# No way to contact management company



## Muddle2018 (31 Jul 2020)

I am a long time in my home and in recent years have tried and failed to email the management company about a few things. I have no idea who own it or runs in, there is no address nor phone number just an email address that they never answer or at least only seem to look at once or twice a year. There was a letter sent around recently telling us the 'rules' of the estate (first letter of its kind since the houses were built 17 years back) like  you cannot paint the front of your home, you cannot be outside talking or making any kind of noise between 9am and 9pm. Your bins need to be stored neatly during the week (these are privately paid for bins) You cannot light a firepit in your back garden at any times or 'there will be consequences'.
 Can anyone explain to me what these 'consequences' are and how they would be enforced? I live in a private estate which all homes are lived in by the people who bought them, no council homes, very few rented out etc. I understood when I bought the house that I own from my front door backwards so essentially i do not own the front garden which is fine and we do seem to have a gardener come around regularly to cut the grass of the common area etc but bar the payment to the company once a year I never hear from them and have no way to get in touch.


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## Muddle2018 (31 Jul 2020)

Just to add this is a housing estate - no apartments and the only thing we seem to pay for each year is the cutting of the lawns and cleaning of the main areas. NOTHING else is included in the fees.


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## mathepac (31 Jul 2020)

Ask the gardener who pays him/her, ask the LA, who do you your annual fees to,  Is there any heading on the letter you received?


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## Muddle2018 (31 Jul 2020)

Its the name of the estate with 'management company' after it. Never thought of the gardener actually!! I just wonder who can enforce such rules as no talking outside your own home at 9pm etc? What can they do if you paint your wall? What can a management company do when you own your own home?


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## Leo (31 Jul 2020)

Muddle2018 said:


> Its the name of the estate with 'management company' after it.



Check the companies register for director details.



Muddle2018 said:


> I just wonder who can enforce such rules as no talking outside your own home at 9pm etc?



No one can if there's no provision for same in your lease. Does this management company hold AGMs?


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## Muddle2018 (31 Jul 2020)

No leases, all privately owned. Apparently i own from my hall door to my back garden but not the front garden. Im here 17 years and there has been talk of meetings but i havent been to one or known one to go ahead. Its all so weird. I bought my ex out last year by way of a new mortgage and it wasnt mentioned once about managemeng fees etc.


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## ALEXA (1 Aug 2020)

Enter the name of your development's management company into Companies Register Office www.cro.ie and you'll find all submissions by the management company including names of the most recently elected Directors and Secretary. You'll have to pay a charge of €2.50 for a PDF. This may provide you with addresses so that you can contact them. AGMs would be normal where management fees are set to cover the yearly budget. Your solicitor should also be in a position to request contact details of the management company.


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## cremeegg (1 Aug 2020)

The CRO search as outlined above, will include the registered address of the management company.




Muddle2018 said:


> No leases, all privately owned.



Are you sure. I very much doubt that you are an owner, from the details given it looks like you are a leaseholder. The facts that they are houses rather than apartments, that there are no council houses and that very few are rented has nothing to do with it.

Why is there a management company if the houses are not leasehold.


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## ALEXA (2 Aug 2020)

You say the only service you get for your fees are grass cutting and clearing of the common areas but the fees would also cover public liability insurance, street lighting electricity, road maintenance, electric gates maintenance if they are installed and possibly other "unseen" expenses.

Are your fees unreasonably high? Your best plan going forward would be to find out when the next AGM will be held ( Covid restrictions allowing of course), attend the meeting and put forward your points. As you have been living there for a number of years perhaps you could approach some of your more long term neighbours and sound them out regarding any issues you have. They may also have similar issues. The more involved the residents become in the running of the development the better served they will be as the management company will have no choice but to take their views on board and address any problems.


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## Muddle2018 (2 Aug 2020)

Bought my house tw


cremeegg said:


> The CRO search as outlined above, will include the registered address of the management company.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Bought my own house twice in fact due to divorce! Defintely all bought privately 17 years back when they were built, possibly some rented out at this point.


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## Muddle2018 (2 Aug 2020)

ALEXA said:


> You say the only service you get for your fees are grass cutting and clearing of the common areas but the fees would also cover public liability insurance, street lighting electricity, road maintenance, electric gates maintenance if they are installed and possibly other "unseen" expenses.
> 
> Are your fees unreasonably high? Your best plan going forward would be to find out when the next AGM will be held ( Covid restrictions allowing of course), attend the meeting and put forward your points. As you have been living there for a number of years perhaps you could approach some of your more long term neighbours and sound them out regarding any issues you have. They may also have similar issues. The more involved the residents become in the running of the development the better served they will be as the management company will have no choice but to take their views on board and address any problems.


Have spoken to neighbours and all perplexed at where this new letter with instruction had come from. None of us and most are here since the houses were brand new, have ever known of an agm. Fees are not huge 200 euro per house paid into an account with the initial developers name but the issue is more the new rules like not being able to paint your own home or ‘make noise’ out the front garden between 9pm and 9am. Why after 17 years of living here are we being talked to like naughty kids? Who can enforce the rules? I hsve emailed them again but could be october before i get a response.


