Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The issue of multi-unit developments and private management companies is a very serious one for many of us here. In relation to the Bill, there is the anomaly Deputy Catherine Murphy has pointed out. The idea that a group of five houses could be considered a multi-unit development and then have a management company applied is ludicrous. The idea that the Minister of State is not accepting the Bill but will look into it has raised scepticism because the issue has been going on for ten years. I have had a management company inflicted on my house since 2003. For ten to 12 years, the ridiculous carry on of these management companies has been known about. Not only do we need to accept the Bill, we need even more reform.

Private management companies have been a scourge in Dublin West and many newly developed areas of the country for quite some time. Next to nothing has been done by the political parties who oversaw the establishment of these companies in the first place to correct the grave errors that have been visited on residents by them. Ordinary houses with front and back doors are being charged extortionate fees by private management companies. Management companies were never intended for houses. They were always designed for collective structures of apartment blocks, usually with internal corridors, lifts and common areas. They were imposed on houses during the Celtic tiger when multi-unit developments were being established and they have never been lifted off them since. We also have issues with management companies in apartments. While apartments may need management companies or collective structures for insurance, there is no accountability or democracy in many cases while the fees rise to massive levels.

I want to show the Minister of State the bill from my management company. It is a management company I do not need. I have front and back gardens which I mow myself. I pay my own insurance but this is what I will be faced with at a meeting on Monday, 23 November. On this occasion it is Fine Gael and the Labour Party, but Fianna Fáil and the Green Party had a chance to deal with this issue and did not. The common expenses I face include the directors' and officers' indemnity insurance. The Minister of State does not have to pay that. I assume he lives in a house. I have to pay for graffiti removal. The Minister of State does not have to pay for that either. Also included is non-domestic waste management. Obviously, we have had the bin charges enforced and this is an extra waste management expense which has nothing to do with me. The sundry expenses are listed as €6,650 and I will be interested to find out what that is about. There are bank charges. I have my own bank accounts and pay charges on them but now I have to pay extra ones. I have to pay audit fees for a company I do not want as well as secretarial, legal and agent's fees. How long is this going to go on? Not only has the Minister of State not accepted a very minor anomaly that Deputy Catherine Murphy has pointed out, but also there have been public meetings throughout the country that Fine Gael members have attended.

This is a live issue. Residents are being summonsed to court for refusing to pay for something for which they should not have to pay. The reason is that the Government has failed to deal with this in the four and a half years it has been in office. Deputies Joan Burton and Leo Varadkar and the other Ministers who live in constituencies where this is a major problem have done nothing to correct it. This all started because during the Celtic tiger when developers ruled the land, they decided it would be a great idea while waiting for local authorities to take estates in charge to impose fees on the residents for providing all the services the developers should have been providing in the interim. They put houses into these management companies for that reason as well. We have a situation in Tyrrelstown, an area bereft of facilities, a matter which I will not go into, where there are eight management companies on an estate. In respect of seven of them, the developer was the director as were his sons and other family members. They were divided up like Africa after the colonial wars by way of straight lines. Some people are in different management companies from their next door neighbours or the people across the road. This lunacy has been well flagged. We have had public meetings attended by 100 and 200 people but nothing has been done. The main gainers out of this were the property management companies set up and related to the developers in most cases.

Something happened in 2008. There was a recession and people lost their jobs. They cannot afford these Celtic tiger follies any longer. Residents are finding that they cannot afford to pay and are now refusing to pay. They are right to refuse. Why should they pay for something from which they get no benefit? Residents are suffering because they are being summonsed to court. Residents from Tyrrelstown and other areas will be up in court shortly. While no bankers or developers have been brought to court, the residents who had management companies inflicted on their houses are. It has been pointed out in the context of many other Bills that these residents are also being clamped. Management companies decide they run the whole area and can create their own laws. They can decide that a resident in arrears may not get a parking tag and will have his or her car clamped outside his or her own house, as will any relatives when they call. This was pointed out to the Government in the context of the clamping Bill brought forward a number of months ago but nothing was done. The Government would not even exclude management companies from being empowered to clamp people. As such, I am sorry but I do not take at face value the Minister of State's promise to deal with this and neither do the people of Tyrrelstown, Ongar, Castlecurragh or my own estate.

Deputy Higgins first raised this issue in the Chamber ten years ago when Bertie Ahern sat where the Minister of State is sitting. In 2006, recognising that it was a major issue, Bertie Ahern sent a circular to the environment Department to the effect that houses should not be subject to management companies, and he defined a house as something that had a front entrance and a back entrance. The problem is that those of us who bought houses between 2002 and 2006 are still stuck with management companies.

I have been proactive in trying to assist residents with resolving this issue. We have held many public meetings, meetings with the council, etc. The late Brian Lenihan told residents that they could not dissolve a management company contract. It was as if a contract was set in stone. Of course, he was wrong. We have found and moved on a legal mechanism for releasing our houses from the management company. Unfortunately, and despite a resounding vote of apartment and house owners, we cannot get them released because only 55% of residents have returned the form given that absentee landlords do not care.

The Government needs to introduce legislation to allow houses to be released. People who were pressured into signing contracts to get houses were led to believe they would have the right to dissolve management companies as soon as their developments were taken in charge by a council. The council has taken over all of the services of the estates in question. It is erroneous of Fianna Fáil to mention the property tax because that has nothing to do with management companies. Councils do not get the benefit of management company fees. That erroneous argument only complicates matters.

Householders must be able to be released from the contracts they signed and management companies must be accountable and democratic. Residents snared in these contracts should form action groups and hold meetings to discuss what they would like to do. What is important is that there should be no division between apartment owners and house owners because we are all victims. People should lobby their local Deputies to press for legislation that should have been introduced at the start of this Government. They should make this an election issue and punish parties that have had 12 years to do something about it but have left people with unaffordable bills of hundreds of euro per year. I am referring to Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. They had ten years in government to change the situation. Now, close to an election, they tell Deputy Catherine Murphy on a Friday that they will not address something that could ensnare houses. That is not good enough and we need action now.

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