Issues with cracks in floors of new homes-Drynam Hall (and others).

Menolly are a pain in the butt to deal with. Got piece of paper thro door to contact Kevin Kelly 086 1729160 called ten times one weeks, no reply, left messages, texts. When they eventually called they denied I ever called them (not bright boys, it is v easy check) they told me my house was fine, my neighbour has problem so how can mine be determined to be fine, they have not tested it yet. They just kept talking, second guy Albert saw his job as just to be aggressive. I notice in Booklet from Menolly they are doing whole row. Of course there is pyrite if my neigbour has it. I have gone to Solicitor as I find Co difficult to deal with - they can pay for it also. How much do you reckon we should look for as compensation and how is it worked out? :confused:
 
Have you had a look at the Drynam Hall section on neighbours.ie? There might be a discussion there.
 
Hi, some of these message are pretty old, but I was wondering if anyone can give advice on this or are in a similiar situation. I have a house in Drynam Hall that is affected by pyrite. We made the decision 18 months ago to sign up with Arthur Cox and go down the legal route. I know that the case Menolly V Lagan is in the Commercial Court at the moment and is expected to finish up the first week in November. We have been asked by Arthur Cox to pay more legal fees, 500 per month for the months of May, June & July amounting to another €1,500 (we have already paid them €1200 to date) and they are putting us under pressure to pay up. I have noticed that Menolly are still doing remedial works on a number of houses in the estate at the moment and now I am wondering whether or not to just get the remedial works done - as the outcome of the case and the compensation value could take a while longer to be determined. Is anyone else in a similiar position?
 
hi Summer1, I spoke with our lawyer some weeks ago and it seems that nothing is going to happen until the outcome of the court case with Menolly/Lagan. We have not paid a cent to our lawyers as yet. The advice we were given was to wait for this outcome and then decide what would be the best course of action. The other suggestion was to pay a builder to get it done and then claim back from Homebond. There is another thread here thats a bit more up to date

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=101735&highlight=pyrite
 
HI PyritePete, many thanks for your response. We engaged Arthur Cox Solicitors but as they are requesting more money, I feel they are forcing our hand on this. I would prefer not to have to hand over another 1500 euro before even knowing who the Plaintiff is going to be yet but was just wondering what others are doing about this ?
 
Are A Cox representing all folks in Drynam etc - at 1500 euro per household thats a lot of dosh.Homebond have been advised by their legal people NOT to respond to any correspondence, at least that is what we were told so going on that basis, I would not hand over any more cash. The way we look at it is, why pay out at all for something thats not of our making i.e. pyrite . Our lawyer was pushing for us to pay him also. What exactly are A Cox doing/have done for the 1500 quid ?
 
Big problems, and you need to look at the builders balance sheet to gauge how they can take the hit in sales and reputation. Its happened many times here in England, so builders affected often decide to fold, sell all the assetts to a connected person, and re-open, as [example] Happy Homes Limited, a new company costs £25.00 in the UK, and you get a new name, trading history and leave the bad image behind, leaving everyone in the lurch. Bank managers read and so they'll withdraw funds or overdrafts. Can't say I blame them really. Its the quarry's certification fault not to issue a warning, though guessing you'd think the builders might have been aware of rumours surrounding their products in years past. The buidling trade is that sort of business - were bad new travels fast. Your home surety firm won't spend a penny for a few years so they can see the total extent of the problem and who is / who is not affected. Price wise your looking at a 60% loss of value for those worst affected and sales to cash buyers only. Its a fact of life, eventually blame will surface, payouts will be made, but your looking at an 10 year timescale. The quarry will be covered I hope, and provide reimbursement, I feel sorry for all concerned esp the builder.
 
PyritePete said:
Are A Cox representing all folks in Drynam etc - at 1500 euro per household thats a lot of dosh.Homebond have been advised by their legal people NOT to respond to any correspondence, at least that is what we were told so going on that basis, I would not hand over any more cash. The way we look at it is, why pay out at all for something thats not of our making i.e. pyrite . Our lawyer was pushing for us to pay him also. What exactly are A Cox doing/have done for the 1500 quid ?
Click to expand...

Arthur Cox is apparently representing 80 homes in the estate so on that basis they would have collected nearly €100K in fees to date and now they are looking for more money! I have written to Home Bond and they advised us to write to the Menolly straight away and ask them to advise us of our options if we wish to be included on the list for remedial works to be done to our house. I am nearly of the opinion that it would be better to get the works done and have a cert to state our house is pyrite-free but the other house-owner would prefer to be represented by the solicitors and wait for the outcome, which I fear could take another couple of years.
 
I believe the money we pay over to A Cox now will be recoverable from Menolly when the case proceeds. A Cox are looking for this money to fund the numerous expenses they are incurring regarding expert opinion and technical/engineering work done. I do believe that another Legal firm Lavelle Coleman are not charging any fees/expenses as of yet.

