€6m Ballsbridge penthouse owner sues over temperatures reaching 33c

Woman paid €6.16m for a luxury Ballsbridge penthouse but claims there are problems with heating system as case heads for mediation

Aideen O'Byrne bought the Lansdowne Place, Ballsbridge, apartment — marketed in 2017 as 'thought to be the most expensive in Ireland' — for some €6.16m and moved in in 2021. File picture

A High Court dispute over alleged overheating of a €6m penthouse apartment in Dublin is to go to mediation, a judge has been told.

Aideen O'Byrne bought the Lansdowne Place, Ballsbridge, apartment — marketed in 2017 as "thought to be the most expensive in Ireland" — for some €6.16m and moved in in 2021.

She has claimed that due to a failure to maintain or repair the district heating system, temperatures in her apartment have reached "unbearable" highs of 33C degrees.

Temperatures in lobby areas have been recorded to reach 29C degrees, she claimed.

She has sued the developers, Copper Bridge C 2015 ICAV, and engineers O'Connor Sutton Cronin and Associates Ltd.

The defendants deny the claims. Copper Bridge said it had experts who "flatly contradict" the claims of Ms Byrne and also that it spent three years trying to address her claims without any progress.

The case has been before the court on a number of occasions to deal with a number of matters, including discovery.

On Friday, Gavin Mooney, for Ms O'Byrne, told Mr Justice Brian Cregan that pleadings had closed, most discovery had been agreed, and it had been agreed between the parties to go to mediation on October 12.

The court heard outstanding discovery issues had been paused until then.

The judge said he wanted the parties to "put their minds together" and use the 10 weeks between now and the mediation to resolve outstanding issues on discovery. He adjourned the case until after the mediation takes place.