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A BILL THAT would give homeowners more time to seek remediation for pyrite in their homes is to be introduced next week.
Senator Darragh O’Brien is the man behind the bill and told TheJournal.ie that he will introduce it next week.
He said that 72,000 houses are potentially affected by pyrite on the east coast, with the pyrite-affected brick coming from three quarries.
“We know the three quarries affected,” he said, as research has been carried out into the pyrite. “We are able to track the areas where it has been used.”
The news comes as the Irish Times reports today that houses in the Carton and Owensilla areas of Ballymun were tested for pyrite recently, with pyrite suspected to be present in 140 homes.
Tip of the iceberg
O’Brien described the situation at the moment as the ”tip of iceberg”. He added that he is waiting for the Government to publish its report into the issue.
“I have a bill that effectively is an amendment to the statute of limitations act 1957,” he said of the Home Remediation Bill (Pyrite).
The longer this drags on, the more and more people will be barred under the statute of limitations and won’t have recourse.
The statute of limitations is currently six years from when the homeowner discovers that they have problems with pyrite in their home.
If someone goes to court, and the judge says to them when did you think this started happening… and some people are saying early 2004, the judge can say ‘well look, sorry, statute of limitations is six years – you have no recourse. What my bill will do is say the statute of limitations only starts when the individual gets an independent official pyrite test that confirms you have pyrite. Most people haven’t got those tests done.
The date of the official confirmation of pyrite would be the date that the statue starts, explained O’Brien. “It would be buying a lot more time to deal with it.”
He added that the issue is who is going to pay for the remediation of the homes. O’Brien said HomeBond has “washed their hands” of the situation, and that “we are going to fight that”.
“It’s a big grey area,” he said. “Thousands of houses are affected in north Dublin.”
“HomeBond won’t pay for remediation. They say it’s nothing to do with them,” continued O’Brien. “We have no class actions here – you can’t bring a class action suit.”
He said homeowners are “waiting and waiting for the government report to say what are the recommendations”.
Because they keep dragging their feet, I am going ahead to publish [the bill]. At least that will buy us more time.
He added that a number of people have responsibility for the situation, including banks, surveyors who signed off on the houses and the local authorities.
“I can’t see for what reason the government would oppose it,” O’Brien said of his bill. “It would buy them more time too.”
I think this bill will help the government. I’m not asking them to spend any money. I’m giving people a level playing pitch.
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All well and good, but seeing as many of the insurance companies and developers are either refusing to cover, or have no many to cover houses affected by pyrite, what use is this bill going to be other than an empty gesture.
Agree 100 %. Am I not correct in thinking that the Staute of Limitation only starts running from the time you are AWARE of the problem ?
Its a grey area, some solicitors will say that it begins from when your keys are handed over and some will say that its from when the problem arose. Neither has been tested yet.
the fact that a government official has the b*lls to bring this to the dail ready for presentation in the form of a bill is a major leap forward for people affected by homes built with pyrite. it will mean when people go to seek remedial works with companies, they are protected by law to request remedial works and may not face lengthy and costly legal battles with corporates until the statute of limitations comes into effect! in other words it will stop the people, who knew what they were doing when buying or selling concrete, wrangling out of their wrong doings and getting away with ensuring remedial works are done because of a lack of legal protection for the home owners concerned!
Our house had a pyrite problem and has just been fixed after 5 years of wrangling with the insurer. Good luck to anyone trying to get this solved. It is a major headache. Like everything in this country, it’ll take one of these houses falling down on someone for the Govt. to do something about it.
Many homeowners held off having their homes repaired because they thought the good times were rolling with the likelihood of huge legal damages being awarded in their favour by the Courts and then the builders went bang! Householders in that position would be unable to claim against anyone once the six years have passed never mind an extension.
“Many homeowners”? Really? I can only speak for myself and the people in our estate, but as soon as we found out about the problem everyone wanted it fixed as soon as possible. No-one gave a toss about pursuing for personal loss. The Premier Home Insurance policy that we had was for 10 years from the point of sale (in 2004). Why would people drag it out on the off chance that they might get some compo, when the by far greater and more real risk was that the policy would lapse and you’d have to get it fixed yourself? If you don’t get your house fixed, you can’t sell it (a bank will most probably not give someone a mortgage to buy a house with pyrite as a surveyor can’t say for certain that the problem has stopped). Therefore, why would anyone take this silly gamble that you suggest?
My house has Pyrite and I tell you if I could get it fixed I would but we can’t. Our builder and quarry are gone and Homebond want nothing to do wit us (whole other can of worms). The stress that we have gone through over the past six years is unbelievable. I can’t walk into my house without seeing the cracks getting worse every day. We bought this house in good faith and it has failed as a home. I cannot even read the word Pyrite without having palpitations. The stress involved is phenomenal. If it was anything else we would be entitled to compensation but no, we can’t even get our house fixed, which at the end of the day is all we want.
I really feel for you. We were just lucky that the house we bought had Premier Home Insurance. I wouldn’t have known the difference between the two when we bought the house: we bloody do know though! Like you, we didn’t give a toss about compo, we just wanted our house fixed and happened to have bought one that had an insurance policy. Home Bond is a total joke in this regard: it’s not insurance as it’s not an underwritten policy that you can claim against. And it’s not a guarantee or a warranty either. Just words on a page that are worthless.
Considering a lot of developers have hit the wall, who is going to stump up and pay compensation?
This is exactly why the Pyrite panel has been set up. Pyrite action have proposed a Levy on the construction industry to ensure that all involved (quarries, developers, builders etc.) contribute to sorting out this mess.
Is that really you Michael j fox? Wow.
Edit: that is to say that neither of them had insurance. The only insurance was the Premier Home Insurance policy that we had. So, if Premier refused to pay us we would have had to pursue the builder and quarry on the basis of litigation not claiming against another policy that they had.
Your Builder and Quarry both had insurance of some sort that can still be pursued within the six year limit?
Both gone bust and are totally potless now. Claim all you want, but where are they going to get the cash to fix 100+ houses at €100k a house?
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