Property Management Company Blues

Skybarbie

I own an apartment in a development with 7 blocks of apartments. Despite always paying My fees of €1170 per annum our mgt co have ran up serious debt as a result of never pursuing non payers. Structural faults i.e leakage, have been discovered in each block which the mgt co are not doing anything about it. The building company/directors want nothing more to do with the development and have never attended AGMs though I've been told they're legally obliged to do so. They are uncontactable. After 8 years the communal walls need to be painted and our carpets once red are now black from dirt.
I need advice and info on how to hire a new mgt company for our block alone as we can't rely on other blocks to pay fees.
Also how we go about firing our current managment
All advice greatly welcomed as we need to act urgently.

handlemaster

Skybarbie wrote: »

I own an apartment in a development with 7 blocks of apartments. Despite always paying My fees of €1170 per annum our mgt co have ran up serious debt as a result of never pursuing non payers. Structural faults i.e leakage, have been discovered in each block which the mgt co are not doing anything about it. The building company/directors want nothing more to do with the development and have never attended AGMs though I've been told they're legally obliged to do so. They are uncontactable. After 8 years the communal walls need to be painted and our carpets once red are now black from dirt.
I need advice and info on how to hire a new mgt company for our block alone as we can't rely on other blocks to pay fees.
Also how we go about firing our current managment
All advice greatly welcomed as we need to act urgently.

Interested to see how this thread goes. I note some mangement companies have issued parking permits in order to collect over due management fees. No management fees paid then no permit. No permit cat gets clamped .

athtrasna

Unfortunately you're stuck. You can't set up a management company for one block, not without agreement from all members of the company in all blocks, and huge legal bills.

It sounds like the best thing to do would be to force an EGM, there should be information in your articles of association on how to do that and how many members you need to get together to force one. The old directors need to be replaced with owners stepping up.

Then it depends on your contract with your management agent as to how much notice you give them to terminate their contract and hire a new agent. HOWEVER my advice would be to hold on to them for a few months but for the new directors to put pressure on them to move on debt collection.

A really useful resource for shared experiences is the Apartment Owners Network, they meet in the Civic Offices in Dublin on the second Thursday of the month. Their website is apartmentowners.ie

Skybarbie

But Will new directors have some legal responsibility for the debt accrued by the mgt co?
Nobody wants that burden

athtrasna

You won't leave the debt behind, the debt is management company debt, they will have to work to get fees paid to clear the debt and provide services. The company owes the debt, ie all owners. Having directors who are interested in clearing it is a huge step in the right direction.

Santa Cruz

athtrasna wrote: »

You won't leave the debt behind, the debt is management company debt, they will have to work to get fees paid to clear the debt and provide services. The company owes the debt, ie all owners. Having directors who are interested in clearing it is a huge step in the right direction.

This is the correct position. What needs to be done first is to call and EGM and get a proper management structure in place with a group of owner directors who want to protect their investment.
The Directors will have to put in a good effort to get everything back on track.
Because of the size of the complex the management company will have to employ a management agent, ideally one of the better Property Management Agents who should be tasked with improving standards of maintenance and to take a hard line stance in the pursuit of non payers of management fees.
If you have a good management agent who organises budgeting, ensures cleaning landscaping etc. to a high standard and pursues non payers there is no reason why the facilities cannot be improved in the interest of all.

Skybarbie

Santa Cruz wrote: »

This is the correct position. What needs to be done first is to call and EGM and get a proper management structure in place with a group of owner directors who want to protect their investment.
The Directors will have to put in a good effort to get everything back on track.
Because of the size of the complex the management company will have to employ a management agent, ideally one of the better Property Management Agents who should be tasked with improving standards of maintenance and to take a hard line stance in the pursuit of non payers of management fees.
If you have a good management agent who organises budgeting, ensures cleaning landscaping etc. to a high standard and pursues non payers there is no reason why the facilities cannot be improved in the interest of all.

This is the issue, no one is happy with the agent. We are only now in the process of organising a committee and have not become directors yet. Obviously when we get more control we will be able to do something about it, but where do we find a good agent? Any recommendations? We have wasted enough time and money over the years on our current one, we need to urgently start seeing results.