Local authorities owed €105m in unpaid rent

Local authorities across the State are owed almost €105 million in unpaid rent, with 285 social housing tenants having arrears in excess of €20,000 each, new figures show.

A number of councils have indicated they have taken, or will take, legal action on the issue due to the level of rent arrears.

Figures compiled by The Irish Times show that across all of the 31 local authorities €104,770,709 is overdue in rent from council tenants.

Council housing rents are based on a system called “differential rents”, meaning the amount of rent a tenant pays depends on the amount of their total household income. When a tenant’s income increases so does their rent, and if income decreases the rent decreases accordingly.

Election campaigns well under way as Ming pips the first televised debate

---

They say ‘Dublin 1 is for the far-right’ and threaten to kill a politician, yet Ireland ignores the threat

---

Unregulated student digs: A home away from home or an isolating experience?

---

Rise in school absenteeism: ‘Some stay up too late on their phones until 3 or 4am’

---

The councils said they work with tenants who may be in financial difficulty or that have fallen into rent arrears so a payment plan can be put in place. Some arrears arise due to timing between when the rent charge is raised and payment is received.

Dublin City Council, the largest local authority, is owed the highest amount of arrears at €38,484,000. It also has the highest number of tenants who owe in excess of €20,000 at 144.

A council spokeswoman said it takes legal action on an “ongoing basis” against tenants who are refusing to engage . Between January and July 2022, 101 tenancy warnings were issued by the council, 38 cases had been heard by the District Court, while 98 cases were scheduled to end by the end of the year. There were also five orders of possession by the end of July, the council said.

Among the other Dublin councils Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council is owed €5,811,285; Fingal County Council owed €8,600,000; and South Dublin County Council is owed €11,208,117.

A spokeswoman for Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council said it has issued letters to tenants with arrears of more than €10,000.

Fingal said it has three open cases with the courts for a repossession order. It said 116 tenancies were on a warning, with a large number moving to warnings in the coming months.

Westmeath and Monaghan County Councils are owed the least amount at more than €300,000 each, while Offaly County Council is owed some €481,000.

Most figures are for arrears as of the end of June and July. However, some councils only had figures available until the end of last year.