Receivers expected to meet would-be buyers of unfinished Meath houses next week

People who put down deposits three years ago on as yet unfinished houses on an estate in Co Meath are expected to next week meet receivers who have been appointed to the company behind the development.

The receivers, Ken Fennell and Kieran Wallace of Interpath Advisory, were appointed earlier this week by a company called Spudmuckers Ltd, to Meathamatic Ltd, the company behind the housing development. Both companies are owned by businessman Joe Elias.

Sources said it is hoped the people who put down deposits on the houses some years ago will get their deposits back and that the housing development will be completed. However, the would-be buyers may find they are being offered the houses at market rates rather than the lower prices cited when they contracted to buy the houses some years ago.

Meathamatic was incorporated in June 2019 and in 2021 took out loans from State-backed Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI), secured against land at Ringfort, Rathmolyon, Co Meath, the site of the development of 16 three and four-bedroom houses.

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Contracts for the sale of most of the houses were signed three years ago, but in September the developer approached the would be-owners asking for an extra €60,000 each to finance the project’s completion. The would-be buyers did not agree to the proposal.

The company said it had run out of money because of increased construction costs and rising interest rates, and could not complete the project at the prices cited in the sales contracts.

In June of this year Meathamatic secured a loan from Spudmuckers, of Ferns, Co Wexford, with documents in the Companies Registration Office saying the loan was to pay off HBFI and to complete the Rathmolyon development.

It is understood the loans from HBFI have been paid off and the company’s main creditor now is Spudmuckers. It is expected the receivers may now seek to complete the development and sell the houses at a market rate, which is likely to be significantly in excess of what the would-be buyers originally contracted.

Aontú councillor in Navan, Emer Toibín, who has been in contact with the would-be buyers, said they want the houses to be sold to them at the price stated in the contracts. She has suggested that the State step in to help.

The would be buyers, she said, wanted to get their houses at the price cited on the contracts they entered into, as otherwise they fear they will never get a house given how prices have increased in the meantime. “Some could become homeless.”

Efforts to contact Mr Elias were unsuccessful. He is founder of a company called Retail InMotion, a company involved in in-flight retail outsourcing services and in-flight retail technology, which was eventually sold to a subsidiary of German airline Lufthansa. He has been involved in a number of start-up investments since then and lives in Killiney, Co Dublin.