1. Ref: 91453
Name: Trustees of Christian Young Mens Club (CYMC)
Locus: Plot of Land situate at the rear of 80 – 108 Philipsburgh Avenue
A lease was entered into with the trustees of the Christian Young Men’s Club and Dublin Corporation on 2nd May 1988 for a period of 99 years. The Lease is stated to be for sporting and recreational and community purposes only. The consent of the Council is required under a separate covenant in the Lease whenever a sale of the property is proposed. These two provisions serve to ensure that the use as stated in the Lease is preserved.
The Council is informed that the club got into financial difficulties in 1991 and a number of the trustees and/or club members took an assignment of the 1988 lease in their own names without seeking the consent of the Corporation. The Council is informed that a new club called the Fairview CYMC/LC (1991) was formed and that this club took a short term sub-lease of the pitch & putt grounds from new owners in November 1991. Again the consent of the Council was not sought. The Council is not aware that any other formal lease was concluded with this club when this sub-lease expired in 1994. The Valuer’s Office in the Council was first notified of these events in 2008 on a rent review. It was confirmed by the owners solicitors at the time, that the property “is continually and has been continually used as a pitch & putt club and will be so used by the club indefinitely”.
The Council was informed that Fairview CYMC/LC 1991 got into financial difficulties in 2013 and was dissolved as and from 31 March 2013. The legal status of the property came into focus at that time when the new club “Fairview CY Pitch & Putt Club” expressed their interest in taking a lease of the sports grounds. The Council has not received any application for consent to an assignment from the owners.
The owners of the leasehold of the pitch & putt lands have indicated to the Council that the grounds are continually in use as a pitch & putt club and that they intend that use to continue indefinitely. They have been asked by the Council to regularise the current occupation of the property in accordance with the terms of the lease. They have indicated that it is their intention to do so. The Council’s legal interest in the property is as ground landlord and the Council’s legal relationship is with the current leaseholders and not with the trustees of the latest new club.
It is a matter for the owners and the current users to enter into an arrangement regarding the occupation of the land. Any proposed disposal or assignment requires the prior written consent of the Council. DCC as Landlord will also be entitled to seek to ensure that there is compliance with the “user” clause in the Lease.
-----------------------------------
Yvonne Kelly,
Senior Executive Solicitor
21/10/2014
