In a meeting yesterday evening at The Menlo Park Hotel, Galway on 'Company Law Update', Brian Walker, top barrister in the country on Company Law, spoke about the Overhaul in Company Law that is currently being drafted. It is expected that in late 2009 or 2010 there will be a re-write of Company Law in this country.

The current Company Law was enacted in 1963 and with the introduction of Private Property Management Companies this law is not geared to deal with some of the often complex issues around Property Management.

For example, currently, if a director of a property management company where there are only 2 directors, wishes to resign and there is no one else willing to be appointed as a director, then the resigning director can file a form at CRO and resign. However, he can only do this after following certain proceedures. Once he is resigned the CRO can 'strike off' the property management company from the register for breach of company law as there must be a minimum of 2 directors in place. 'Striking off' the property management company will affect all owners in the development negatively. This will cause problems for any owner wishing to sell their property.

Some good news for property management companies though, it is been looked at, to create a new format of a company to cater specifically for property management companies. Existing companies can transfer into this new format and hopefully it will address all issues that are vulnerable at the moment. 

One area that is also of concern is the title on the common areas of developments. The main problem it seems is getting confirmation from the solicitors that the title has passed or that indeed they will do it. One factor that affects this is the time delay from when the development is being built to the time that the last unit is completed and sold, particularly if the developer retains any of the units, also, in the current climate where properties take much longer to sell. 

The launch of our website was published in this weeks Galway Advertiser:

Pictured at the launch of the new website for A.K. Property Services above: Aisling Keenan, Managing Director and Aisling Loughrey, Office Manager.

Regina Hoetger, Cyrill Commins, Ann Fallon.

The official launch of Galway based A.K. Property Services’ new website www.akproperty.ie, took place at the plush VBar, City Limits, Oranmore last Tuesday evening 22nd April 2008.

A.K. Property Services is a well-established nationwide firm of managing agents, founded by Aisling Keenan in 1998. Considered to be one of the leading property managing agents in Ireland, they have a reputation built up over the past ten years based on their performance and expertise.

A.K. Property Services started out managing a number of apartment blocks in Galway and has since grown to become one of Ireland's top firms of managing agents, with many different developments in several locations throughout the country.

In an address by Ms Keenan on the evening she said “when we started building our website last June, I set out to create a site that was current, spontaneous, colourful and edgy, that could deliver news on all our latest developments and tell the site visitor exactly what they needed to know”.

One novel feature of the site is their use of the National Consumer Agency's very own guidelines for property management. At the end of their booklet 'Property Management Companies and You' they pose 17 questions that a client should ask any prospective management agent; questions such as whether there is an out-of-hours service for emergencies or how financial records are kept about each development.

Ms Keenan said ”We hit upon the idea of answering all those questions in full on the site, putting the clients mind at ease straight away, and we even threw in a few answers the National Consumer Agency hadn't thought of”.

The following is the speech given by
Aisling Keenan, Director, A.K Property Services, for the launch party
of the new website on 22 April 2008

Pictured at the launch are our Main Sponsors of the event Tom Hyland, T.J. Hyland & Co. Accountants, Aisling Keenan and Seamus Philbin, T.J. Hyland & Co. Accountants

Dia dhuit, a dhaoine uaisle. Ta an-áthas orm a bheith in éineacht libh.

I am delighted to welcome you all here this evening and thank you for your support as we officially launch our new website. Thank you especially to our sponsors, T.J. Hyland & Co. Accountants, Bartley Lydon Insurances Ltd. and Noel Maher.

When we started building our website last June, I set out to create a site that was current, spontaneous, colourful and edgy, that could deliver news on all our latest developments and tell the site visitor exactly what they needed to know.

We at AK Property Services are well aware that, for the average person who has just bought an apartment or settled into a residential estate, the whole area of property management companies and property management agents can be a lot to deal with, and right from the start we set out to deliver a website that would answer all their questions as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

One novel feature of the site that we are very proud of is our use of the National Consumer Agency's very own guidelines for property management. At the end of their booklet 'Property Management Companies and You' they pose 17 questions that a client should ask any prospective management agent; questions such as whether there is an out-of-hours service for emergencies or how financial records are kept about each development.

We hit upon the idea of answering all those questions in full on the site, putting the clients mind at ease straight away, and we even threw in a few answers the National Consumer Agency hadn't thought of.

