Managemnt Company Want to Remove Satellite Dish

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eamon

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We own an investment property in Dublin city centre. It's a house, freehold, and we pay our own house insurance every year as well as a management company fee. We're renting the house to 2 non-nationals who want a satellite dish to receive a foreign language TV station not available with NTL. The management company want us to take the dish down as they say it's in breach of their rules. Surely their rules only apply to leasehold appartments on the estate and not freehold townhouses?
 
Can you check with the solicitor who handled the property purchase about the rights of the management company? Do you have any paperwork showing what is the agreed role of the management company?
 
I'm getting my solicitor to check the title deeds to see if there's any mention of a prohibition on erecting a satellite dish. The management agent had already threatened to hire a cherrypicker (@ €800 per day!), remove the dish and bill me. I've since heard that to do this he'd have to go through the proper channels. I've had no hassle with the management company when I lived at that estate and have rented out the house without incident for the past few years. I'm just amazed at the heavy handedness of the management company about such a small issue. With most tenants these days it's not unreasonable for them to have access to tv from their home countries. And if NTL can't supply the service, there isn't any other option apart from Sky. As I understand it, you only need planning permission to erect a dish on the front of your house, so what can the managemnt company do if the dish is on the chimney of a freehold property?
 
As I posted a while back our management agreement prohibits householders from erecting dishes and aerials and the management agent (under the auspices of the management company of which all householders are members/shareholders - a point which many people don't seem to realise/remember!) has made moves to enforce this move. If the management company covenant/agreement/lease that you signed at the time of purchase similarly prohibits the erection of dishes etc. then the management company are perfectly within their rights to force removal and, if necessary, bill you for any expenses incurred. As mentioned above you need to check (with your solicitor if necessary) to see what the specific terms & conditions of the governing management agreement.
 
Thanks for that Clubman. I'll have a better idea tomorrow after I speak to my solicitor regarding the contents of the title deeds. It's hard enough these days to find good tenants who pay the rent and don't wreck the gaffe, without these management company guys making it even harder to retain the tenants. If anyone knows of a legal way of getting sky digital without a dish, I'd love to hear it. Thanks.
 
On a more general note there are some good threads about management companies/agents and explaining the ins and outs of same. You should be able to find them by searching or browsing around the site. As I said before if you are the property owner then you are in all likelyhood a member/shareholder in the management company - i.e. it's not them and us/you. You are (part of) the management company. But you have also signed a legally enforceable agreement binding you to certain commitments possibly including desisting from erecting dishes/aerials. No offence but I don't understand how so many people (including many of my neighbours) sign management company agreements seemingly without any knowledge of the implications. I know that my solicitor pointed out some of these. Maybe other peoples' solicitors don't or else they simply don't listen when they do or read the agreements that they are signing?
 
When we bought the house back in the early 90's satellite dishes weren't an issue. I lived there for ten years and was content with NTL. However, in today's competitive rentals marketplace you need to be able to offer all the trimmings to be able to get the right tenant. Fact is satellite tv is a selling point to many potential tenants. If there was a dishless solution to this I grab it wioth both hands and forget about solicitors altogether.
 
Would there be any impact on the value of your property if every apartment/duplex in the complex have an ugly dish stuck on the front wall?
 
I dont see why having a satellite dish should have an impact on the price of the property. I would have thought that the majority of people would want to have satellite television or at the very least, the option of having it.

I consider this Management Company ban on satellite dishes to be over the top and not at all warranted. Surely, after paying a fortune for a house you should have the right to put up a satellite dish if you want.
 
We would install the dish on the chimey of the house where we believe it would be unobtrusive. I spoke to my solicitor this morning and she's going to pull the file with my house deeds. She thinks it's unlikely there's any specific provision prohibiting the erection of satellite dishes but that there's usually a clause that allows the management company to make specific reasonable requests from time to time. That's where they could hang us. She's going to ring me as soon as she's had a good look at the file.
 
RainyDay said:
Would there be any impact on the value of your property if every apartment/duplex in the complex have an ugly dish stuck on the front wall?
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Also - erection of a dish at the front of a property is not exempt from planning permission unlike doing so at roof/chimney height or at the rear of the property. This is separate from any preclusions that might be contained in a private management agreement.
Darth Vader said:
I dont see why having a satellite dish should have an impact on the price of the property. I would have thought that the majority of people would want to have satellite television or at the very least, the option of having it.

