June 25th, the MUD Act Reform Group (MARG) which represents apartment owners and a number of approved housing bodies – held a briefing for Oireachtas members on the urgency of putting in place a regulator to oversee the owners’ management companies (OMCs) that manage the country’s apartment and duplex complexes.
The event – which took place in the Georgian Room, Buswells Hotel, Dublin 2 – commenced at 12.45pm and ended at 1.45pm, set out the huge challenges facing OMCs and the thousands of people living in apartments and the case for reform of the law governing the sector.
A commitment to review the law – the Multi-Unit Developments (MUD) Act – was made in the Programme for Government but four years on it has not been acted upon.
Speakers at the briefing included:
- Deirdre Ní Fhloinn – barrister specialising in cases related to the MUD Act and one of the negotiators of the section of the Programme for Government dealing with this area;
- Paul Mooney – chartered surveyor who wrote a seminal report on the issues in this sector and the need for reform in 2019 for The Housing Agency and Clúid Housing;
- Brian O’Gorman – CEO of Clúid Housing which owns thousands of apartments throughout the country. Brian will set out Clúid’s experience of the severe governance challenges thrown up by the sector;
- Bryan Maher – Chair of the Apartment Owners’ Network who will address the considerable financial issues facing the sector.
Apartment owners and OMC directors present at the event talked about their experiences of the difficulties caused by the unreformed MUD Act on the ground.
A number of Oireachtas representatives were also in attendance.