Apartment Management Cos.- who is responsible for managing terms of lease.

I would be looking at sending a solictors letter to the directors of the MC for neglect of duty..might light a match under them! More money I know but they are supposed to be acting in the best interests of ALL owners and ensuring that lease conditions are complied with.

Just reading this

Every owner has an equal share in the management company so what you are requesting the management company to do is split itself in half and then have one half take the other half to court....doesnt make much sense.

Also noise issues can be very subjective. These can be caused by bad structural design, or someone being just a light sleeper. If you live in an apartment you have got to be prepared for noise. People cannot expect to have peace and quiet when they are living in such tight quarters with their neighbour.

However seeing as there was a change in the apartment above the management company should have acted swifter and insisted on an inspection and removal of wooden floors etc (if they contravene the lease that is!!) you really shouldnt have taken this to court...who did you think
was going to pay your legal fee's??

This is just one of the many catch 22 situations the management company faces every day.

Would the other 13 owners be happy to pay €700+ each (10k /14 owners) so that you could pay your solicitor to take a case to court that only affected your property??? I know I wouldnt.

Sorry Zenga but you have missed the point. It has been to Court in 2007. The MC won the case after a vote with all the owners and the defendant has rubbished the Court Order. Full costs went against the defendant.

Its amazing the noise never bothered me prior to the wooden floor and power showers, and I have lived in an apartment before in Central London. The whole purpose of a lease document is to ensure that people conform.

mercman said:

Sorry Zenga but you have missed the point. It has been to Court in 2007. The MC won the case after a vote with all the owners and the defendant has rubbished the Court Order. Full costs went against the defendant.

Its amazing the noise never bothered me prior to the wooden floor and power showers, and I have lived in an apartment before in Central London. The whole purpose of a lease document is to ensure that people conform.

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Im just trying to provide some background inforamation as to why the management company would not like to take action in this instance.

I understand you won the case, but the case was taken in your name by your solicitor at your cost. If full costs went against the defendant surely he/she should be liable for the costs and that is where your anger should be directed.

However when you state full costs...generally you never get full costs in a legal case such as this, you generally will get scale costs which will be 50% at best of the actual costs. Im afraid the management company have no real liability towards you for these legal costs...they really only testified on your behalf. Have you spoken with your solicitor regarding the costs and if there would be a possibility of imposing half the costs on the managment company??

zenga said:

I understand you won the case, but the case was taken in your name by your solicitor at your cost.

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No it was a joint case with self and the Management Co. I personally was full sure that this would happen again but in the hearing they resisted in forcing the wooden floor to be uplifted. The defendant simply refuses to abide by the terms of the lease or in fact respect the other apartment owners.

You stated that the management company consented to being added to the case...was there no discussion of costs at this stage??!! I cant understand why you left it until after the case to decide who was going to pay the legal fees!!

In the main the defendant had to cough up as costs went against him. The same thing will happen again for sure, but next time I will not be as easy going. The courts do not like a situation where an Order has been ignored. Next time, when reapplied to the Courts, I will go for full costs.

well if you have applied for judgement, then you can then seek for a judgement mortage and then finally get the judgement applied to his property....all of this might get you €0. Be very careful about spending more money as you may be throwing good money after bad!

Thanks for the advice. I do not think the person concerned would wish to go down this route as in essence, he is a member of a very high profile family, and the entire happenings could damahe his family's reputation and business.

If the owner of the apartment has not paid fees and is not compliant with the lease, it is possible that the management company could remove the apartment from the block insurance policy. As mortgages for apartments usually have clauses about insurance cover this may be a cause for concern to the bank if the property is mortgaged.

A route to forcing the sale of the apartment may be a better long term solution.

ontour said:

If the owner of the apartment has not paid fees and is not compliant with the lease, it is possible that the management company could remove the apartment from the block insurance policy. As mortgages for apartments usually have clauses about insurance cover this may be a cause for concern to the bank if the property is mortgaged.

A route to forcing the sale of the apartment may be a better long term solution.

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This is not possible in apartment living. The apartments will be covered by block insurance which covers the structure and does not cover the individual apartments contained within...therefore to remove insurance from one apartment would mean removing it from the entire block.

It would be possible if the developement contained houses, again however it is very easy for the owner to get around this by arranging their own private home insurance so it doesnt really work there either!

zenga said:

This is not possible in apartment living. The apartments will be covered by block insurance which covers the structure and does not cover the individual apartments contained within...therefore to remove insurance from one apartment would mean removing it from the entire block.

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You would not change the actual insurance policy, you would inform the delinquent member that their claim would not be paid by the management company. For example if there was a leak in the block, the management company could claim against the insurance for the damage but not pay the delinquent member for damage to their apartment. Possibly the monies relating to the claim for that apartment could be offset against outstanding fees.