I consider this Management Company ban on satellite dishes to be over the top and not at all warranted. Surely, after paying a fortune for a house you should have the right to put up a satellite dish if you want.
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Anybody who feels this way should not sign a management agreement that contains such a preclusion and, if they can't negotiate the removal of that condition, buy elsewhere.
 
eamon said:
I spoke to my solicitor this morning and she's going to pull the file with my house deeds. She thinks it's unlikely there's any specific provision prohibiting the erection of satellite dishes
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Its becoming common now to have a specific provision for satellite dishes. I've come across one recently enough in an estate in Trim.
 
ClubMan said:
Anybody who feels this way should not sign a management agreement that contains such a preclusion and, if they can't negotiate the removal of that condition, buy elsewhere.
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Its not very nice to have someone who has found a place they like, put a booking deposit on it, organised finance with a Lending Institution, made an appointment to see their Solicitor when the Contracts etc have arrived and then to be told that there is a provision that no satellite dishes can be put up. You then would have to let the whole thing go and start all over again. great.
 
ClubMan said:
Anybody who feels this way should not sign a management agreement that contains such a preclusion and, if they can't negotiate the removal of that condition, buy elsewhere.
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I don't know of many (any?) places that allow for satellite dishes in the agreement signed by residents at time of purchase. A colleague of mine bought a house recently and dishes were prohibited. It's understandable that dishes should be prohibited on (most?) apartments, but houses should be a different matter (IMHO).

What's worse is that developers are now giving exclusive cable rights to smaller operators who are providing a substandard service. When signing leasehold agreements etc. I asked who would be providing the cable service and told 'I don't know, someone will'. Not enough to make me hold off on purchase, but we have been very unhappy with the service provided (and have no choice without getting NTL MMDS or Sky, both of which are forbidden by the leasehold agreement). I have come very close to saying 'to hell with it' and putting a dish on the balcony (as others have done and they sight isn't anymore obtrusive than the cafe tables and chairs that most others have on their balconies).
 
CCOVICH said:
I don't know of many (any?) places that allow for satellite dishes in the agreement signed by residents at time of purchase. A colleague of mine bought a house recently and dishes were prohibited. It's understandable that dishes should be prohibited on (most?) apartments, but houses should be a different matter (IMHO).
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Yes - I don't expect a buyer to be able to negotiate a change to the management agreement although I managed to get a special dispensation from the "no shrubs/trees" rule in ours but everybody (including the management company) ignores it anyway. Our estate is one of about 140 townhouses (no apartments or duplexes etc.) and has a no dishes/aerials rule and at the last AGM the directors undertook to enforce this but have not done so yet.
 
I saw an apartment in Tallaght recently that had two satellite dishes outside it and a clothes line between them! I for one would never buy in a block covered in dishes. In my own block I've had two dishes removed for breaking the rules.
 
eamon said:
As I understand it, you only need planning permission to erect a dish on the front of your house, so what can the managemnt company do if the dish is on the chimney of a freehold property?
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From the planning and devlopment regulations 2001, satellite dishes are exempt from planning with the following exceptions.
1. Not more than one such antenna shall be erected on, or within the curtilage of a house.
2. The diameter of any such antenna shall not exceed 1 metre.
3. No such antenna shall be erected on, or forward of, the front wall of the house.
4. No such antenna shall be erected on the front roof slope of the house or higher than the highest part of the roof of the house.
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I received a letter from my management company yesterday requesting the removal of all satelitte dishes in my development within one month or I will be billed with the costs for removal and disposal. I only signed up to Sky at the end of September so if I break this agreement I have to pay the remaining 10 months of the contract which will be approx €320.

Do I have any chance of holding off the removal of the satelitte dish until next September? The reason I ask is that the apartment was rented before I moved in so there was a satelitte dish up for approx 14 months before I would of got mine so it is not like the management company has enforced this rule before now.
 
NiallA said:
From the planning and devlopment regulations 2001, satellite dishes are exempt from planning with the following exceptions.
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As a matter of interest are they described specifically as 'satellite dishes' or do they come under the general description of 'antenna'? After all, that's what they are.

If that's the case it could be argued that any agreement, however long in existence, banning the installation of 'antennas' includes sat dishes by implication?
 
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