Summer1 it's really up to you to decide whet you want to do re continuing with your case or excepting Menollys offer. One word of caution though is that some people have accepted Menollys offer many months ago and still have no official timescale from Menolly when work will be starting in their home. They seem to be waiting on neighbours to sign up so they can tackle a row of houses together (economies of scale). Have you talked to A Cox? Maybe it's time they had another meeting with all residents present so we could all get a clearer picture of whats happening instead of waiting to hear stuff second hand.
 
A good suggestion there from TheBlock regarding another meeting with A Cox. There is a pyrite expert appointed/involved in this court case also and although this 100k would be recovered from menolly, it still seems a lot to me. Just who is going to issue a cert to say your place would be pyrite free ? Has this come from Homebond ?Another poster has said that Homebond have set aside 200k per house to have the pyrite issue sorted. Our lawyer advised us to get prices from 3 builders and compare them, this way you are right at least it would be sorted once and for all and not hang around for court case decisions. My dread is that to try and get reimbursed for this work may take just as long.
 
We live in one of the other affected estates....
I really think that there is more than pyrite causing problems in our place. We have tested positive, so know we are affected. We had 2 cracks appear in the hall early on, but lately, the cracks are appearing/extending daily. This is affecting both internal support walls and external walls (which also happen to be bowing - which I don't see as being pyrite related). There is mould and fungus on every solid wall, which is also not a pyrite problem. It has reached the stage where I don't feel safe living here much longer with my family, and we would have to move out anyway just to have things temporarily patched up, but the bowing walls are a safety concern. So, we face a prospect of having to rent elsewhere and pay mortgage on an empty place (esp in view of having taken significant pay cuts recently with more to come), which I don't believe will ever be repairable unless it has a demolition order and is rebuilt, which is unlikely for a block of apartments. Sooooooo depressing and feels like a noose around my neck. Worry about the situation, as well as the mould, fungus, etc. has caused endless health problems and I regret ever having decided to become a property owner of a pile of rubble that is worth nothing, but that I am chained to for the next 28 yrs. This was meant to be my home, but has been my worst nightmare and is holding us back in moving forward with our lives, as we have outgrown our 2 bedrooms and will not be able to add to our family or live in a home to call our own. I can see why people have committed suicide over these issues in other countries.
 
hang on in there disappointed, its certainly depressing. If not already done so I would contact Homebond again urgently in writing if more cracks are appearing. We will all have to move out to have the remedial works sorted but AFAIK anyone shouldnot be paying any rent, bad enough paying a mortgage (should we still pay mortgages/rent while out of our places)

Its heartbreaking to decorate etc when we know that we have to move out while our place gets sorted. No chance of seeing this on any house programme...
 
The jury is still out on the real cause of the problems in Drynam. I have read the report from the Trinity expert on sample material taken from under a floor in Drynam and there is a great deal of theory and discussion about pyrites in the material, the result is far from conclusive. Pyrites have the POTENTIAL to convert to gypsum in the presence of moisture and air and this converted material is ten times greater volume than before. This can cause upward pressure on the floor slab causing, in turn, cracks and movement. However, in the sample examined there was no mention of the presence of gipsum. This in a house with serious cracks!! It has also been found in the commercial court that some of the affected houses did not use material supplied by the suspect quarry.
 
Hi there....My house also has the ‘terrible’ Pyrite. I am with A Cox and they advised me to settle as we had bought the house second hand - they figured there was a chance we could lose because of not having a direct contract with the builder! Anyway I don’t care about that I want to settle….but I signed my settlement with A Cox back in February and I still don’t have my agreement signed by Menolly. I just feel like I hit a brick wall. I just want the agreement signed and my house fixed and to get on with my life.
TheBlock - I think organising another meeting is a great idea!
Is anyone else in the same position – waiting on agreements to be signed??????
 
Hi Free-me, we also have bought our home second hand but have been adviced from our solicitors lavelle coleman to go ahead with proceedings. They said we would not have breach of contract but would have the case of negligence which is still a good case to prove.
 
Thanks for the article. It really is been pushed out and it appears that Lagan are putting the blame back on Menolly homes which doesnt look good for compensation for the home owners or precendent for our case. Unless I am picking it up wrong? Hopefully the homeowners win this case, they are the ones I feel sorry for, the builders have had their hay day and now its recession time do not want to own up to their mistake. You cant buy a house that is faulty and expect it not to be fixed?? No court could rule that out.
 
I spoke to Arthur Cox today. This last event is a cock-up on the part of Menolly lawyers. A Cox reckon the judge on resumption of court in October in will fine and reprimand Menolly and the case will continue as expected, and A Cox versus Menolly case will then be back on track. So far the case is going okay for Menolly.
 
Thanks Volex, do keep us posted if you hear anything more. I guess we will have to wait util October for any progress now.
 
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