I am very pleased with other features of the site. Our new blog will enable visitors to our site to keep up with the latest developments in Property Management, which we in A.K. Property Services hope to be at the cutting edge of for many years to come.

The Client Listings allow visitors to the site to quickly and easily see the developments we manage near them, and see the nationwide spread of the company.

I am particularly pleased with the design and layout of the site - on many pages there are glowing testimonials A.K Property have recieved, as well as quotes from some of the world's best managers and thinkers which I feel really articulate the vision of A.K. Property Services. My favourite one I placed on the front page, by Edward C Simmons: The difference between failure and success, is doing a thing nearly right, and doing it exactly right.

Pictured at the launch of the new website: Aisling Keenan, Managing Director and Mairead Cosgrove, President of Network Galway.

Over the past 10 years we have expanded our company through organic growth, and we now have 102 service contractors working for us throughout the country. We, Aisling Loughrey and I, here in Oranmore are now pushing the company into a higher gear with our dedication to expansion, and we feel our new website is a real milestone in spurring on the next phase of our development.

The next 10 years of Property Management in Ireland will be quite unlike the past 10 years. There will be less contracts handed out by property developers . Instead the consumer, the property owner will seek the managing agent of their choice based on their performance in the market place and their record. A.K. Property Services Ltd. have been winning contracts on this basis over the past 10 years and this will be the key for future growth of our company.

With the impending licensing and regulation of our industry we look forward to working within an industry that has enforced standards and continued education and training. We at A.K. Property Services do not fear regulation of our industry, instead we see it as an opportunity - it sets clear standards in respect of the services that we provide, which in turn helps to build consumer confidence.

I believe that consumers are entitled to expect a high and consistent level of service from our profession and that we are entitled to compete on a level playing field. Regulation is the best way of ensuring delivery of these expectations.

Our new website is another step forward for us and we will be updating it regularly to keep it current and interactive. Last Saturday, Marian Finucane interviewed Daniel O Donnell and in a discussion about changing times one of his replies was – ‘if Jesus was around today he would have a website’. Well, he's very welcome to visit our site to get some tips on how to do it.

Speech given 22 April 2008

An Article from 'Property Plus' on March 28th 2008 -

\

Friday March 28 2008

I live in an old development. There are problems with some of the windows. Who is responsible?

This will very much depend on the terms as set out in your lease andyou'll need to read it carefully. From my experience, leases tend todeal with windows in one of the following ways:

The apartment owner is responsible for the interior of the windowstructure and the management company is responsible for the exterior.The owner is responsible for the entirety of the window structure, orthe management company is responsible for the entirety of the windowstructure.

I have used the term 'window structure' because it's a common featureof most leases that the apartment owner is responsible for themaintenance and cleaning of the glass in the windows.

I bought a new apartment last year. There's a residents' committeeand a managing agent, but the developer still owns everything. Who isrunning the development and do I have any say at this stage?

At this stage, I'm afraid that the owners have no formal powers orinfluence over the manner in which your development is managed. Underthe terms of your lease, the developer still owns the freehold interestin the development and is legally responsible to all the owners for theproper management of the development.

The developer has obviously appointed a managing agent. It's themanaging agent's legal obligation to take his instruction from thedeveloper in relation to all management matters. In most circumstances,developers tend to leave the running of the development entirely to themanaging agent and have little or no input into it.

However, I see that you also have a residents' committee at thedevelopment. Although this committee has no formal powers (because thedeveloper hasn't transferred them to the owners yet) it can be quiteinfluential in the decision-making process, depending on the attitudeof the managing agent and developer.

In some developments the managing agent takes the decisions of theresidents' committee and brings them to the developer, who will justrubber-stamp them. You should enquire from a member of your committeeas to the extent of their influence.

It's a very good idea to form a residents' committee in a newdevelopment. Sometimes the managing agent is pro-active in this. Ifnot, the owners should form one themselves.

Nevertheless it's important to remember that the developer isultimately responsible in law for the way the development is manageduntil such time as he transfers his interests and responsibilities tothe owners.

When that happens, the new board of directors of the managementcompany, elected by the owners, will replace the residents' committee.

The directors can then decide whether or not to manage the developmentthemselves or to continue to use the services of a managing agent.