A defective block homeowner who was one of the first to have the rebuilding of their home completed says he’s being discriminated against because he completed the work in January of last year.
Stephen O’Donnell exceeded the cap, and was waiting on the 10% increase to be retrospectively applied as was promised last year.
However, a cutoff date of March 2024 has been applied to that, meaning he doesn’t qualify.
He believes he’s one of nine people in that position, and is trying to contact the others ahead of a challenge to the minister.
Mr O’Donnell says this is an injustice that must be addressed………….
Stephen O’Donnell can be contacted on 086 3009314
Stephen spoke to Greg Hughes on this morning’s Nine til Noon Show, you can heads that full conversation here –
Full social media message posted this week by Stephen O’Donnell –
In light of a recent phone conversation with a local councilor, I feel I have no choice but to come on here for assistance. My house like so many in Donegal was affected by defective blocks. I was one of the “early movers” who engaged in the scheme from as early as June 2020 when my house was tested for defective blocks.
On safety grounds, we were forced to leave our home in June 2021 and tried to accelerate our efforts to get accepted to the scheme and try to put this nightmare behind our family. As we were so early in our efforts to get accepted, we were asked for further information over a sustained period of time, causing extreme frustration and delays in acceptance to the scheme.
Once we were accepted, due to the period of time that had passed from our original quotation we were very mindful that costs were accelerating rapidly both in terms of products and labour. We eventually started work in October 2022 and were completed on the 31st January 2024. We received our final payment in late March 2024.
On completion, we had exceeded the cap by over €42,000 in building costs and we had paid almost €25,000 in rent leaving us in a great amount of debt. During the build, I constantly contacted my bank (AIB), who told me that a team was getting set up to assist with Defective Blocks Rebuilds but it wasn’t fully ready to offer any loans yet. As the rebuild reached it’s conclusion, we had no choice but to go to the Credit Union for a loan. When the AIB were in position to offer a loan, we approached them and were informed that now that our build is complete, we don’t qualify to apply for a defective block loan. An extremely frustrating situation! Another penalty for “early movers” was the testing fees at the start of the process which were approx.. €7,000 which although it was was reimbursed was taken from the €420k cap. People who engage in the scheme now only have to pay approx. €600 leaving an extra €6,500 approx. to put against their rebuild.
The Housing minister of the time, Darragh O’Brien, declared that the 10% increase in the scheme would be paid retrospectively and as a result we would be in a position to repay this loan and get on with the rest of our lives but when the government published the increase they put a date of late March 2024 on it. Meaning that anyone who was completed prior to that date wouldn’t qualify for the 10% increase. As my completion date was the 31st January, I won’t have access to the increase.
The councilor in question, contacted me last week to inform me that this date is extremely unlikely to be removed. I was aware that 43 houses had been completed before the date set by the government. I have since discovered that 20 of these houses were for outer leaf only and of the remaining 23 houses only 9 have exceeded the cap. I cannot guarantee these numbers but that is what I have been told.
I have talked to some of the local councilors and TD’s who understandably cannot provide me with peoples names and contact details due to GDPR. I am hoping if I put this post forward then the other people who have exceeded the cap prior to the March deadline would contact me and hopefully press forward together to get this changed before it’s too late.
If you or someone you know, who is not on Facebook, has completed their remediation prior to the March deadline please contact me on 086 3009314 so we can obtain all the information before we challenge this decision.
