Mr. Matt Cleary:

One can have a development that is a number of years old where the statute time will elapse but that is of no use to an owner management company to try to fund the defects after that time. We would like something to be encouraged along those lines.

As a managing agent we are the ones that go to the executive general meetings or annual general meetings. We have to break the bad news to all of these members and explain that this is outside their normal budget. By the time one gets to the EGM stage, where one is proposing levies, the impact is immediate. As an agent one has to go straight to one's insurance company. One has to notify it, as a duty of care, that it has a problem and that becomes a risk. Instantly, the insurance premium is usually doubled if one is lucky to keep one's insurance cover at all. The financial impact on owner management companies is immediate. After that point, and before one reaches the EGM stage, one must employ fire consultants and quantity surveyors. All of this is a consulting cost before one even reaches the meeting stage. That is why this impact is immediate because, as soon as works are opened, defects are found.

We feel that the OMCs need support through State loans as well as the individual soft loan system. We find it deeply frustrating. We are usually at the coalface where we get abuse while trying to rectify and resolve issues. On behalf of the members, we are deeply frustrated at the lack of financial support that we get for these matters. There is a fireproofing contractor who has been put under pressure by local government, the fire office etc. to get work done. Pressure is then put on members to try to pay up as quickly as they can. They then hit cashflow issues because they have already paid for fire consultants and quantity surveyors, and so they have to collect that money as quickly as possible while also plámásing the local authority to make sure that they are staying in line with the timescale of works necessary. It is a deeply frustrating scenario to be in as a managing agent.