Madam, - Your recent coverage of litigation involving non-payment of estate management fees is to be commended (Home News, March 4th). Local authorities' insistence that new estates be run by private estate management companies is an unfortunate example of how neo-liberal policies impair peoples' lives. With the growth of the Dublin commuter belt this feature of contemporary housing policy will come under increasing and overdue scrutiny.
My own experience of estate management companies convinces me that they are deliberately designed to frustrate and disempower residents of new developments. Fees are demanded and arrears are ruthlessly pursued. But the quid pro quo - the services, upkeep and management of estates - are often not delivered to the satisfaction of residents, with estates being allowed to deteriorate rapidly. While residents of new estates are automatically members of management companies, which should provide them with some forum through which to influence services, the companies themselves are often structured in such a way that residents, as a collective, will always be minority shareholders. Thus they cannot influence decision-making nor have an input into the setting of fees and the effective running of the company.
My bitter experience of attempting to get information to which I was entitled under the provisions of Irish company law leads me to believe that many of these companies may be run with a blithe disregard for company law and the rights and entitlements of members.
The Director of Corporate Enforcement has perhaps enough on his plate already, but if the organs of the State are to vindicate the rights of citizens and ensure fair play and a fair fees regime, closer supervision of estate management companies is an imperative. Failing that, local authorities must resume the management of all estates, public and private, funded perhaps from general taxation or by a windfall tax of property developers. - Yours, etc,
CIARÁN McKENNA, Dublin Road, Drogheda, Co Louth.