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## Muddle2018 (2 Aug 2020)

Thanks Alexa will get onto the cro tomorrow morning. I pay annual home insurance so never thought of insurance for outside. Its an estate of sbout 100 houses with a small river, not gated. A few street lights are up but bins and all that are up to each home to buy an annual service. Bins were also mentioned in the letter saying they needed to be tidily stored! Its just so odd this letter given that i bought 17 years ago and never given rules before!


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## vandriver (3 Aug 2020)

Is it actually a management company,or a glorified residents association ?


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## Muddle2018 (3 Aug 2020)

It says management company but im not so sure. The more i look at the list of rules the more concerned i am that someone has control problems. There was another rule about planting ones own plants - apparently not allowed, only the ones the management company ‘allow’. Every other estate around here has a residents page on facebook except our estate and its a commuter belt area thats been built up over the past twenty years. Im hoping the gardener is around this week to talk to as im working from home rather than office this week and can collar him.


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## Muddle2018 (3 Aug 2020)

Interestingly i have gone to cro.ie and this conpany are eegistered twice, once to a house in the estate from 2002 till last accounts date of 2018 and also to an estate agents from 2002 last accounts sent in 2019. Im going in to the estate agents wednesday as tomorrow not possible. All strange to me.


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## Thirsty (3 Aug 2020)

Consider forming a residents association; there's strength in numbers.


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## Muddle2018 (3 Aug 2020)

One of the neighbours thinks the county council have taken over. Tomorrow i will ring them first then this estate agent place and get all my ducks lined up. I will update.


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## ALEXA (3 Aug 2020)

I can understand a rule about not painting one's own house as many private estates would have restrictions on design choices such as paint colours, window/door replacement with similar in order to keep a uniform look for the estate. No noise between 11pm and 8am would also be the norm in many estates but surely 9pm to 9am seems very restrictive as is a rule about planting your garden. Do you think there could be a busy body neighbour who is trying to control everyone else. You have found some info on the management company from CRO so your best bet is to work with that and check that estate agent and also the house in the estate that's registered. Good luck getting to the bottom of it all!!


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## mathepac (3 Aug 2020)

If all 100 houses pay the €200 a year to cut the grass and no other services are forthcoming, can I have the grass cutting job? I'll do it for €15,000 a year, saving you €50/house.


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## Seagull (4 Aug 2020)

If it's a proper management company, then all owners would be members. If they've not been notifying anyone of the agm, then someone is in trouble.


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## Muddle2018 (6 Aug 2020)

So apparently one of the management companies that is the same name but a different registered company is belong to a block of appartments across the road. I spoke to the company yesterday who are as intrigued by our letter as I am. I have found the address that the management company for the houses in the estate I live in and have posted in a letter outlining my issues, asking when they plan to file accounts as nothing has been filed since 2018 and asking them to hold an agm as many of us are concerned by this letter. I await a response.


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## mtp (12 Aug 2020)

v FAMILAIR . U are one of so many . 

Check your planning permission to see if the est of a management company is a condition of the pp.


If so then u are in a mud estate that is controlled by the MUD Act since 1 4 11 and under which no service charge can be set by members until the common areas are transferred to the management company and development substantially completed and the designated public areas taken in charge by the county council UNTIL then the developer is responsible for all them cost even if in liquidation. See arts of association to see who has voting rights of the management company. 

This only reiterates what is said in the lease and the contract between the Developer (who sets up the man co ) and the man co. 

Why are u paying service charge ? 

As for the management company itself while u may be a member of it u may have no voting right under the companies act. The voting right are set out in the arts of association, and they may set out as in our case that the voting right vest in the subscriber to the memo of association until the developer has no more interest in the estate that is to say the common areas have been transferred to the omc and the estate has been completed to the TIC standard. 

The subscriber to the arts are usually the developer solicitors, and they may be the correct people to contact the man co as they are the one to convene agm and appoint directors and responsible for the levying of these s charges that omc cant levy under s 27. The estate agents are not man co merely an agent appointed by the man co. So again check arts to see how to est contact with the management company . 

I had to go thru it all in the N Dub Mud estate and still not completed b sub complete


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## mtp (12 Aug 2020)

PS THOSE RULE YES LOOK AT LEASE BUT dont be intimidated

Is developer in receivership and liquidation.

Do the voting right of omc remain with subscriber to the arts UNTIL developer has no more interest in estate. If so then perhaps u need to get on to them the subscriber and remind them of S18 7 of the mud act and they are responsible for the inv for service charge coming out when member of omc have no authority to levy s charge for the responsibility act that are or were the responsibility of the developer until estate completed. U want yiur money back ?

The relevant section of mud act is S18.7 set out how member of a managment company set a service charge that has effect.


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