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ITA BRENNAN BOUGHT this house in Ballycastle, Co Mayo, in 2004.
Three years ago she noticed a large crack appearing above the chimney and since then she has paid almost €6,000 for structural work to piece the house back together – to no avail.
The floors are caving in because of the weak foundations, there are massive cracks all throughout the house and the plaster has started to flake off the walls.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie this week, the woman said she decided last year that she could no longer live there. She moved to Dublin where she now lives with and takes care of her elderly father.
She is still paying her €70,000 mortgage but now feels there is no hope for what was once a beautiful home – part of a development of eight properties that won an architectural award when it was first constructed.
Brennan has also been told that she is not entitled to apply for the government’s pyrite remeditation scheme because Mayo is not included in the scheme.
“It’s like a condemned house,” she said. “Every room is rotten, it’s just rotten.”
I’ve spoken to the remediation board – the people manning the phones there. They’ve decided that only certain countries are to be included – maybe people in Mayo didn’t squawk enough.
It previously emerged that structural damage due to pyrite had been identified in a number of properties in Mayo, including some local authority developments. The county council said this year that it would carry out repair work on houses it is responsible for but private residents were told they could not avail of the government’s remediation scheme.
The reason given was that funding was restricted to homes where there has been significant subfloor damage due to pyrite.
Many homeowners living in houses with pyrite damage were also told they would still have to pay the property tax because they were living outside the designated areas for the scheme, though Brennan received an exemption last year from the council because of defects in her home.
The Department of Environment, Community and Local Government said that while it “fully appreciates and acknowledges the extremely difficult and distressing situations that householders have to deal with when faced with the consequences of the use of defective materials or poor workmanship, building defects are, in general, matters for resolution between the contracting parties involved, ie the owner, the builder, the manufacturer, supplier, and/or their respective insurers.”
“In the event that the contracting parties cannot reach a settlement by negotiation the option of seeking redress in the Courts can be considered.”
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You can get some dodgy fifty euro notes in the south. This is old news, to me anyhow.
You are dead right Paul. You earn the money you decide how to spend it. If I lived closer to the border I would definitely shop north. The biggest reason for higher prices here is “rip off”. And to all the red thumb merchants. B******s.
Dead right, I buy Irish goods from Irish suppliers and English goods from English suppliers. Why should I buy English goods at inflated prices from an Irish middle man? Only exception I make is on the rare occasion when I have bought Irish goods in England cheaper than in Ireland. Now that’s wrong pricing somewhere surely! Source of origin on food labels is misleading and almost impossible to ascertain. For instance a food product can be imported from abroad and repackaged with a local suppliers ID labelling, so the country of origin is lost to the consumer.
Why tell them that? They are worse than the TD’s stealing from the people. People who shop in the north should go live up there and earn their living up there. If they ever need an ambulance , fire brigade, police, etc go and call the services up north as that is what you are doing by shopping up there. If you want to keep the few people who have jobs in work in the south ie your neighbour or family member than stay and pay a little towards their employment. Dare I suggest you reduce your purchases by 10% in the south and everybody would be better off. When I see the fat people from the south pushing trolled in the stores up north I think they could do with a lot less shopping.
I go up north and do some shopping. I did it last weekend actually! I spent 170 euro on beer, and a net book. Everything else was more or less the same price or cheaper down south. But I didn’t go up north to save money ( although I did ) I went up for the day out. I can’t afford holidays anywhere. I stay at my house for my holidays. I work and have practically zero left ( some months less than zero left) each month. I pay way more than my fair share of taxes and I am entitled to spend 175 euro while I am on my ( holidays).
I assume that you holiday at home, buy only Irish products every week?
Don’t judge me, you don’t know me! Besides, I believe in a United Ireland. Our government has cross border trade and governmental institutions set up. If our government says by it’s actions that it is ok then it’s ok by me. And another thing, the majority of the civil construction tenders are awarded by our government departments to northern construction companies because of price, so cop on and grow up.
I use PayPal for everything
Interesting that you judge me – I may be disabled for all you know! Construction workers are loosing jobs to northern contractors you say – I rest my case. When you are directly impacted it is wrong yet when our retailers and producers are impacted it is not a concern to you. It makes the case for the government shopping up north for cheaper contractors. I think it is wrong yet I am on my own on this I think.
We have plenty of fake banknotes down here. They are called “euros”.
Just use a credit card for shopping And pay it off in full, easiet way.
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