Subject: Management Companies

Dear friend,

I would like to inform you of an important meeting which is taking place in the Red Cow, next Saturday April 1st, from 11am to 1pm. The meeting is being convened by Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and Independent TD Catherine Murphy as a first step in developing a national campaign to increase political pressure for the abolition of management companies in standard housing and for strict regulation and transparency for management arrangements with regard to apartments. Any resident affected by this issue is invited to attend.

On Tuesday April 5th, I am holding a meeting upstairs in The Harvest at 8pm as a follow on from that meeting. Opposing management fees is a complex and difficult issue, and it is easy to get bogged down in the details of the companies. Since the last meeting in The Milestone, there has been a lot of correspondence with some of the management agents and with Fingal County Council on issues like the bins and refuse collection. That said it is fair to say that some of the estates have been more organised than others and there has certainly been a weakness on my part in regularly keeping in touch with people. That is partly because I am an Aer Lingus shop-steward and have been very involved with the situation there.

In all areas there is a need to get information out to all residents in the estates to let them know what has been going on. Since the last meeting in The Milestone the court cases dealing with this issue from Tyrellstown in Dublin 15 were lost in the District Court. The judge had no interest in listening to any legal argument and did not even let the campaign barrister speak. His attitude was that if they wanted to debate points of law, they could do it in a different court. That is what is now going to happen, as some of the cases have been appealed to the Circuit Court. There are many legal points to be considered such as management companies charging for maintenance of common areas, when the ownership of those common areas is not theirs, and so on. It is likely that those cases will be heard before the summer.

Most importantly Fingal County Council is developing its policy on the issue of management companies, with the first serious meeting on the issue on April 19th. It is crucial that as much pressure as possible is put on to secure changes in this area and an end to this double tax.

In taking up this issue in many areas I have found that the only way in which it can be done is if a group of residents get organised on this issue, and operate by keeping the rest of the estate informed. It has been difficult to help all of the estates in a detailed way. The meeting in The Harvest on April 4th is to assist in setting up committees in each estate to campaign on this issue. Hopefully you can make it along. I'll be in touch before that. If there are any particular questions that you have on this issue don't hesitate to drop me a line.

All the best,