Investors must pay €18k to K Club for service arrears

CORK accountant Finbarr Buckley and former K Club director of golf, Paul Crowe, have been ordered by a judge to pay the Ryder Cup resort almost €18,000 in service charge arrears.

Mr Crowe, also an accountant, of Oyster Circle, Oyster Point, Temple Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin, told the Circuit Civil Court that he and Mr Buckley, a chartered accountant of Lapps Quay, Cork, had bought an apartment in the Ryder Cup Village at the K Club in 2004.

They felt it would be a good personal investment for both of them and had paid out €850,000 for the two-bed apartment. They had also paid a years’ service charge in advance.

Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Matthew Deery, heard the two accountants had failed to pay any service charges from 2006 until 2009 to Bessilton Holdings Ltd and Karsavina Management Ltd which run the K Club at Straffan, Co Kildare.

Mr Crowe told James Phillips, counsel for the K Club management companies, that he or Mr Buckley had never been invoiced for the service charges so they had not gone chasing anyone to pay them.

He said both investors felt the charges were excessive and during the years of non- payment following the 2006 Ryder Cup, the management companies allowed the five-star resort to become somewhat run down.

They mounted a counter- claim in which they alleged the K Club, in breach of a purchase agreement of the apartment, had failed to operate and maintain the Kildare Hotel and Country Club Resort to the highest standards.

They claimed the five-star status of the complex had been compromised because of the closure for extended periods throughout the winter of the Smurfit Clubhouse and Golf Course, the Legends and the Monza restaurants.

Mr Crowe said in cross- examination that standards had been significantly restored since 2009.

Mr Justice Deery, who heard that the K Club is currently owed a total of €300,000 in unpaid service charges from other owners in the resort, granted the K Club a decree for €17,730 for service charges against both men and told Helen O’Driscoll, counsel for the two defendants, that he would put a stay on his order to facilitate consideration of an appeal to the High Court.

The K Club claim had previously been settled but the agreement had broken down and the claim went to full trial.