Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act, 1964 SECTION 3

Rob McNamara

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18

Anyone have any experience upon receiving a section 3 notice regards a structure, any advice, how to deal with co. council on it,

Bolt from the blue letter comes in via registered post, not even a courtesy by the council to reach out before sending letter

thanks in advance
 
Bolt from the blue letter comes in via registered post, not even a courtesy by the council to reach out before sending letter
Outrageous! Perhaps they should have sent you a letter advising you they were planning on sending you a letter!

Seriously though, when dealing with matters like these the local authorities need to preserve a paper trail of communications due to the number of people who pretend never to receive notices and allow a dangerous or unlawful situations to persist. On top of that it would be a waste of taxpayers' money to have staff trying to contact people on the phone to explain a situation that they are obliged to send written notice on.

I assume they have advised you of something they consider a danger requiring immediate work. You might be best served engaging a structural engineer to review the notice and the property and based on their findings either argue to case put forward by the LA or devise a plan to address the issue identified.
 
Thanks, Maybe not so outrageous, I think a courtesy visit to an operating business to voice some concerns and explain what will be happening is not too much to ask of a city council who should be trying to support local business, then by all means start the paper trail, he took the time to visit the site !, we know about the structural engineer but the costs are significant , things are tight
 
The LAs don't have the staff to do that, if you happen to be there when they visit I'm sure they'd talk, but they'd need much more headcount to be able to schedule visits and follow ups.
 
Bolt from the blue letter comes in via registered post

Did they survey the building?
Did you not know that there was a potential problem?

What is the nature of the problem?

If it is a serious problem, the focus should be on fixing it, rather than on the process of notification.

Brendan
 
nope visual inspection from the street, yes there are potential issues, and we've no money to get a survey prices from 1k to 2.5k for survey alone + VAT , we're feeling money may be better spent on solicitor rather than a surveyor for now
 
nope visual inspection from the street, yes there are potential issues, and we've no money to get a survey prices from 1k to 2.5k for survey alone + VAT , we're feeling money may be better spent on solicitor rather than a surveyor for now
Is the building dangerous, it is or part of it likely to fall down? . Council's tend to take this very seriously for reasons like that. Ultimately if you are doing nothing with it and it is just sitting there as a dangerous eyesore, then certainly where I live, there are CPO's appearing all over the place
 
Is the solicitor really the best approach when they're going to tell you to engage an engineer anyway? No solicitor is going to go against the opinion of a council engineer and state it is safe.

Also bear in mind that if someone is injured or other property is damaged you will be held personally liable. Even if it's a storm that results in the injury or damage, the fact that you have been notified of a potentially dangerous structure means you have liability.