Q
I own an apartment in a small block in Galway city centre. One of the apartments in my building appears to be rented short-term as there are quite a lot of different people staying for a few days, arriving with suitcases and often waiting outside the front door of the building for someone to arrive to let them in.
Generally, the people staying are polite and quiet and very friendly, but on two occasions over the last few months, there have been incidents to cause concern. On one occasion there was a large number of men staying and it appeared to be a stag weekend. The guests were quite loud for an entire weekend and it was quite intimidating arriving home from work to find 10 drunk men wandering through the building. On the second occasion, there were many men visiting for a football match. I believe that the apartment they rent is a two-bedroom apartment but there have clearly been occasions where there have been possibly seven or eight guests staying. While the noise is an inconvenience, I am more concerned about the safety aspects. Is this something that my management company can deal with?
A
Yes, this is something which you can report to your management company, normally this can be done by contacting your managing agent. The lease which you signed on purchasing your unit will set out your rights and responsibilities as an owner. The management company will also have a set of house rules in place, the house rules will typically deal with items such as noise and security. All owners should have a copy of the rules, if a unit is tenanted, even for a short term, a landlord has a responsibility to make a copy available to their tenants.
It is recommended that you make a complaint in writing, the complaint should include as much detail as possible, i.e. dates, times, details of incidents. On receipt of the written complaint, your management agent should issue a letter to the offending party, in your case the letter will be issued to the landlord. In some instances, issues will be resolved by simply bringing them to the attention of the unit owner. In other cases, it is not as straight forward, and legal action may be required.
Your management agent should also be able to discuss other avenues available to you to assist in resolving the problem, for example contacting the Gardaí particularly if you feel your safety is in danger. Changes have recently been made to the regulations around short term lets, which introduce a cap on short term letting to 90days in the absence of the required planning permission, your local authorities and their planning departments should be able to provide further information on this.
