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Residents’ anger at Tyrrelstown comments

There was bitter reaction in Tyrrelstown to the comments of Fingal County Council and Smith’s Property Management Agency director Daragh O’Sullivan in a piece in Issue 112 of Community Voice. Charlie Cleary

In the article “Catch 22 for Tyrrelstown residents,” the council effectively washed their hands of the litter and pest control crisis in the area, while Mr. O’Sullivan claimed that there was no money to provide services as residents had withheld their service charges.

“The residents are being harassed, bullied, currently being summonsed to court and are sick of the whole thing,” said Charlie Cleary, who was at the forefront of the legal battles that the residents won over Smith’s two years ago. “Smiths, the management company and the council should bite the bullet and admit they are wrong in the way they have approached the whole affair and do what is right, fair and just and regulate the management company in the apartments and abolish it in the houses.”

Mr. Cleary cited numerous claims of mismanagement, including:

• The common areas that were deemed liable for management fees were increased without either a survey being done or an AGM being held.

• The estates cannot be called “private” as the council owns the footpaths and the green areas.

• The houses are freehold and do not benefit from the majority of the services that should be provided by the management company.

• The green areas which the council say should be maintained by the residents contain bus stops and other public amenities.

• The management company has been charging for public liability insurance, even though this has been paid by the developer since 2001.

• No documentation has been provided to the residents to show that the land in question was legally conveyed and signed over.

• In a letter to residents in November 2007, Smith’s announced that five new owner / directors had been elected onto the board of the management company, yet as of February 2008, the CRO said these names have never been registered. This means that, contrary to Smith’s assertion, the developers are still in charge of the company.

Smiths Property Management was also previously revealed by the Community Voice as charging the residents €17,000 for public lighting – even though it was already being provided by the council. When asked by this paper, at the time, about refunding the money they had taken from clients they said they would give it back the following year by way of a credit off their next year’s management fees.

Matters came to a head in 2006 when Dr. Cletus Okonkwo and 23 residents took a successful court action against the agency, closely followed by Linda Woods’ lone victory over Smith’s in the circuit court for non-payment of fees. Now it appears that Smith’s are back for more as Dr. Okonkwo and a number of residents have been summonsed to appear in court on the 28th April for non-payment of management company fees.

“Remember, we won our cases the last time, not Smith’s,” said Charlie Cleary. “I am confident we will win again this time too. The management company has wasted our money by paying unnecessary charges like public liability insurance and now it blames the residents for not having the money in the kitty to provide the services.

“We have been looking for documentation from the council for over a year and it has not been forthcoming. The residents are in bullish mood and are absolutely sick and fed up with the whole mismanagement of the area.”

When contacted by Community Voice, Fingal County Council was keen to clarify the legal situation regarding the public and private spaces in the estates. “The intention of the planning permissions granted for the Tyrrelstown development is that the public lighting, roads, footpaths, water mains and sewers, when completed satisfactorily, would be taken in charge by Fingal County Council,” said a spokesperson. “The developer has agreed in the property purchase agreements with residents that certain elements of the development such as dedicated parking areas and common areas attached to apartments should remain private and be maintained by a management company under the control of the residents responsible for that element of the development.

“No areas in Tyrrelstown have been taken in charge to date. Areas due to be taken in charge, once maps and deeds have been considered in detail, would include larger areas of open space including two playgrounds.

“Initial contact has recently been made, through Fingal County Council Community Department with the new residents association in Tyrrelstown to discuss the ongoing issues,” said the spokesperson.

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