BID TO CUT FEES FOR APARTMENT OWNERS

FIANNA Fáil is drafting a Bill that will slash management fees for apartment owners.

The party is putting forward the legislation to provide a discount on property tax worth one third of the management fee, up to a maximum of €300 a year.

There are more than 200,000 apartments in the country and tens of thousands of other homes that pay management fees to companies servicing their estates or blocks.

Fianna Fáil housing spokesman, Darragh O’Brien, said the Local Property Tax was established to fund services such as maintaining public lighting, roads and paths, grounds keeping and managing public parking – all of which apartment owners were paying for a second time through management fees.

‘Management fees are now going towards many of these services, which essentially means that some homeowners are paying for the same thing on the double,’ he said.

Fianna Fáil believes there should be recognition that people are paying twice for the same services.

‘We propose a partial reduction in the Local Property Tax, equal to one third of the management fee, one third of the Local Property Tax, or €300, whichever is the lower amount.’

Should the Bill get Dáil backing and become law, the average reduction in LPT would be around €86 across more than 200,000 units and would cost the State around €17.5million a year.