Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 133: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the intended meaning of the following wording in the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011: "the annual services charges shall be calculated on a transparent basis and shall be equitably apportioned between unit owners"; the place where residents may seek clarification as to whether a service charge is equitable or not; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38173/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will appreciate that I am not in a position as Minister for Justice and Equality to give legal advice in response to Parliamentary Questions. However, I can indicate the following by way of general information.

Section 18 of the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011 provides that an owners' management company must establish a scheme for annual service charges to fund expenditure on the maintenance, insurance and repair of common areas and for the provision of common services to unit owners. Subsection (13) provides that the annual service charges shall be calculated on a transparent basis and equitably proportioned between unit owners, which means that the members of the company must be informed of the amount of the intended charge and that the charge should be fair to each unit owner, allowing for differences that may exist, say, in the size of individual units.

I should add that any annual service charge must be approved by a general meeting of the members of the owners' management company as provided for under section 18(2) and subsection (3) outlines the categories of expenditure which must be itemised in any scheme of annual service charges.