National Consumer Agency Report on Management Companies Welcome

4th October 2006, Press Release

Deputy Catherine Murphy has welcomed the publication of the Report and Information Booklet by the National Consumer Agency on the issue of Management Companies. It is very clear the Information Booklet is a work in progress and flags some issues consumers should be aware of, it is clear however the solutions lie in both legislation and regulation. The Booklet covers both Apartment blocks and traditional Housing Estate’s I welcome the fact that the Minister for the Environment has issued a circular to Local Authorities to the effect that conditions should not be imposed on planning permission for Management Companies however it is clear that Developers are still insisting on a management company as part of the condition of sale, this obviously needs to be stopped.

Many of the recommendations in the actual Report are good for example recommendation 14 which states " a strong case exists for restricting the voting rights to one vote per household, irrespective of tenure…" Currently a developer can issue more shares (votes) than the number of dwellings which means they hold a controlling interest. The Report is comprehensive but not exhaustive indeed it does recommend further consultation with affected parties.

It is exactly 12 months since I was the first person to raise this matter in the Dáil specifically in relation to Management Companies in traditional housing estates, I have been concerned since with the lack of urgency in relation to producing legislation, there is still no indication of whey we might see this published.

I would however strongly recommend that consumers don’t restrict themselves to reading the information booklet but also read the report the National Consumers Association has produced.

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Posted by catherinemurphy on October 4, 2006. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.