The Government has moved to curb the proliferation of housing estates managed by private companies.
The move came on the same day the Labour Party launched a campaign to highlight the plight of young homeowners crippled financially by management charges.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has instructed planning authorities to exercise great caution in applying planning conditions requiring the establishment of management companies to maintain residential estates.
"I have been concerned as to whether management companies were being required for traditional-type housing estates," Mr Roche said. "This circular tells planning authorities that under no circumstances should they require the establishment of a management company for a 'traditional' housing estate other than in very limited specific circumstances, eg for the maintenance of a private shared facility," he added.
The circular advises planning authorities to confine the use of planning conditions regarding management companies to circumstances where they judge that those are clearly required for the benefit of residents of an estate.
These include apartment blocks or multi-occupancy units; holiday home developments; if it is intended from the outset that the estate will not be taken in charge, ie a gated community; or if a specific service or facility is provided for residents' use only, such as a swimming pool.
Earlier at the publication of a Labour Party guide for consumers, party leader Pat Rabbitte said that services traditionally provided by local authorities were now being administered by management companies, often at exorbitant charges.
"Many first-time buyers do not appreciate that when purchasing their accommodation they are contractually wedded to a management company," he said.
"The management companies are invariably connected to the developer, they claim to provide a menu of services that often never materialise and often the purchase of the apartment or house includes the first year's management fee. The occupant therefore is not hit with a bill until year two," Mr Rabbitte said.
The party spokesman on the environment, Eamon Gilmore, described the charges as a mechanism adopted by Fianna Fáil to privatise the rates. He said that while management charges made sense for apartment developments, they were now being routinely applied to new housing estates.
"Not only are they a totally inappropriate means of managing housing developments, but often they don't work well and can cause misunderstandings and bad feeling among residents. These companies charge residents annual fees, amounting to thousands of euro in some instances, to provide services such as roads and water, which are normally the responsibility of the local authority," Mr Gilmore said.
The party spokeswoman on Finance, Joan Burton, said that in her constituency of Dublin West some 7,500 houses, duplexes and apartments built in recent years were subject to the new regime of management companies.
"These management companies and the managing agents are entirely unregulated and it's the luck of the draw whether you get a fair service or get totally ripped off," she said.
Ms Burton is distributing a leaflet in her constituency advising people of their rights.
Mr Roche said a working group would be established by his department to tease out the issues involved. He pointed out that a Law Commission working group was examining a range of legal issues in relation to the management of multi-unit structures.
