Tenant entitled to bring proceedings under Multi Unit Development Act 2011
In the recent case of Kennedy v Sweepstakes Owners Management Company clg, the High Court held that a Tenant of an apartment may bring proceedings under the above Act against the management company who he alleged was enacting house rules contrary to the legislation.
Section 23 of the Act provides that an owners management company may make house rules and the Act goes on to state that these house rules must be made in a manner consistent with the objective of the fair and equitable balancing of the rights and obligations of the occupiers and the unit owners. Mr. Kennedy alleged that the house rules in the development where he resided were in breach of the Act.
Section 25 of the 2011 Act sets out who may bring proceedings and this section does not specifically refer to “Tenants”. The Tenant was not a member of the management company, the Landlord was. However, section 25 (1)(f) states “with the permission of the court, such other person as the court sees fit”.
In this case, the court held that the Tenant had a rational basis for his grievance and was directly affected by the house rules in question and was thus granted leave to bring proceedings under section 25 (1)(f).
If you have any queries in relation to Landlord and Tenant matters or litigation generally, please contact Niall MacCarthy or Brendan Dillon of this office.
