If every prospective apartment buyer was handed a guidebook detailing the intricacies of life in a new development, particularly a development that is incomplete, it is quite probable that, by now, the apartment-dweller would be an endangered species.
The survival and indeed growth of apartment life has been to some degree reliant on the fact that many people have absolutely no idea what they are getting themselves into.
If that sounds like a damning indictment of an entire lifestyle choice, it has to be pointed out that there are probably numerous examples of apartment developments that are ticking along nicely - mini-utopias with management company, management agent and residents all in harmonious and symbiotic union.
Sometimes it can take years of hard work and negotiation to get to this point.
Often the teething problems in the initial years can be a source of frustration to residents, who are, understandably, under the impression that if they pay their service charge, they should be living on a tightly run, well-managed ship.
They may have bought the apartment believing that the gardens would be landscaped just the way it said in the brochure and everything will be shiny, pristine and new, at least for a couple of years.
It can be a shock to the system when, instead, the developers decide that the pretty rockery they promised won't work after all. When the place is a virtual building site for several years while the remainder of the scheme is under construction. And when corridor walls are getting scratched and scraped with builders tramping up and down the stairs and people lugging furniture and fittings to their new apartments.
Tolka Vale in Glasnevin, Dublin 11, is a scheme of 100 apartments built in 1999. The joint developers, Cortip Developments and Harvey Contracting, have yet to hand the scheme over to the owners, as there are some outstanding jobs to be done and some of the penthouse apartments have not yet been sold.
A resident e-mailed Apartment Living with concerns about the management fee, claiming it had almost doubled, while complaining that "certain responsibilities of the management company have not been kept to a high standard".
Going public with such concerns isn't easy. There's always the worry that the development will get a bad reputation and values will plummet. Tolka Vale is no different to many new schemes in the city that are finding their feet, but serves as an interesting case study of the complexities of apartment life.
The Resident
The Tolka Vale resident, who declined to be named, said the management fee had increased from £590 (749.30) to £1,098.73 (1,395.38).
This resident says that the paintwork in the lobby, halls and on the railings has not been maintained. "The landscaping is unfinished; waste collection has been reduced from two collections per week last year to once a week this year.
"We had a faulty fire alarm for a year after moving in and the management company did little in respect of sorting out this issue which caused considerable annoyance to everyone. Generally, I find the management agent to be unresponsive to queries and complaints.
I do understand that fees will go up on completion of a building but I feel an increase of almost 100 per cent is unjustifiable."
In a later conversation, this resident pointed out that in budget figures for 2001 issued to each resident, it emerged that the amount required to cover common area electricity had increased from £6,000 (7,620) last year to £11,124 (14,127), refuse collection had shot up from £780 (990) to £8,190 (10,401), the sinking fund required had risen from £6,000 (7620) to £23,000 (29,210).
"There seems to be some confusion over who is responsible for certain jobs. The management agent, Norths, say it's the builders and the builders say it is Norths. From conversations I have had with neighbours, it seems that most are entirely dissatisfied but seem to think there is little they can do but pay Norths."
The Management Aagent
Robert Gogan of Norths believes that this resident's complaints stem from the perception that "if they pay Norths the service charge, then why are they not getting this or that done?" His view is that, as the developers have not handed Tolka Vale over to owners and have a snag list of jobs to attend to, North's role is effectively one of being "caught between a rock and a hard place".
"Residents get frustrated when things are not finished, but in some cases we are absolutely powerless. There are certain jobs the developer has taken on to do such as repainting various areas like the halls.
"There was no point in doing this earlier on because in a new development builders and occupants are constantly hauling stuff up and down the stairs and through corridors, leaving scrapes on walls.
"The developers agreed they will do this work. So, when owners complain to us, we have two options. For peace's sake, we could send contractors in to paint the place and pay them out of the service charge. But in the end, the residents have to pay for it themselves - which is unfair if the developers have already agreed they are going to do it."
Describing the situation as "the domino effect", he says that the carpets hadn't been put down in the common areas because they would "get wrecked with all the activity, and because there is no carpet, the floors can get dusty - which in turn annoys the residents.
"There were also issues over a right of way on the land which had to be shifted to one side, and the wall around the development had to be made higher. The landscapers were due to come in before Christmas but the weather was so bad that that was delayed until April."
Gogan says the person who contacted Apartment Living was comparing this year's higher management fee to that of previous years. "When Tolka Vale was a new and unfinished development, no one had any real idea how much it was going to cost to run. It is just guesswork until the development is nailed down and fully occupied. Now we have a better idea of costs and it is our legal duty to maintain an adequate sinking fund. At least 60 t 70 per cent of apartment blocks have criminally inadequate sinking funds.
"Ton install a lift costs about £35,000 (€44,450) now. In 20 years time, with inflation, we are going to have to come up with three quarters of a million pounds to replace three lifts. In consultation with the management committee we agreed that we needed a sinking fund of around £23,000 (€29,210)."
Each of the residents was provided with a budget detailing expenditure over 2001.
The common area electricity budget, referred to by the resident, had jumped from £6,000 (€7,620) last year to £11,124 (€14,127). According to Gogan, this is because "full consumption costs do not kick in until year three".
"The developers kindly paid most of the electricity for the first year. We now know how much electricity costs. For health and safety reasons the lights are kept on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the car-park and we have put in electric gates.
"If this resident found us unresponsive it may be that they complained and things were not getting done immediately," he says.
"We are not on contract. We are paid monthly and if a management company is unhappy they can let us go at a month's notice.
The Developer
Declan Cronin of Cortip Developments says the outstanding snag list is "being worked through. There are three blocks in the scheme and those who moved into the first block have been there for over two years, and things are beginning to get on their wicks. We are hoping to be out of there in the next couple of months.
"There is a certain amount of wear and tear, like marks on the wall, generally small things but nonetheless frustrating for residents.
"The service charge is North's arena. We have a number of apartments there ourselves and the charge has gone way up. I don't think you can jump that high. They tell us that service charges have gone up all over town. Insurance costs have gone up considerably as have labour costs - so a 20 to 30 per cent increase would be reasonable.
"I don't think the service charge they are asking for now will be the ultimate figure. It is going to have to be looked at and there will have to be some compromise.
"We paid the electricity for the common areas for the first year to keep charges down and we paid the service charges for the apartments that didn't sell.
"We have replaced windows and locks that were broken and cracked over the normal course, without billing the management committee.
"We intend to touch up the paintwork, but we can't repaint the whole three blocks from start to finish. We will do what we feel we are responsible for.
"As far as the landscaping is concerned, Norths advised us not to go ahead with the original plan to put in a grass area over the basement car-park.
"They recommended a dry landscape area and I think they are right.
"It would have been a bit of topsoil and grass over the concrete. There was a suggestion we put turf on it but I don't think that is a good idea.
"There is chipping there at the moment. If we put the grass in as originally intended the residents would probably be happy, but we would be leaving them with an area that is high maintenance after the handover.
"The landscape architect came up with great plans but things chop and change as you go along, when you realise that some things are not going to work.
"Tolka Vale has a very strong management company.
"There are a lot of owner-occupiers there which is a good thing, and they take a great interest in the place. It's a nice scheme in a good location."
emorgan@irish-times.ie
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