COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

QUESTION NO. 3

QUESTION: Councillor G. O'Connell

"To ask the Chief Executive to provide a report into the situation of the house (address provided), which the Council was in the process of taking over (due to neglect) and which is again returning to an even worse state and is the focal point for a lot of anti-social activity?"

REPLY:

The Council has not at any point to date initiated any procedure towards acquisition of this site under the provisions of the Derelict Sites Act 1990, nor has it given any indication at any point to date of any intention to do so.

By way of background: South Dublin County Council has been monitoring this site since December 2012. It remained a vacant site for a number of years and was regularly monitored by the Building Inspector. On 21 May 2015 the site was inspected and it was found that the windows to the rear had been broken by local youths.  A Section 11 was issued, however, there was no contact from the owner. The site continued to deteriorate due to vandalism. The site progressed to a Section 8(7) under the Derelict Sites Register, 1990 as amended and was placed on the Derelict Sites Register on 15th August 2016. 

The site was boarded up by South Dublin County Council in November 2016 to prevent the property from potentially becoming a dangerous building, and in December 2016 a representative of the registered owner commenced work on the site when a number of works and improvements were completed. However, vandals continued to interfere with progress on site and new replaced windows, new doors and gates were destroyed by anti-social behaviour. This thwarted plans to abate the dereliction, get the site ready for the rental market, and ultimately off the Derelict Sites Register.

In January 2018 it was reported that new windows were smashed for a second time. As Enforcement & Licencing were temporarily unable to contact the representative, the Council once again arranged for the securing of the garage door and front downstairs window. 

Attempts to contact the representative of the site have since been difficult, the last contact advised that it was hoped to complete works on the site as soon as possible to abate the dereliction, and have the site removed from the register.

A Derelict Sites Levy of 3% of the market value of the site was levied on the registered owner for the year 2018, and the 2019 levy will be levied shortly. 

Notwithstanding the above, any interest in acquisition of this property (for housing purposes) would require careful evaluation of VFM, in particular potential acquisition costs and other costs which would be required to bring the property to suitable housing standard.