# Development contributions in Wicklow



## shoestring (11 Feb 2013)

Whats the general concensus on what Wicklow County Council are doing in relation to the recovery of development contributions from houseowners who bought properties where the developer should have paid the levies. I think this is the fault of the solicitors who signed off on the sale of these properties and that these poor people in Wicklow should have their levies paid for them?


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## delgirl (11 Feb 2013)

[broken link removed] on this issue.

This is typical of the council who failed to do their job in collecting these levies from the developers.

I personally know one developer from Wicklow who paid a development bond upfront as required, didn't finish the housing estate he was building and was allowed to move/transfer the bond to a second development under a new limited company name. 

The first development remains unfinished and the council say they are unable to complete it as they no longer have the developer's bond.

There's an interesting discussion about this on [broken link removed] where one of the homeowners being targeted by the council is posting.


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## Woodie (11 Feb 2013)

It is yet another consequence of the combination of lax attitudes, greed, shameful and immoral way of operating public and private services (planning, solicitors, finance et al)  in the 'boom'.  The generally Irish attitude of 'it will be grand' and 'shur what harm'  has come  back to bite it a serious way.  
I am aware that all of government is broke but it is shameful to now seek redress from the home owners in this.  I'd be looking at the whole area of enforcement of ensuring what got planning actually was built as given if I was looking for revenue.


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## Bronte (12 Feb 2013)

Well even thought the county council were lax (the kindest word I can think of) in collecting this from the developer, does that mean anything in law. It seems not. Luckily for the residents it looks like something that their solicitors should have picked up so solicitors would seem to be at fault. 

It surely is standard procedure for solicitors to ask if rates and NPPR is paid and ditto for this charge/levy as it runs with the property. It it isn't standard procedure, I guess it will be from now on.

Do I think that it's correct for the co council to go after the residents when it's the co council's fault for not collecting it earlier, certainly not.  Gross incompetence but that will do the residents no good.


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