Refund of fire safety remediation payment?

S

Sarah Ryan

Registered User
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Query of fire remediation payments cropped up on a residents page I am on:

Apartment bought in 2007
Fire remediation work discussed in 2015
Levy applied to each apartment in 2017 and was paid - money sat in account for said works until they could be completed
Apartment sold in 2021 - works not yet started at that time
Remediation works starting now

Should the person selling the apartment have been entitled to a refund?

It was only a small amount, they were happy to get out but a friend is in a similar situation except they paid €10,000 and not €500 so wondering if anybody can shed some light on this?
 
T McGibney said:
Why should they be so entitled? The issue was there and needed addressing.
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Well I don't know that's why I am asking the question...

I do not have experience in this area so I am putting the question out in the hope that somebody else might.

People were asking if the responsibility of the fire safety remediation stood with the new owners or did the responsibility stick with the owners of the property at the time the decision was made to remediate.

The point is the issue was NOT addressed at the time of selling the properties which has led to the question.
 
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Sarah Ryan said:
The point is the issue was NOT addressed at the time of selling the properties which has led to the question.
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Why is this relevant? There existed a liability at the date of sale, which the vendor had covered by their earlier payment of the levy. So the existence of the liability presented no issue to the purchaser when they bought it.

Had the earlier payment been refunded to the vendor, the additional liability now falling on the purchaser would have had to be reflected in the sale price.
 
You don't get a refund of monies paid in to the management company when selling an apartment, just like a prospective purchaser wouldn't be expected to fork out a similar amount to ensure they were up to date with payments. If that were the case the price you'd achieve would of course be reduced accordingly.

Perhaps members of the management company, including yourself should have been more proactive in ensuring the remediation works were undertaken.
 
For starters I don't live there anymore, I rented so I had no say in the matter.

This conversation came up, questions were asked, I was intrigued and I came to try and find answers to satisfy my curiosity, kinda sorry I asked now.

But thank you for your take on it, and the semi lecture.
 
Sarah Ryan said:
But thank you for your take on it, and the semi lecture.
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Any interpretation of a lecture is your own. None was intended, I was simply trying to answer the question. I made the mistaken assumption that you were the owner impacted as that would be the norm for such questions here.
 
Leo said:
Any interpretation of a lecture is your own. None was intended, I was simply trying to answer the question. I made the mistaken assumption that you were the owner impacted as that would be the norm for such questions here.
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Yeah I get it would be a question to come from an owner all right, I was just curious would it be that the new owner that should take on liability.
 
Re the delay for the works, apartments are part of high street development, mixed insurance policy for units / car park and apts - builders in receivership, lots of companies involved, my old block was the test case for the remedial works, that's all I know it was very messy and took a long time to resolve.
 
Yeah, these are often complex situations alright, a friend of mine owned one in a development with similar issues. They managed to sell to a REIT who were happy to take on the risk for a price of course.
 
I'm in a similar situation as the OP. I queried refund of fees as part of government remediation scheme with my OMC, and they stated that their understanding is that the government will refund the OMC who in turn will refund the people who paid.

I personally am not holding off selling my apt though keeping a close eye on the (very slow) development of remediation scheme. The defects work are finally completed and seeing some movement on sale of the apt units in my block. My understanding is that the individuals who paid the levies in full should be refunded, even if they sell in the interim before any refunds are made.
 
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