Call on Minister to force local authorities to protect tenants’ living conditions

The Government must intervene with local authorities failing to enforce minimum living conditions for people living in the private rented sector, the largest housing charity in the State has said.

Threshold, which published its annual report today, has found almost one third of all local authorities did not even know inspection of private-rented dwellings was their responsibility, while others, when carrying out inspections were referring to regulations that had been out of date since 2008.

Among the worst local authorities, which carried out no inspectsionat all of private-rented dwellings last year, were Drogheda Borough Council, Ennis Town Council, Navan Town Council and Letterkenny Town Council.

The survey also found that where standards were found to be below an acceptable level, local authorities were failing to serve notice on landlords to improve the dwellings.

For example, Cork City Council, which found 283 of the 589 dwellings it inspected were not meeting regulatory standards, did not serve improvement notices on a single landlord.

Aideen Hayden, chair of Threshold said over 1,600 people contacted its helpline last year because of “unacceptable living conditions” including broken heating systems, poor ventilation, broken cooking facilities and dampness.

In a significant number of cases, landlords were refusing to carry out repairs while in others tenants were afraid to complain for fear of losing their home. Local authorities were to blame for allowing such living conditions to continue and it was up to the Department of the Environment now to step in and call ineffective local authorities to task, said Senator Hayden.

“The Minister should intervene with individual local authorities which are failings. Local authorities just haven’t stepped up to the plate, so we are asking the Minister to look at a certification system, so that before a landlord can let a property they must have a certificate saying their property is fit for purpose.”

Minister of State for Housing Jan O’Sullivan said there was a “very variable standard” of inspections.

“We will contact [the local authorities] from the Department. The issue of standards is of serious importance to me and to the Department.”

She also promised a ‘deposit protection’ scheme, to address the illegal retention of tenants’ deposit by some landlords, would be introduced “early next year”.

Bob Jordan, chief executive of Threshold, said landlords' refusal to return deposits to tenants once they left their rented accommodation remained the number one reason people contacted the charity for help.

Ms O’Sullivan said the issue had been one of “particular concern” to her for a number of years. “I believe the establishment of a deposit protection scheme will address this issue,” she said. “I look forward to introducing it.”

The details of the scheme would be worked out over the "next few months" and she noted such schemes worked well in Britain and Northern Ireland.

Mr Jordan said the introduction of such a scheme would be “the single biggest things that could be done to increase the reputation of the private rented sector and to protect low-income households”.