19.— (1) An owners’ management company shall establish a building investment fund (in this Act referred to as a “sinking fund”) for the purpose of discharging expenditure reasonably incurred on—

(a) the refurbishment,

(b) improvement,

(c) maintenance of a non-recurring nature, or

(d) advice from a suitably qualified person relating to paragraphs (a) to (c),

of the multi-unit development in respect of which the owners’ management company stands established.

(2) Expenditure shall be regarded as being expenditure on maintenance of a non-recurring nature where—

(a) the expenditure relates to a matter in respect of which expenditure is not generally incurred in each year,

(b) it is certified by the directors of the owners’ management company as being expenditure on maintenance of a non-recurring nature, and

(c) the expenditure is approved by a meeting of the members of the owners’ management company as being expenditure of a non-recurring nature.

(3) The owner of each unit in a multi-unit development (including a person who is the developer or building contractor of the development) shall be obliged to make payment to the sinking fund of the amount of contribution fixed in respect of the unit concerned in accordance with this section.

(4) For the purposes of this section a developer or building contractor, as the case may be, shall be regarded to be the owner of a unit in a multi-unit development the first sale of which unit has not been completed, as and from the day on which the first sale of a residential unit in the relevant part of the development is closed.

(5) Subject to subsection (6) the amount of the contribution to be paid as respects a unit by each unit owner of such a unit to the sinking fund in respect of a particular year shall be the amount of €200 or such other amount as may be agreed by a meeting of the members as the contribution in respect of the year concerned.

(6) The obligation to establish a sinking fund and to make contributions to such fund shall apply on the happening of the later of—

(a) the passing of a period of 3 years since the first transfer of the ownership of a unit in the multi-unit development concerned, or

(b) the expiry of 18 months from the coming into operation of this section.

(7) The contributions made to the sinking fund shall be held in a separate account and in a manner which identifies these funds as belonging to the sinking fund and such funds shall not be used or expended on matters other than expenditure of a type referred to in subsection (1).

(8) Where a dispute arises in relation to whether assets of an owners’ management company should properly be applied to the sinking fund account or the annual service charges account the dispute may be the subject of an application under section 24.

(9) The Minister may, for the purpose of advancing the objective of the fair, prudent, effective and efficient operation of owners’ management companies and the fair, prudent, efficient and effective management of the common areas of multi-unit developments, make regulations prescribing—

(a) a class or classes of expenditure which may be incurred by a sinking fund,

(b) the procedures to be followed in setting contributions to the sinking fund,

(c) the matters to be taken into account in the setting of such contributions,

(d) the arrangements for the levying and payment of such contributions, and

(e) the thresholds of expenditure (by reference to amounts of expenditure or by reference to the proportion of the sinking fund) which necessitate approval of the members of the owners’ management company.