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BOARDED-UP HOUSES and crumbling buildings are a common feature of towns and cities across Ireland.
Derelict buildings contribute significantly to Ireland’s housing crisis, and bringing them back into use is one of the Government’s strategies for addressing social housing shortfalls and getting more homes on the market.
Last month, the compulsory purchase order (CPO) process commenced for just six properties in two council areas.
Under laws introduced in 1990, every local council keeps a Derelict Sites Register to encourage owners to bring vacant houses and land into use through the imposition of an annual levy of 7% of the property’s market value, which applies until the site is no longer derelict.
When someone objects to a local authority’s attempt to obtain a property via the CPO process, the council can make an application to An Coimisiún Pleanála to do so.
The Housing Act also allows local authorities to acquire vacant homes via CPO, which they also must apply to do via the commission.
The process is similar to making a planning application, and the board weighs up submissions from the council and the owner of the land before deciding whether a site can be subject to a CPO.
The number of properties that councils try to CPO via the commission every month is relatively small – records show that just 44 applications were made via the Compulsory Housing Acquisition Act in the whole of 2024.
The Journal has been keeping track of the vacant and derelict properties that councils have sought to acquire in previous months.
Last month, just two local authorities – Cork County Council and Limerick City and County Council – applied to the commission to CPO a number of properties.
Limerick applied to CPO four different properties, and has become nationally renowned as the council that is leading efforts to end dereliction.
A government report published in April this year outlined how Limerick accounted for more than half of all CPOs in Ireland between 2019 and 2023 – largely down to using funding to tackle dereliction and adequately staffing the council unit responsible.
On 8 September, Cork County Council applied to the planning commission to acquire a derelict property known as Rock Cottage near Ringaskiddy under the Compulsory Acquisition Derelict Site Act.
The property is located on a small parcel of land, just off a crescent-shaped road near several other houses that overlook Ringaskiddy port.
This property appears to have been long abandoned.
Images submitted as part of the council’s application shows that the cottage is in a poor state of repair: it is surrounded by railings, its windows are boarded up with wood, and it is almost completely overgrown with foliage.
According to a report that was also attached to the submission, it’s not known who owns the property; a Miss Frances Ahern was listed as the owner in 2011, but she is believed to be deceased and searches to find another owner since have proved inconclusive.
After the council announced its intention to acquire the property, it received two objections, including from a nephew of Ahern who claims to have a 1/7th interest in the cottage.
The council sought documentary evidence of this claim by 8 August, and said it would proceed with the CPO process if this was not received.
On 25 September, Limerick City and County Council applied to the commission to acquire a number of properties via the CPO process.
One of those was based at 47 Windmill Street, a boarded up two-storey property near the River Shannon and close to the historic core of Limerick city.
According to the council’s inspection report, the house has been in a state of dereliction for a “considerable period” of time and its owner has been identified.
The owner is reported to have told the council that it was broken into and vandalised in January 2024, and that he was still “coming and going from the property” but did not have money to do it up.
The council notified Shanahan in October 2024 that it intended to add the property to its derelict sites register, and was told by him the following month that he was living at the address.
In December 2024, the council was contacted by a teacher from the nearby school voicing concerns that Gardaí had investigated anti-social behaviour on the site a number of times, including drug use, which was “causing concern to families using the school”.
The council’s report notes that in March of this year, an inspector observed anti-social activity at the property “with unknown individuals freely entering and exiting the site”.
“The adjoining neighbours to this derelict site and the rest of the local community live with and endure the ongoing neglect, decay, and unsightly nature of this property,” the report says.
“It detracts from their own well-kept residences and impacts on the enjoyment of their locality of which they are most proud.”
The council said in its application to An Comisiún Pleanála that the property continues to attract negative attention, and demonstrates a failure on behalf of its owner to resolve the issue, making CPO the only way to bring the property back into use.
Another of the properties that Limerick’s local authority applied to CPO on 25 September was a mid-terrace premises at 43 Nicholas Street, which is also in the city.
The property consists of a shuttered mid-terrace commercial premises with an overgrown rear yard, which a council report says has unsecured entrances with signs of trespass and squatters.
The council contacted the reputed owner of the property in January 2024, but received no initial response; several further attempts were made to contact the owner throughout last year without reply.
In June of this year, an inspector from the council successfully contacted the owner about entering the site on the derelict sites register, and was told the owner was not aware of the council’s plans and had no plans to address the issue.
The owner told the council that she was open to the council purchasing the site, but submitted an objection when the council sought to do this in July of this year.
Her solicitors told the council that the owner is in ill health and wishes instead to put the property up for sale on the private market.
The council is continuing in its attempts to acquire the property via CPO.
Limerick City and County Council also applied to CPO a derelict end-of-terrace property in the town of Cappamore, located about 24km east of Limerick city.
The property has been derelict for a considerable period of time, and is described in a council report as being in a state of disrepair despite it being an architecturally listed building that is located just outside an Architectural Conservation Area.
The council previously identified the owner of the house and attempted to purchase it in 2018 under the government’s Buy and Renew scheme, which aims to bring old houses back into use.
However, the council’s offer was declined by the owner at the time and the property has been on the Derelict Sites Register since 2020.
The council then made an attempt to acquire the property via CPO in 2021, but was refused permission by An Bord Pleanála to give the owner time to address the dereliction on the site.
When the council noticed the site was still derelict last year, it followed up with the owner but did not receive any response and another application to CPO the site was submitted.
In August, the owner’s solicitor finally contacted the council to object to the intended CPO, claiming that the owner had health issues that prevented him from resolving the dereliction at the property.
The objection also said the owner still intended to renovate the property and requested another three months to do so.
However, the council report noted that this request did not “reflect positively on the owner’s track record” of tackling dereliction and contended that CPO was the only option to bring the property back into use.
Another CPO application was submitted by Limerick City and County Council for a mid-terrace house on Rosbrien Road on the outskirts of the city.
An inspector’s report submitted by the council as part of its application notes that the house is severely derelict, with overgrown vegetation and an accumulation of litter on the site where it is located.
In 2023, the council unsuccessfully attempted to contact the owner of the site notifying them of its intention to place it on the Derelict Sites Register.
A man claiming to be the godson of the deceased owner of the property then contacted the council in January 2024 saying that a number of people had an interest in the house.
A number of relatives of the deceased owner then contacted the council over the following months, including a woman who claimed that family members were trying to take care of the house.
After the council said it intended to CPO the site in July of this year, a nephew of the deceased owner objected and said that the house was going through probate and that the executors of the owner’s will were willing to rectify the issue of dereliction.
However, a council report noted that neighbours had complained to the local authority about the impact of the site on them and the locality, and that it was “too late” for the issue of dereliction to be tackled by relatives of the deceased.
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