Estate may be left without lights or water if developer doesn’t pay up

Date Published: 13-Jul-2011

Residents of almost 60 houses in a Craughwell estate face being left without a working sewage treatment system or street lighting, after a warning by the ESB that power will be cut over an unpaid €4,500 bill.

However, following the intervention of Mayor Michael ‘Mogie’ Maher, the ESB have given a ten-week ‘stay of execution’ while negotiations continue with Galway County Council to have the estate taken in charge.

Homeowners in the Dún Árd estate in Craughwell have received an urgent warning from the developers that they need to pay the bill – which covers street lighting and power for the sewage system – as soon as possible, or they will be cut off.

And a warning from the Director of Corporate Enforcement says the lack of a proper management company in estates can affect the value of properties, and the whether they can be legally sold on.

Residents have been told to pay €160 per household to the management company – but residents say that any time they queried the structure of the management company over the years, they received no reply.

The residents now fear they have been left in “no man’s land” because the Galway-based Harrmack Developments went into liquidation just days after the warning, while the Dún Árd Property Management Company Ltd – which is supposed to look after such matters – does not technically trade.

The directors of the management company are the original developers of the estate, Stephen Harris and Bernard McKeon.

Residents met with a number of politicians in recent days to discuss the issue, including Mayor of County Galway Michael Maher.

“Certain things were never finished in the estate, and there was never a proper management company in operation. We got a letter from Harrmack/Silverpath (Harrmack is in liquidation, Silverpath has been struck off) that there is a management company, but none of the residents are on it. It doesn’t do anything. We’ve been on to the Council and they don’t want to know,” one resident told the Connacht Tribune.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.