Opposition to improving bedsits is OTT on many fronts, says Edel Morgan

FEW CAN put a surreal slant on an issue quite like the Irish Property Owner's Association (IPOA) which issued a press release saying that the Minister for the Environment John Gormley is in "cloud cuckoo land" because he's insisting that all 9,000 bedsits in the country should have their own bathroom facilities.

The IPOA is so incredulous at the suggestion that these units should be self-contained it asks "how grand are we getting?" Anyone would think by this reaction that the Minister is insisting on crema marfil tiling and Jacuzzis with gold-plated taps. Instead he's attempting to drag the bedsit into the 21st century and is giving landlords four years to provide a bog standard (pardon the pun) loo, sink and bath for each unit.

The press release goes on to make bizarre comparisons: "Does that mean when we go into hospital that we get a separate bathroom? Does it mean that when some of the people that currently live in these bedsits will get a separate bathroom in their hostel accommodation?"

Bedsit tenants are often among the poorest and most vulnerable members of society and a spokeswoman for the IPOA says the reality is that bedsits are "the most affordable accommodation that's out there". She says a landlord recently told her the rooms in his property aren't big enough for bathrooms and he'd have to reduce the number of units from seven to four at a cost of around €200,000. If he does it, she contends the renovated one-beds will command a higher rent than existing tenants can pay.

She says bedsit tenants - some of whom are older, have mental health issues or alcoholism problems - will have to move out of their homes while renovations are going on. Rents will go up and some landlords will use this "to get rid of a tenant they'd prefer not to have".

Sadly, she probably has a point and it could end up being a catch 22 situation but the IPOA press release is full of sweeping statements that the measures will result in homelessness in "mass proportions" and incur unnecessary costs to have "needless alterations" to existing "comfortable" accommodation.

What the new standards require - apart from a separate bathroom - is that basics like an oven, fridge, freezer, sink with draining area and microwave are supplied, that rooms have adequate heating and ventilation, washing facilities and vermin-free refuse storage, as well as smoke alarms and fire blankets.

The people I knew living in them were young low paid civil servants in the 1990s who knew it was a temporary stopgap until they could afford something better. Not everyone is so lucky, says Bob Jordan of Threshold and many of today's bedsit tenants are poor with some experience of homelessness "and will probably spend most of the rest of their lives, if not the rest of their lives there. Obviously society can do better than a shoebox on the North Circular Road where you have to share a toilet with strangers."

He says a typical large pre-63 period house will be divided into up to 20 units. "If you do the maths a conservative estimate is €700 a month which is €168,000 a year." He says the current regulations dating back to 1993 "are hopelessly out of date" and so vague they are difficult to interpret or enforce.

But does the IPOA have a point about landlords selling up and people being left homeless? "If some bail out, they are welcome to leave, particularly if they are providing substandard accommodation to vulnerable people. It's a perfect time to introduce these measures with a huge influx of rental stock on the market and landlords looking for tenants," says Jordan.

The IPOA spokeswoman says the current flood of rental accommodation is temporary and many of these units will be sold as soon as the market picks up. She says while the IPOA doesn't believe that anyone should have to live in substandard accommodation, people sharing rented properties often have to share a bathroom. "I share a bathroom, ok it's with my family but I'm the one that has to clean the toilet."