Local Fine Gael Councillor Neale Richmond has slammed the revised Multi Unit Development Bill that was introduced to the Dáil today by the Minister for Justice.

“The housing bubble has well and truly burst yet apartment owners who are in negative equity and who have lower incomes than before are still trapped paying high fees to developers that might be well in excess of what they should be.

“While I welcome the Multi Unit Development Bill which is being debated in the Dáil today, it is a poor and unsatisfactory response to tackling the serious issues that affect the thousands of people living in apartments or mixed unit developments in our area.

“Fine Gael has been campaigning heavily on this issue for the past ten years while the Government published bad legislation as a failed election stunt before last year’s local elections and has only started to progress the legislation in recent months.

“The Bill contains many of the points Fine Gael put forward in 2008, in its ‘Fairer Deal for Modern Living’ document. I welcome the adoption of Fine Gael policy in this regard.

“However, the Bill is grossly deficient in the area of fire safety matters, an extremely relevant issue for our area following the apartment block fire in Sandyford last November.

The Bill is extremely vague regarding enforcing satisfactory completion of a development, the taking in charge process of developments, the calculation of service charges and has failed to address the information deficit regarding owner companies. In addition disputes regarding service charges and other Owner company issues should be dealt with by the Property Regulator as a first step, instead of clogging up the courts.

“Fine Gael will be pushing the Government to get them to strengthen this legislation for the benefit of the 500,000 people now living in apartment complexes.”

Elements of Fine Gael policy being proposed:

The term ‘management company’ be known as ‘Owners Company.
Owners companies shall be required by law to maintain a sinking fund.
Owner companies shall be required to plan ahead for five years when calculating service charges.
Voting Rights – limit shareholding in owners companies to one share for each individual residence in the development.
Legislation be introduced immediately to put the National Property Services Regulatory Authority (NPSRA) on a statutory footing and to regulate management agents and companies.
To ensure that in mixed developments, apartment buildings shall not be included in the same Owners Company as traditional houses.