Management company disappears from unfinished housing estate... Help!

Hi All,

I recently moved into an estate and have just become aware of some issues with the developer and Management Company. I will first fill you in some history.

The first phase of houses was completed five years ago and the third and last phase was completed three years ago.

A management company was set up to take care of the street lights, maintenance of common green areas and a water pump system that supplies water to the houses, upon signing the contract for the house residents would have signed a sheet stating that they were responsible for the upkeep of the lights, maintenance of common green areas and a water pump system until such time as the council took control (after seven years). This responsibility involved paying the management company.
The property developer in control of the estate never finished the site, none of the landscape gardening was done and a section that was supposed to contain a few football pitches remains waste ground with rocks etc jutting up from it. Basically the site was never finished and the property developer, despite numerous correspondences has made no approach to finish the site and has not returned any contact for about a year.

As the site was not finished the residents would not pay the management company fee as they saw it as breach of contract by the property developer, asking people to pay for the upkeep of the green areas, which were incomplete was a bit much!

The property developer paid the management company fee up until but not including last year (probably viewing it as the lesser of two evils, it was either that or finish the site), all the work done last year has not been paid for.

The property developer went into liquidation last year and his company no longer exists, (even though he is now operating under a new company name with his wife as managing director).

The council are in possession of a 0.5Million euro pound in connection with the site.


So in summary here is our dilemma:

• The housing estate was never finished, the property development company responsible for finishing it no longer exists anymore.
• Residents refused to pay the management company fee as they saw this as leverage to force the developer to finish the site.
• Our management company now does not exist anymore, the grass has not been cut this year and the street lights are about to be cut off.

What can we do?
• We have just set up a resident committee and are initially dealing with the lesser problem of cutting the grass; the hope is everyone will chip in to get the grass cut for the year.

• Now that we have an organised a resident committee what is the best approach to get the site finished?

 Hounding the developer even though the company no longer exists. (this approach, even when the company was still in business failed)
 Try to gain access to the 0.5million bond and use it to fund finishing the site ourselves. (if so how can we go about this?)

Very messy situation and any comments/advice appreciated

It sounds like a real mess and you have my sympathy.
A good first step was setting up a residents committee as it is easier to deal with as a group than an individual.
Where in the country is your development and does it consist of individual houses or apartments? What the managemnet company is responsible for can differ enormously based on what type of units are in the development.

Some ideas for you -
1) are you sure that your management company no longer exists? The development company and the management company are usually completely separately set-up companies. Because the developer has gone into liquidation, it does not necessarily mean that the management company has disappeared. If you know the actual name of the management company then go to the cro website at cro.ie and download the memo and articles of association and accounts of your management company. This will help you to discover the exact state of play with regards to the management company - directors, members, money in the accounts etc.

2) get a copy of the original planning permission application and the grant of planning document from your local council. This will show you the specifications that the development was supposed to be built to. The developer paid the bond of €0.5m to the council to allow the council to finish the development if the developer did not. The enforcement officer in your local council normally chases non-compliant developers, give them a call and explain the situation and ask for advice on what you should do. Councils are supposed to have a policy document about the "Taking-in-Charge" policy in their area. Download this and it will give you some good information about asking the council to take your development in charge. Normally when this is done the council will come out and check the development to see what remains to be done. Since your developer no longer exists I would imagine that the council will have to use the bond to finish things. You won't get access to this money yourselves, the council will use it. I imagine there must be legal processes involved in this.

3) contact your local council election candidates - you will need the help of council members to get your development taken in charge. They are looking for votes at the moment so now is a good time for you to look for help.

4) be really pro-active with your residents association and hold a meeting for all residents explaining that for the foreseeable future you will be on your own in looking after the development (if the management company exists still, you should investigate how you can take control of it). You will need to raise funds from everyone to get the grass cut at the very least. Be prepared for the fact that a lot of people won't seem to care or be willing to volunteer money, but don't let that put you off.

Hope some of that will help you a bit.

I think the OP is confused about the whole Management Company/Management Agent thing. I'm fairly well up on Management Company issues and I can't make sense of the post.

I am in a similar situation whereby the developer has gone into liquidation but the Management company hasn't been handed over to the residents or the estate taken charge of by the council.

There is some indication now that the council will draw down the bond to complete some works on the estate. If this happens, does this mean the management company no longer exists?

Does the drawing down of the bond automatically mean that the estate has been taken charge of by the council?

Thanks