Marina Village Residents Hit Troubled Waters

Baby, you can’t park your car…

eflecting just how difficult it has become for some of the residents down at Marina Village, one couple has decided it’s easier just to terminate their Valerian apartment tenancy and walk away.

And it all started over the simple issue of parking spaces.

It’s an issue that has now resulted in legal action, but’s just one of the frustrations some residents have faced, with a series of unresolved snags still unaddressed since the building was completed seven months ago.

The Valerian apartments in Marina Village are owned by German investor Real IS, and a two-bed in this highly desirable Greystones seafront property can cost over €4,400 a month.

Which is the sort of money that you would assume comes with a definite parking space.

Only, many of the residents find themselves returning from work, or errands, only to find their parking space has been taken. By someone who isn’t paying over €4,400 a month to live beside the seaside.

One such resident, Paul Aitken, got in touch with us in June about the escalating situation, and try as we might, we haven’t been able to get any answers to this problem. And neither have Paul and his fellow Valerians.

Which is why those residents have lodged disputes with the Residental Tenancies Board (RTB) after they were served with warnings from MD Property and Living, the company managing the apartments on behalf of Real IS.

Real Is own over 100 apartments in Marina Village, which they bought from Glenveagh Properties in 2021. It went on to buy another 33 apartments and parking spaces in 2022.

Paul and his wife decided to withhold €230 of their €2,825 rent in protest following legal advice, stating, “Withholding the rent was a last ditch attempt to get the managing agent to do its job“. For their part, MD Property claim that Real IS only part-own the common areas. “We have no control over parking,” it said in an email, “it is an estate management issue.”

Ramazin Sahin, Paul Aitken, Francois Marais, Rosina Lauri. Pic: Steve Humphreys Irish Indo

The Aitkens aren’t the only ones reaching their wits end with the situation. Retired couple Stewart Gray and Rosina Lauri made the move from Waterford to Greystones to be nearer their grandchildren, but have found Marina Village “an absolute nightmare”. Last month, they withheld their €2,400 rent and have subsequently been issued with a rent arrears warning notice.

Another resident, Barry Orr, took his dog for a walk after having returned home to see his parking space taken, and so parked behind the cuckoo in his nest. He was soon contacted by the Greystones garda, who told him the owner of the car had reported him for “causing obstruction”. When he returned, there was also a note on his windscreen calling him a wanker.

“It’s like Russian roulette,” he told the Indo. “You never know if your space will be there, and it causes a lot of anxiety.”

MD Property And Living got in touch with residents earlier this month, to say that enforcement measures would be introduced, including the just-installed new plaques identifying the parking spaces as private. Residents have argued that, given that these signs are “small and hard to see”, their arrival has made “little to no difference”.

Digital parking permits are also set to be introduced, but the residents feel nothing short of a fear of being clamped will stop the repeat offenders.

We have emailed Real IS and MD Property And Living for their response to the above concerns and the growing dispute.