# Common Areas Fees



## Confused83 (31 Oct 2018)

Hi I am looking for some advice on regards outstanding fees ownership and common areas.

Complicated situation joint ownership and outstanding fees.

Common areas not transfered until 10 yrs after sale. Legal dispute ongoing with developer by estate.

Lease states developer responsible to maintain services until fully vested into management company.

Mc has had no AGM for approx 6 yrs fees just issued by paper no budget produced or voted on by owners and no accounts shared.

Does the go against the mud act and are these fees recoverable by the MC


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## Zenith63 (31 Oct 2018)

Having gone through taking an OMC from the developer and then reclaiming the common areas in recent years, it's all a painful enough experience and there seems to be little built up knowledge in the legal sector, due to how (relatively) recent the MUD Act is.

I assume the development has been run by an OMC since it was completed, but the Directors of the company were the Developers so the members had no input?
Have the members taken control of the OMC yet?
Do you have previous accounts from the OMC?
Have the Common Areas been transferred to the OMC yet?

While it may be possible to pursue the Directors for mismanaging the OMC, once you take control of it you may decide that cost of doing so would not be worth it, and it might save you all a lot of time/heartache and potentially funds to just start running it the way it should have been and move forward...


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## lantus (1 Nov 2018)

So a builder can levy fees without need to hold an agm or use the omc to manage the development. 

The common area lease will / should outline the transfer requirements. This is a separate document to the property lease.

The builder should transfer when 85% of the development is complete from memory based on mud act.


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## Confused83 (16 Nov 2019)

I never came back to this thread with everything going on.

The OMC was set up at same time as development went on sale. A management agent appointed and management fees levied. 

Owner occupiers took over 8 OMC years ago and got rid of MA but common areas not vested until 2 years. And and have levied fees since. 

The leases state developer is responsible for all services upkeep and indemnity of same of services until the common areas/services take in charge by OMC or council. Lease also says developer is responsible for setting budget and providing same at start of each financial year. This wasnt done. Since introduction of MUD no regular AGM no presents budgets and fees continued to be levied.

Estate was uninsured for number of years. 
It's all a fricking mess.


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## benji2006 (17 Nov 2019)

As far as I know, an estate in Athenry Co Galway managed to successfully sue the developer for 6 years past maintenance fees based on a similar condition in the house deeds. (The 6 years is a legal limit) - I'm not sure if I should name the estate here, but please PM me for more info....

In general, it is very hard to find any information about estates using the MUD act to force a transfer of common areas - if anyone has experience of this, I would appreciate hearing more...


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## L_earner (11 Jul 2020)

We went to court to try to force the transfer of the common areas. Even though we got our court order, the developers dug their heels in, mostly I think out of malice because we had a terrible relationship with them from the start, and they are flatly refusing to do the transfer. If the development is an apartment block, as in my case, forcing transfer of the common areas is not the only goal, although it is essential if the owners are ever to own the properties they paid for.
Even without the common areas being transferred, we learned that the owners can take control of the OMC, and decide what the annual management fee should be, whether to employ a management agent (we don't), whether to have a collective refuse/recycling service (we do), whether to put up a free to air satellite piped into every apartment (we do), ensure the development is insured (ours was not when we took over as owners) and taking care of maintenance of the common areas so that the place retains a bright, attractive appearance.


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