About the CDA

Safe As Houses? Report

The issue of defects in apartment blocks and duplexes very much came into the public eye with the problems in Priory Hall in the early noughties. As more and more defective developments came to light, the Oireachtas Housing Committee started to examine the issue in some detail in 2017.

Out of this process, the Safe As Houses? report emerged. It was completed in December 2017 and was published in January 2018 setting out clear proposals to help apartment owners trying to sort out their defective homes including:

  • The establishment of a redress scheme to assist homeowners with latent defects;

  • Provision of an information and advice service for those affected by defects;

  • Redress scheme to be funded through industry levy matched by Government funding, tax write offs or interest-free loans.

Despite the fact that in May 2018, the Dáil voted to support these recommendations, the Government have not yet implemented them. The Construction Defects Alliance has been set up to campaign for the implementation of these proposals.

Creation of Construction Defects Alliance

The Alliance has its origins in the Beacon South Quarter (BSQ) Lobby Group which has been campaigning since 2017 for action for homeowners affected by defects and its work is currently funded by the BSQ Owners’ Management Company (OMC).

Through the BSQ Lobby Group’s campaigning work other individual owners and OMCs approached for support and got involved in the campaign. Ultimately, as the numbers involved began to grow, the Alliance was set up in autumn 2019 as an informal grouping focused on getting redress for apartment owners as proposed by the Safe as Houses? report.

The Construction Defects Alliance involves owners and OMC directors from hundreds of different locations around the country which are affected by construction defects as well as the Apartment Owners' Network and a number of approved housing bodies. It also have active involvement from some of the professionals who are working with the owners and OMCs concerned.

Fit-for-Purpose Remediation Support Scheme

As a result of the Alliance's campaigning work, all of the political parties set out commitments to assist the owners of defective apartments and duplexes if returned to Government. These commitments were reflected in the Programme for Government which contained an undertaking to review the issue of defective homes in the light of the recommendations of the Safe as Houses? report. Out of this promise, the Working Group on Defective Homes was set up and it reported in late July 2022.

The Alliance is now seeking to translate that report into a practical remediation support scheme that will deliver safe and healthy homes to people and ensure that ordinary owners are no liable for the costs of fixing these defects.