The Mega **Management Company** thread

FICOCO

Bellevue Islandbridge D 8
Agent: RF property mgt.
2 bed, complex has lifts, underground car park, electronic gates, water feature. €1666 all in. includes €109 approx for above ground car space maintanence..which hasn't ever taken place. window cleaning €22000 per annum, only washed if your window is accessible, so a lot of apartments are not getting the value of that at all. RF not too bad...can't compare them with others.

IMO service charge is quite high but understandable considering the size of grounds and the features that need maintence in common areas. It's hard to compare the different complexs.

PDD

Hi Folks,

I was wondering if someone could clarify an issue for me regarding the management company's responsabilities for maintaining the exterior of my apartment block. I know that it is their responsabilitiy but does this also include windows?

My apartment has wooden frame windows and even though the apartment is less than two years old they are already showing signs of decay with what is either mould or rot setting in at certain places. Are the windows for the apartment my responsability to maintain or are they covered by the remit of the management company to maintain the exterior walls for the apartment?

Regards,

Dave

connundrum

I would have thought that you could go back to the builder/developer with that. They obviously didn't treat the wood at the installation stage, or may have used the wrong materials.

Contact your managing agent regarding your concerns, they may be able to point you in the right direction. Failing that, Homebond may be able to give you an idea as to how long of a guarantee/warrantee your should have on window frames.

Paulw

As said, the builder/developer should be your first call. If they don't help, then contact HomeBond.

But, for long term maintenance, then I believe that it is the management company that would be responsible.

Contact your management agent for further information on how to have your issue dealt with.

who007

According top Eddy Hobbs in his You and Your Money mag if you get a breakdown of what you are paying for from the company you can submit some of it to the taxman for a rebate... apparently an average of about €70 a year - but better in your pocket etc...

markpb

who007 wrote: »

According top Eddy Hobbs in his You and Your Money mag if you get a breakdown of what you are paying for from the company you can submit some of it to the taxman for a rebate... apparently an average of about €70 a year - but better in your pocket etc...

Your share of the the waste disposal charge can be offset against your tax. I don't of any other parts at the moment.

Mailman

please provide more info. on tax back.

connundrum

Mailman wrote: »

please provide more info. on tax back.

From revenue.ie

Tax Relief on Service Charges
Income tax relief is available for individuals who pay local authority and other service charges. Relief is given for service charges paid in full and on time in the previous calendar year. For more information see Leaflet IT 27 - Tax Relief for Service Charges (PDF, 50KB).

http://www.revenue.ie/leaflets/it27.pdf - fill out this form and send it in.

The_Conductor

Its given in the form of a tax credit and is worth a maximum of EUR80. It relates solely to waste disposal and to avail of the full credit you need documentary evidence that you paid at very least EUR400 on waste in the previous year (the EUR80 tax credit being the EUR400 actually paid, with an allowance at the lower rate (400*20%).

S.

Glacier

Can even one single person recommend one? I've never heard a good story about these

hawkmoon269

Wyse are the property managers of the apartment complex I live in, and I generally have a reasonably favourable impression of them. I wouldn't say they're brilliant as such, but they're ok.

athtrasna

Let me see, in the development I live in - ours is great at taking the money we pay them for not doing very much. In fairness they are fairly good at collecting the management fees, pity they're not so good at the rest of their job!!

We looked around extensively last year with a view to replacing them and could not find a single recommendation that didn't have 20 people telling us to avoid them!

antoinolachtnai

I have seen a firm called corcoran jennison do their stuff and I am reasonably impressed.

It's a US group which manages a lot of housing in the US and have two places under management in Dublin. They at least have a plan and are prepared to deal with fairly difficult circumstances. They do things methodically. They take getting the basic stuff, like locks and putting out rubbish, seriously. They put a manager on-site and employ their own cleaners, rather than contracting in.

I am not saying they are perfect, there will always be issues. But there seem to be a lot fewer issues than there used to be.

They are certainly better than the crowd that were there before. The old crowd weren't just bad. They behaved like children.

