Management Co witholding insurance payment

We had some accidental damage caused by our tenants approx 3 months ago. The managament Agent were made aware of the issue, and they arranged for the insurance assesscor to be sent to the property. Our claim was approved by the assessor, and the insurance company issued the cheque (on April 29th) to the management agent(as they are the insured party). We have been chasing the management agent who have basically fobbed us off for nearly a month now, between not taking calls, not responding to emails, and claiming they have no authorised signatory available to sign a cheque.

I woul appreciate it if anyone could offer any advice, as the property remains unoccupied until the (quite substantial) work is carried out (we cant afford to carry out this work without the insurance money).

Could anyone provide any idea on what steps (if any) we can take? We're considering going to a solicitor but not sure what they can do.

First, to ask the hard question: do you owe any management fees?
If so, they may be using the insurance cheque to cover them, and they'd be within their rights (if not morally) to do so.

If not, then I suggest circumventing the agent and going directly to the directors. If you don't have their names, you can find out by looking up the management company (as opposed to the agent) on www.cro.ie The directors may not be aware that the agent is withholding a cheque. Also, I would email the agent and state that you are contacting the directors yourself because they are no longer being helpful.

Try them first before contacting a solicitor.

The managing agent looks after the day-to-day running of the apartment complex.

The management company, which employs the managing agent, grants the lease to each apartment owner and "owns" the buildings and land, and holds the insurance for the common-areas.

Each apartment owner is a member of the management company; each paid-up apartment owner can attend management company AGMs, EGMs, vote at them, review budgets, be eligible for nomination / election as a director, etc.

Its not clear from your initial post who you are in discussions with, but there is no point considering suing the management company as effectively you are suing yourself.

Why would the management company receive the cheque unless the damage was done to common areas? Or has the management company provided contents insurance to each apartment as part of the fees?

part of the management fee covers block insurance, which covered the damage to the floors in our apartment (along with other things). We then have private contents insurance which covered some of the contents which were damaged (this claim was approved and paid within a week!!)

The directors of the management company are a collection of other apartment owners like yourself. They give freely of their time so their day job is probably their top priority and they fit in their director duties when they can. This may require a couple of them to get together to sign the cheque which they may do at a monthly meeting so it may just be a matter of timing between when they got the cheque from the insurance company and when they next meet.

I am not sure from your post whether the claim relates to structural damage to the floor or whether it is the floor covering such as timber or carpet. In many cases assessors would appear to approve claims for items that should not be covered. This may be a grey area as to what is covered. Many management company directors are becoming aware that insurance premiums are based on claims history and unless they vet the claims, the premium will rise. I am not saying that this has any relevance to your case but it is just an idea of some of the complications.

There is also likely to be an excess and the way in which excess is dealt with is equally chaotic. In some cases in comes out of management company funds and in other cases the individual takes the hit. The directors may need to resolve this to know how much to pay you.

ontour said:

The directors of the management company are a collection of other apartment owners like yourself. They give freely of their time so their day job is probably their top priority and they fit in a their director duties when they can.

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I'm confused by the above. Surely the people you are referring to are directors of the residents committee? The amounts have been approved and agreed, including excess etc. The insurance company paid the claim to the management co last month, they have simply refused to issue the funds to us

heather said:

I'm confused by the above. Surely the people you are referring to are directors of the residents committee?

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No, they are the directors of the Management Company, the legal entity comprising all owners in the development. Check out the stickies on this forum for more information.

heather said:

We have an agreement in place with regards to payment of management fees, they are to be paid bi-annually, so I suppose you could say we are technically in arrears (but the next payment is scheduled).

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In my experience, this wouldn't be counted as debt. You have a payment plan in place.

For your own sake, please learn the difference between management company and managing agent. I presume it is the agent company which is holding the insurance, not the management company?

Ok, having read the sticky, I now understand that the above post might cause confusion. The issue we have is with the Management Agent!! Sorry!