Cork County Council collected less than €10,000 in derelict property penalties 

Cork County Council collected less than €10,000 levied against the owners of derelict properties.

Cork County Council officials have been told “to stop using the carrot and get out the stick” after it emerged they managed to collect less than €10,000 levied against the owners of derelict properties, which have a combined estimated value of €20m.

Under national legislation, local authorities are entitled to collect an annual 7% levy per annum on the market value of such sites. The penalties are designed to encourage owners to put their properties back into use.

However, the council has admitted it has managed to collect just €9,750 in levies.

Initially, the county council issued levies totalling €660,025 on property owners. However, with the expansion of the city boundary, a number of these properties then fell within the city and a total levy of €338,550 was transferred to City Hall for collection.

That left the county council with the remainder to collect.

However, a number of successful appeals against these levies were made to Bord Pleanála, amounting in total to €128,250. The collection of these then had to be cancelled. Two further levies are currently under appeal to Bord Pleanála.

Carrot and stick

The total outstanding levies to be collected by Cork County Council amount to €183,700.

The information was provided by officials following a query from Fianna Fáil councillor Deirdre O’Brien.

She described the levy collection rate as “appallingly poor.” 

“We have (derelict) properties with an estimated value of €20 million on our books and we have a seriously growing number of homeless people. We need to do something about this.” 

Fianna Fáil councillor Seamus McGrath was also taken aback by the low collection rate.

“It seems extraordinarily low amount in terms of the size of our county. There needs to be adequate enforcement (of collection). The critical thing is that we collect what’s owed,” Mr McGrath said.

Fine Gael councillor Kevin Murphy said he didn’t realise property owners had the right to make appeals to Bord Pleanála and suggested this shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

Several council officials have said in recent months that they are they find it more productive to liaise with derelict site owners rather than slapping levies on them straight away.

“We’ve used a lot of the carrot, now we need to use the stick,”

 Fine Gael councillor Kay Dawson said.

Green Party councillor Alan O’Connor said dereliction is a huge issue and maintained there are “hundreds of vacant properties” in his municipal district of Cobh. Fianna Fáil councillor Gearoid Murphy said dereliction “is a blight on all our towns and villages".

 “Enforcement of the levies is critical. We need to be seeing results at this stage. We have to get more stricter with these people,” Ms O’Brien added.

Above the store

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil councillor Frank O’Flynn said floors above many shops in towns and villages are vacant and could be used for housing. He urged the county council to do more to promote this to business owners.

Valerie O’Sullivan, the county council’s assistant chief executive, said the local authority has embarked on a detailed survey throughout the whole county to draw up a list of every vacant building and site.

She said this information would be used to identify the potential for building accommodation and that chief executive Tim Lucey is likely to issue an interim report on this to councillors before the summer.