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BOARDED-UP HOUSES and crumbling buildings are a common feature of towns and cities across Ireland.
Derelict buildings contribute significantly to Ireland’s housing crisis, and bringing them back into use is one of the Government’s aims for addressing social housing shortfalls and to get more homes on the market.
Under laws introduced in 1990, every local council keeps a Derelict Sites Register to encourage owners to bring vacant houses and land into use through the imposition of an annual levy of 7% of the property’s market value, which applies until the site is no longer derelict.
When someone objects to a local authority’s attempt to obtain a property via the Compulsory Purchase Order process, the council can make an application to An Coimisiún Pleanála to do so.
The Housing Act also allows local authorities to acquire vacant homes via CPO, which they also must apply to do via the commission.
The process is similar to making a planning application, and the board weighs up submissions from the council and the owner of the land before deciding whether a site can be subject to a CPO.
The number of properties that councils try to CPO via the commission every month is relatively small – records show that just 44 applications were made via the Compulsory Housing Acquisition Act in the whole of 2024.
The Journal has been keeping track of the vacant and derelict properties that councils have sought to acquire, and previously wrote about how local authorities applied to the board to CPO a total of nine properties in April and May.
Last month, Waterford City and County Council was the only local authority to apply to the commission to CPO any properties.
On 16 June, the council applied to the commission to acquire a two-storey property – known as Flynn’s – and adjoining land at 7 Main Street in the coastal town of Ardmore, located near the county’s border with Cork.
The property comprises two parts: the owner of the house is listed as belonging to two deceased people – one man and one woman – and a garden space to the rear of the property is listed as being owned by a third (living) person.
A report by the council says the house is “derelict and long-term vacant”, though it appears to be in good condition and Google Street View images show that it has been re-painted in recent years.
A site inspection report from last year noted that it is in need of repair and that the land to the rear of the property is overgrown.
Correspondence submitted by the council reveals that both pieces of land have a complicated ownership, which seems to have prevented them from being sold until now.
A letter from the family of the deceased woman noted that seven siblings, two of them recently deceased, may have an interest on the property from her side.
However, the council was also told by a solicitor acting for the family of the deceased man that members of his family had an interest in the property too.
The solicitor told the council in January that the man’s family wanted to reconcile the ownership of the property via probate, but that they were interested in selling it.
He also disputed that council’s finding that the house was derelict, but said he would recommend that his clients could engage with the council about selling it for market value.
The property was placed on the Derelict Sites Register in February.
On 18 June, the council also applied to acquire 2 Manor Hill, a narrow, two-storey mid-terrace house in the centre of Waterford city.
The house is deemed by the council to be long-term vacant, with a report describing it as being “neglected, unsightly and [having] an objectionable appearance”.
An inspector found that its entrance doorway is partially broken, internal curtains are mouldy and drawn, while the windows require significant repair and replacing.
An estate agent valued the house at €75,000 last November.
After the council sought to identify the owner of the house on foot of its original inspection last July, a man contacted the Derelict Sites Office to say his aunt had bought it more than 50 years ago and had given it to his brother, who lived there until his death in 2023.
The man said he was away at the time the inspection took place, and had returned in September to find notices on the house and the locks changed. He confirmed to the council that the property’s ownership had not been registered with Land Direct.
Another person claiming to be related to the man’s late brother also contacted the council in April this year, claiming that he was attempting to locate the deeds to the house.
However, the council’s Derelict Sites Office carried out further searches and could not find any record of the late man or his estate owning the property.
The council subsequently placed the site on its Derelict Sites Register and is now seeking to purchase it to bring it back into use.
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