Any unpaid levies on 62-65 North Main St to be deducted from cost of council acquisition
Cork City Council will use legislation allowing local authorities to deduct dereliction levies and other costs from the Compulsory Purchase Order value, they have confirmed.
Unpaid dereliction levies, any outstanding rates and other costs to Cork City Council will be deducted from the cost of the local authority acquiring four prominent derelict buildings on North Main Street in Cork city centre.
The crumbling historic buildings, owned by brothers David, Bryan and Pádraig O’Connor, have been on the derelict sites register since 2015.
By 2019, €84,000 in dereliction levies was outstanding on these and other properties owned by the O’Connors, including 118 and 119 Barrack Street, which were acquired by the local authority last December.
The brothers’ clothing companies, Suits Distributors Ltd and Suits Distributors International Ltd, were appointed a liquidator in 2013, according to documents held by the Companies Registration Office.
David O’Connor made a €983,000 settlement with Revenue in 2017 for undeclared income tax and VAT.
Dereliction levies used to be calculated at 3% of a property’s value per year until 2020, when this was increased to 7% per year.
Cork City Council said they could not confirm whether dereliction levies or rates had been paid on 62-65 North Main Street to date.
An Bord Pleanála granted permission to Cork City Council to acquire 62-65 North Main Street by Compulsory Purchase Order last Friday.
The next step is for a “notice of vesting” to be served to the owners of the buildings, who can then apply for compensation to the tune of the value of the properties, which can be agreed by arbitration if the owners and the council fail to agree a value.
However, the Derelict Sites Act 1990 makes provision for derelict sites levies and other costs, including rates, to be deducted by the council from the amount to be compensated.
“Cork City Council will be seeking the deductions as set out under the act,” a press spokesperson confirmed via email to Tripe + Drisheen.
Cork City Council also paid for emergency repair works to the historic buildings in 2020, following the partial collapse of number 63 in 2019. These costs are also deductable.
62 North Main Street was built in around 1820, according to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, while number 63 and number 64 date back to the 1760s.
I do believe that this has come about as a result of the good work by Jude Sherry and Frank O’Connor drawing attention to dereliction, and the legal clarifications by Joe Noonan. Campaigns like this can create action.