Mattie McGrath criticises €6,000 assessment fees for defective homes
Mattie McGrath spoke about high assessment fees for defective homes and endorsed amendments to address the issue. He criticised the €6,000 charge for assessments, called it unfair and urged the government to consider an independent group of assessors to ensure fairness.
Assessment fees and family impact
The speaker said the €6,000 assessment charge is unfair, arguing families have been devastated, have tried to house themselves and had homes destroyed. He suggested that €1,000 would be a lot and criticised forcing applicants to come up with €6,000 while those properties remain unusable and still subject to property tax.
Safety concerns and housing status
He warned of dangers in living in affected houses and noted many are in temporary accommodation because they cannot be safely occupied. The speech stressed that rendered homes cannot be used as they stand.
Broader construction defects noted
McGrath said serious defects are evident to anyone with building knowledge and framed the problem as wider than private homes, pointing to public buildings and bridges where bad mixtures have caused issues.
Call for independent assessor scheme
He voiced support for the amendments and urged the government to establish a group scheme of independent assessors who would be fair and prevent what he described as exploitation by expensive private assessments.
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Just briefly, I too think that it is very unfair and I support these amendments and I think I can't understand how it is costing 6,000 and the families who have been devastated, tried to house themselves and their homes destroyed and how it can cost 6,000 for the assessment. I mean it is quite obvious to anyone that is involved in any degree of knowledge of building that there are serious, serious defects and I don't think that the government, some schemes should have a group of assessors set up and paid for, I think people are being exploited to be charged 6,000 because you know it can't be that technical, it is technical enough but surely God I would imagine a thousand would be a lot of money, I might say 6,000, forcing their applicants to come up with it and then charging property tax on a house that is rendered useless. They can't house them and there are dangers of living in them and there are houses in temporary in fact. So this is way bigger than people realise and there are public buildings and there are bridges and other issues because the bad mixture is there so I am supporting these amendments and I do think that the government should look at some kind of a group scheme of assessors that would be independent and would be fair. Thank you.
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