On the down side, they haven't succeeded in bringing down the yearly charge. Things were a big mess so that is probably a bit too much to expect. Maybe next year.

astrofool

Used to be in an apartment complex run by Farrelly property manangement, in the time there, they repainted the whole place, maintained the fountain out the front so it always worked, fixed the electric car park door within a day, handled the bins, even getting in extra people to handle this when the full time caretaker was suddenly away for personal reasons.

There was one incident where people tried to break into the car park, and everyone was notified and the security breach was closed within a day.

When we had an alarm going off, they contacted the apartment ower given the number, and had it sorted over new year.

Couldn't have faulted them at all really/

AARRRGH

Glacier wrote: »

Can even one single person recommend one? I've never heard a good story about these

I take it you've decided to move to the states/whereever like you were considering a year or two ago?

Fair play.

What's the plan?

antoinolachtnai

are you talking about a company to manage individual apartments? Or a company to manage a block?

For the latter, I'd say good luck. At the end of the day it isn't all that cost-effective to manage single units for people.

Glacier

I want someone to manage a house

PDD

Hey Guys,

Cheers for the info, unfortunately my managment agent couldnt organise a piss-up in a brewery and as the developer has not vested the maintenance of the estate and apartment block to the management company they've told me there is pretty much bugger all they can do. Ive to go back to the builder and see what the warranty is on the windows themselves.

The racket of management companies and agents is nothing short of a disgrace in this country. Yet another back hand from politicans to builders that leaves everyone else up **** creek, I really hope this becomes a major political football because it is about the only way any pressure can be brought to bear for reform.

Dave

Paulw

There are generally ways to remove the developer from being directors of the management company, but it can take a lot of work, and legal wrangling.

First step is always to form a resident's association.
Then check all the legal documents - Lease Contract, Company documents, etc.

Our developer didn't want to hand over control to us, but we did enough work, and ended up holding an EGM and removing them and replacing them as directors. They still have not finished all work, and have not handed over the common areas yet, but we run the management company. It's now more of a headache for them than it ever was before.

Chasing the builder certainly sounds like your best avenue right now, but you should also contact HomeBond too, for their assistance.

Little Miss!

Morning all,

Hope i'm posting this little rant in the right place!

So here goes.... after weeks of trying to get a breakdown of my management fees i have at last got it this morning and what a humorous read it is!! I just had to post to get some opinions on this.

So firstly we have the landscaping which apparently costs €18,000 per year, must be the best paid gardener ever, the grass around the apartment buildings has been cut no more than 3 times this year. And as the weather is getting worse now i doubt it'll be cut for the rest of the year! Should this really cost €18,000?? Keeping in mind it's often left to grow out of control and is mostly above knee height!

Received a copy of 2006 accounts which states, landscaping cost €2,610 in 2006 and €7,500 in 2005.

My question now is, if the company have estimated the cost for this year at €18,000 and we have been charged on the basis of this, where does the rest of the money go?? Why estimate so high when 2 previous years landscaping has never cost this much??

And of course the managing agent fee of €22,500, isn't he well paid for only 1 development!!

Sorry if i'm ranting but these con-artists charge crazy yearly rates and carry out none of the work they should do it makes me so crazy!! The lights internally are mostly out in my block which by the way we're paying over €2,000 per year for the upkeep!

Which leads me to ths question..... how many managing agents does it take to change a light-bulb??!!! I'm still trying to come up with an answer but obviously more than the useless piece of work that's supposed to manage our place....

Has anyone ever had any success dealing with this pointless, useless people? Any input here is welcome. Thanks for reading my little rant

Paulw

While I can understand your frustration, there are some things I can comment on.

The actual management agent fee isn't unusually high at all. It is actually similar to ours (and we changed management agent last year, and I have quotes from 3 agents).

Your landscaping fees sound very high from previous years, especially if it is cut so little. But, there is a lot more to landscaping than simply cutting grass. Weeding, bedding, new plants and more. I can't say if 18k is high or not without knowing how big of a development or bedded area you have.

