Letterkenny houses undergo defective concrete block testing

NINE houses in a Letterkenny estate are currently undergoing ‘rigorous block testing’ ahead of a proposed sale to Donegal County Council.

The houses are situated in the Ballymacool area of the town, where last October residents received eviction notices from management company Twin Estates due to a planned sale of homes in the estate.

Landlord, Phil Boyle of Twin Estates, said he has been given assurances by the council that they remain committed to the purchase under the Tenant in Situ Scheme.

Mr Boyle has now engaged a chartered civil engineer to remove core samples from the houses in order to carry out Defective Concrete Block (DCB) testing.

Testing normally takes up to 12 weeks, with results therefore expected to be with the council by mid September.

“The core samples have now been sent to an accredited laboratory for testing and analysis in accordance with I.S. 465. After testing a Professional Geologist/Laboratory Report is produced and submitted to the council. The County Council’s Chartered Structural Engineer will then review the Geologist/Laboratory Report and provide advice to the council so that they can either proceed or not proceed with the acquisition,” said Mr Boyle.

Mr Boyle said he has been given assurances that if the tests yield good results, then the council will proceed to acquire the properties.
Mr Boyle said he is “quite confident” the results will be good.

“I have sold a number of houses in the same estate and have had testing carried out. All tests to date have produced good results,” he said.

Mr Boyle said he has been working with the council since last October, when the company decided to sell a number of houses at Ballymacool.

The council identified nine houses as being of interest to them at that time.

He said he understood that the notices of termination issued in October of last year had taken residents by “surprise” and caused them “great stress”.

“With regards these nine houses, I want to assure the families facing eviction that I am doing everything possible to ensure that the council proceeds with the purchases,” he stressed.

“I completely understand that the notices of termination issued last October had taken residents by surprise and was causing them great stress. The huge demand for housing in Ireland coupled with the current ‘Mica’ issues in Donegal makes seeking new accommodation so much more challenging.”

Mr Boyle stated that five other houses that were offered for sale by the company in the same estate were purchased privately by the sitting tenant.

He said he also offered four other houses to the Housing Agency under the Cost Rental Tenant in Situ Scheme but, unfortunately, they have declined to proceed with their acquisition.

Some 43,000 homes have left the rental market over the past five years, almost 10,000 last year according to figures from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).

Increased regulation, high taxes and an archaic legal system are the main reasons thought to have led to the departure of thousands of landlords leave the rental market each year.

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