.
 
Thanks for your response. I don't mean that this particular situation is the fault of the goverment. I mean managing agents should be regulated.

We are going to try to get all the residents of this block together over the next few days and arrange a meeting. We will try to get the person overseeing this complex to meet with us. It is hard when phonecalls and emails are ignored.

When I did manage to speak with him a few weeks ago he told me I would start to notice changes around the place over the coming weeks as people had started to pay their fees. Now i've heard they are ceasing work for the moment!

ETA It is not the residents who are dumping these things. Non residents are illegally dumping. There has been talk of cameras but that has not yet happened. One of the owners has reported people for illegally dumping and nothing has happened.
 
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