PJ Murphy (Fine Gael)

That is the sort of idea I am looking for in answer to my question. Will there be a role for the housing regulator? I am not sure if a mediation system would work here. It might be beyond mediation. We would need some means for the management company to reach out to the housing regulator to say it has a problem with collection but does not have a legal standing as an organisation to be able to follow up in any way other than with the courts and to ask if the housing regulator could step in and be of assistance.

The witnesses mentioned windows and roofs. Particularly in Dublin, but also in Galway and to a small extent in Limerick and Cork, I have seen examples where the penthouse apartment on the top floor of a building might have a very large balcony or roof garden area that has been found, in many cases, to be defective. They are leaking and causing massive damage to the apartments directly below. However, the landlord who owns that top floor is getting big rent for his or her penthouse apartment and does not want to inconvenience the tenant by moving them out. Therefore, he or she is not co-operating with the remediation works that need to be done in order to solve the problem. Do we have a simple legal means by which the management company can oblige the property owner on the top floor to facilitate the essential works on his roof garden or balcony that need to be done for the apartment directly below? I have countless first-hand experiences of the issue. As the penthouse is obviously the highest-rent apartment in the block, the owners simply continue to stall and give reasons not to co-operate while ceilings are collapsing below.