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Talks on fixing defects at Belmayne stall as sides disagree over number of houses involved

Development in north Dublin, launched with fanfare in 2006, has been plagued with construction issues including pyrite

Kitara, which is controlled by members of the Stanley family, was involved in the construction of Belmayne on Malahide Road, launched in 2006. Photograph: Aidan Crawley
Barry J Whyte
Tue Sept 03 2024 - 06:00

Negotiations over remediation works at a number of houses in the Belmayne housing development in north Dublin have stalled over just how many houses should be involved.

Representatives of a company called Kitara Limited have been involved in talks with owners of homes in Belmayne over the extent of defects at the houses and possible remedies.

Kitara, which is controlled by members of the Stanley family, was involved in the construction of Belmayne, which was launched in 2006 with a high-profile advertising campaign boasting of “gorgeous living”.

The company is a subsidiary of Stanley Holdings, which at the time was led by Michael Stanley, a well-known figure in the construction industry, who is now the chief executive of Cairn Homes. Mr Stanley is no longer a director of the company and no longer holds shares in it.

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The launch in 2006 was attended by celebrity couple Liverpool football player Jamie Redknapp and his wife, pop star Louise Redknapp.

Construction at Belmayne started in the year of its launch, with the intention of building 2,000 units of houses, apartments and duplexes. However, as a consequence of the property crash, only 950 units were actually built. In recent years, other developers have built new developments on land around the original site.

Over the years, a large number of the houses and apartments have been plagued with significant construction defects, including pyrite, fire safety concerns and issues with the balconies of some apartments. Remediation works have taken place over the years, but the current phase of talks involves five homeowners who are involved in years-long litigation against Kitara and several other defendants.

The talks have been taking place since the summer of 2022.

The aim of the talks is to establish the scale and cost of fixing any outstanding issues at the scheme, including fire safety issues. The Irish Times has seen minutes of the most recent meeting, in April, in which a variety of defects were discussed, including the lining of the walls.

The minutes show that the various parties discussed the ceiling cavities and that “it was agreed by all parties that intermediate floors should be 60 minutes fire rated”.

Where it was not possible to achieve this, the meeting’s minutes show, they could fix additional layers of plasterboard to achieve the same effect.

There was disagreement, however, in relation to the works required for properties adjacent to the houses owned by the five parties directly involved in the discussions.

According to the minutes, an architect acting on behalf of Kitara “noted that these properties were outside of the purview of the design team”, and that they would alert the development’s management company of any issues or defects discovered during remediation works.

A representative of the homeowners said that “he would not be recommending acceptance of the rendition to [his] client unless remediation was carried out to adjacent units”.

Representatives of Kitara “noted that it is their understanding that remediation was carried out to adjacent units to the satisfaction of [the] fire dept”, though this was not accepted by representatives for the homeowners.

[ Not so gorgeous living as Belmayne inspected for defects ]

The Irish Times has seen further correspondence in June from representatives of the Stanley family in which they describe “a lot of progress ... at the last meeting”, while noting that “the obvious sticking point was the adjacent units”.

The email says that the representative had been “in conversation with our legal representative, and [that he was] currently gathering information and working through your queries”.

Since then, The Irish Times understands there has been no substantive communication between the sides.

The Irish Times contacted several of the parties involved in the talks, sending direct emails to members of the Stanley family, as well as to their architect and their lawyers. No one replied prior to publication.