Hi All.
I am living in an estate of detached houses and apartments. The houses (where I live) are in one section of the development with the apartments in another. We have one Management Company covering both with 2 separate budgets - one for the houses and one for the apartments. The fees paid to the management company for the houses are in my view excessive (€500) given that there is very little to maintain. While I am paying begrudgingly I don't like the prospect of having to pay both a management company and the council (via the household charge). To my mind, grass cutting, road lighting etc are things which we will end up paying for twice once the household charge is up and running. Given that, I called the council to query having the estate taken in charge and was advised that the council would only ever take the houses in charge and to this end, residents should set about splitting the management company in two, one for houses and the other for apartments. It was suggested that the communal green area which lies between the different developments should stay with the housing management company (the green area is the size of a football pitch approx).
To complicate matters - developer is still allegedly on site having completed 3 of 4 phases (the development is now in the hands of NAMA) and the common areas are still owned by him (the residents pay for the maintenance of these as developer is bust). There is no sign of Phase 4 being built on in the current market and the land concerned is behind a hoarding.
My question is - has anybody ever tried to split a management company in two and how did you go about it. What was your experience of trying to get the council to take the houses in charge?
I am living in an estate of detached houses and apartments. The houses (where I live) are in one section of the development with the apartments in another. We have one Management Company covering both with 2 separate budgets - one for the houses and one for the apartments. The fees paid to the management company for the houses are in my view excessive (€500) given that there is very little to maintain. While I am paying begrudgingly I don't like the prospect of having to pay both a management company and the council (via the household charge). To my mind, grass cutting, road lighting etc are things which we will end up paying for twice once the household charge is up and running. Given that, I called the council to query having the estate taken in charge and was advised that the council would only ever take the houses in charge and to this end, residents should set about splitting the management company in two, one for houses and the other for apartments. It was suggested that the communal green area which lies between the different developments should stay with the housing management company (the green area is the size of a football pitch approx).
To complicate matters - developer is still allegedly on site having completed 3 of 4 phases (the development is now in the hands of NAMA) and the common areas are still owned by him (the residents pay for the maintenance of these as developer is bust). There is no sign of Phase 4 being built on in the current market and the land concerned is behind a hoarding.
My question is - has anybody ever tried to split a management company in two and how did you go about it. What was your experience of trying to get the council to take the houses in charge?