Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Question 219: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality, further to Parliamentary Question No. 369 of 29 November 2011 and Parliamentary Question No. 31 of 7 December 2011, if in a situation in which a property management company has gone into liquidation and the housing estate has not been taken in charge by the local authority, he will confirm that the legal responsibility for the ongoing maintenance and carrying out of repairs lies with the liquidator. [40214/11]

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 relation to the functions and responsibilities of liquidators under the Companies Acts. However, I can indicate the following by way of general information in relation to the functions of owners' management companies.

One of the principal objectives of the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011 is to ensure the transfer of common areas of multi-unit developments from developers to the owners' management companies concerned. Section 4 of the Act, which deals with partially completed developments, and section 5, which deals with substantially completed developments, provide that transfer of the relevant parts of the common areas must have been completed within 6 months of the coming into operation of the Act, i.e. before 1 October 2011.

Section 24 of the Act establishes a new Circuit Court jurisdiction for the resolution of disputes in relation to multi-unit developments. It means that if such a dispute cannot be resolved by the parties concerned by means of mediation or other dispute resolution mechanism, the Court may, where it is satisfied that a right has been infringed or an obligation has not been discharged, make an order with a view to ensuring effective enforcement of the right or effective discharge of the obligation concerned. Such an order may include an order directing the developer to complete the development or an order transferring control of an owners' management company from a developer to the apartment owners where the Circuit Court is satisfied the developer has unreasonably refused to effect such a transfer.