Many developments start off with a good amount for landscaping - make the place look nice for buyers. The 2nd year then can have a dramatic drop, since new plants are not bought and there's few residents with management fees to fund landscaping. Year 3 can then kick up again, and can cost a good bit to get the place back in to good order.

You can, of course, write directly to the directors of your management company (registered letter works well), and ask them to itemise and explain why the costs for landscaping are so high.

In my development, I'm a director of our management company. We forced out the developer as directors, we replaced the management agent, and we (the residents) are directly in control of the management company.

I hope this helps.

silja

Our apartment block as a whole is managed by Trinity Property Management in Sandyford, they do a good job. Not sure they take on single flats/ houses though. We are about to move and will be renting out our flat via Red Properties. No personal experience yet but they came recommended by friends and other owners of flats in my complex, and their service so far giving us tips, coming to view the property and make sugestions for improvement, their contract etc) has been very good.

January

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I have seen a firm called corcoran jennison do their stuff and I am reasonably impressed.

It's a US group which manages a lot of housing in the US and have two places under management in Dublin. They at least have a plan and are prepared to deal with fairly difficult circumstances. They do things methodically. They take getting the basic stuff, like locks and putting out rubbish, seriously. They put a manager on-site and employ their own cleaners, rather than contracting in.

I am not saying they are perfect, there will always be issues. But there seem to be a lot fewer issues than there used to be.

They are certainly better than the crowd that were there before. The old crowd weren't just bad. They behaved like children.

On the down side, they haven't succeeded in bringing down the yearly charge. Things were a big mess so that is probably a bit too much to expect. Maybe next year.

These guys manage the apartment block I live in. I've lived in two properties in this developement, one on the side of the road with the hotel and the other over the far side of the road.

Never heard much of them when we lived in the one beside the hotel. Always had trouble with the electric gates, stuff like that.

But when we moved over to this side, my god, did we see a difference. Security presence at night, if the lift is broken it's fixed within the day, they're cleaning the windows next week which was never done in the other place...

All in all, very good management company. I think the guys who maintain it are Pierse Property though...

Glacier

What about Wyse or Young's?

koenigcylinders

Hi guys
Can anyone tell me if there is an authority or other source from which it is possible to attain contact phone numbers for Property management companies in Dublin? I am trying to contact my prospective management company and nobody seems to have a number for them!
Thanks
Dave

mikemac

http://www.goldenpages.ie/search/property_management.html

koenigcylinders

Thanks! Should have mentioned I have already tried Golden pages, eircom phonebook, my solicitor and estate agent - it is so strange - I hope it's not a bad sign!

mikemac

Hmmmmmm, maybe they've shut down and taken all your money :eek:

connundrum

Who are they? Maybe someone uses them and can give details?

LarWright

Hi All, I've posted this in consumer forum too, but to no avail, so perhaps this forum may be more suited for my problem.... @ MODS, feel free to move this if I'm in the wrong place!!!

Here goes.....

Not sure if this is a consumer issue or management company related but if I'm in the wrong forum, maybe a mod can move it for me!

As a consumer of electricity, and a customer of the ESB, am I entitled to have access to my ESB meter to read it myself?

Reason I ask is, the last year, I have been receiving estimated bills, and recently got a letter from the ESB asking me to dial in my own reading as they have been unable to get a reading. Problem here is, my ESB meter (along with 8 others in the apartment block) is in a locked cupboard. Not locked by a square "generic" key, but a proper lock like you'd have on your front door.

The ESB can't get access to it as they don't have a key, and it's also inside the apartment block so they'd need to get into that too.

I can't access it as I don't have a key. So I called the management company, who sent someone out to "read my meter" for me. I requested a key, but to no avail (so far). I called the ESB with the reading and the guy on the phone told me it seemed very high and to double check. Of course I couldn't do this as I don't have access, and couldn't confirm to him that I used that amount of units as I hadn't seen the meter with my own eyes.

Bottom line is, I don't wanna have to call the management company every 3 months an estimated bill comes in!

Am I entitled to access this cupboard???? Any help greatly appreciated!

BTW, I was supplied with a key to the Bord Gais meter but not ESB!!