Couple forced to pay for reinstatement work

An elderly couple who altered the common lobby outside their multi-apartment luxury home – similar to the way they claimed neighbour Bono had been allowed to do – have now paid for practically all reinstatement works.

The Circuit Civil Court heard yesterday that Dr Hugh Conor McLoughlin and his wife, Sheelagh, were an Irish American couple who returned several years ago following retirement to live at Asgard Apartments, Balscadden Road, Howth, Co Dublin.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane heard they had bought three apartments and had turned them into one luxury home, during which time they had made unscheduled changes to the attic and lobby.

Last July the couple asked the judge for injunctions restraining their management company, "Asgard" Residents Limited, from proceeding with works to return things back to how they were.

Conceded trespass
The couple, "at the doors of the court", conceded trespass in the lobby and attic areas, agreeing to pay for reinstatement works but not before their barrister, John Cheatle, told the court they had been "bullied and harassed" by management.

Mr Cheatle told Judge Linnane that Paul Hewson, aka Bono, the owner of a double apartment home for his father below the McLoughlins, had previously done something similar but with no objections from the management company.

Agreed to pay
The McLoughlins agreed to pay for reinstatement works after accepting that while Bono had similarly encroached into the lobby outside the original front door of what became his late father's home, it had been recessed farther back than outside the McLoughlin home.

Solicitor Leo Fay had told the court that a solution similar to that used to facilitate Mr Hewson could easily have been reached.

George A Brady SC, who had appeared for the management company last year, told the court the McLoughlins had not only altered the lobby, they had also altered firewalls in the common attic.

Yesterday Mr Fay said he had received an email from the McLoughlins in Florida, where they had spent the winter, stating the money to cover the reinstatement works had been sent to his firm’s bank.