Escalation of council rent arrears

Local family told they are €4,000 behind

Tipperary Co Council had rent arrears of over €1.8 million at the end of last January, an increase of almost €500,000 on the previous month.

The arrears figure could be attributed to tenants not returning rent review forms. But many are struggling to pay rent, and a recent meeting of the council’s Nenagh Municipal District heard that one family received a letter from the council indicating that they had arrears of €4,000.

Cllr Séamie Morris reiterated his call for a special meeting on the local housing situation. He said the council's ability to provide housing is waning, with Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) landlords withdrawing their accommodation. Private rental demand has gone up by in some cases €300 or €400 per month, and this has created a major problem of people who need accommodation but don't qualify for the council's housing list. Council rents went up by €53 per week in Nenagh in some cases following the rent review of 2018, and now the rent is being reviewed again.

Cllr Morris referenced figures showing that Tipperary Co Council's rent arrears stood at €1,290,441 last September. They increased to €1,349,103 in December and stood at €1,817,265 in January.

Senior Executive Officer Seán Lonergan said the arrears figure is not as high; it presently stands at around €1.5 million. Tipperary Co Council has a 98% rent collection rate, which is one of the highest in the country outside Dublin.

Mr Lonergan made the point that if tenants do not engage with the council's Housing section, they are charged the maximum rent. He encouraged people in difficulty to contact the council and said everything possible would be done to help them.

‘SLEEPLESS NIGHTS’

Cllr Ger Darcy said he knew of a family who received a letter from the council stating that they were €4,000 in arrears. “They weren't even aware of it,” he said, suggesting that greater communication is needed over rent arrears, and that the situation “causes people sleepless nights”.

Mr Lonergan said there must be a reason for this and that tenants paying rent regularly should not have amassed such a high amount of arrrears. Every tenant in the county has been written to as part of the present review and asked to submit their details. Anyone with issues should engage with the Housing section. “The last thing we want to do is frighten anyone,” he said.

Mr Lonergan informed the meeting that are around 3,400 people on the council's housing list. Around 60% of these are in receipt of HAP. While the council is losing HAP landlords, it has also been gaining eight new landlords per week under the same scheme. RAS landlords are pulling out largely due to the prices that houses are currently making but there are still in excess of 800 RAS landlords in the county, and the council has been successful in minimising the numbers leaving the scheme.

Tipperary Co Council has exceeded every target set for it by the Department of Housing, and it is one of the few local authorities to introduce a scheme to assist people in difficulty with HAP scheme payments. The housing shortcomings lie with the private sector.

“We're doing everything we can and will continue to do so,” Mr Lonergan said. “If any client has an issue with rent, come in and talk to us.”

Cllr Michael O'Meara said the message should go out that it is important for people to engage with the council and that problems can be resolved by talking to the Housing staff.