Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 368: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the work he is undertaking to deal with the issues arising when families have paid deposits on homes in estates in which the management company is no longer in business and no local authority has taken up the responsibility of roads and maintenance and so the house purchase cannot be completed. [6598/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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One of the principal objectives of the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011 is to ensure transfer of the 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. However, section 30 of the Act provides for restoration of companies that have been struck off the register for breaches of company law without the involvement of the courts where application is made in the prescribed form before the expiration of 6 years from publication of the notice that the company was struck off the register. I should add that the taking in charge of estates is a matter for the relevant local authority and I am aware that the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has issued a guidance document to the local authorities on this matter.