Local authorities criticised for not enforcing rental standards

LOCAL AUTHORITIES are failing to enforce standards for rented flats and houses, Minister of State for Housing Michael Finneran has said, with just eight prosecutions taken against errant landlords last year.

Addressing a seminar of local authority housing officers in Dublin yesterday, Mr Finneran said recent legislation he had brought forward had strengthened county and city councils’ powers to enforce standards for rented accommodation.

However, the number of prosecutions taken fell from 25 nationally in 2007 to just eight in 2008 and all of these were taken by Dublin City Council.

Mr Finneran recognised the number of inspections of flats and houses conducted by housing officers had increase substantially, but the success of the regulations depended on “rigorous enforcement”, he said.

“There are still enforcement gaps and some local authorities are not yet delivering in this regard. I also note that prosecutions for breaches of the regulations dropped by 68 per cent last year.”

Prosecutions were not necessarily a measurement of success and he was conscious of the pressure to deliver improved services with fewer resources, he said.

“But now more than ever we must ensure that the weakest in our society are protected – those people on low incomes living at the lower end of the rental market, where there is always a higher probability of substandard accommodation and non-compliance with the regulations.”

Mr Finneran said he intended to “substantially” increase funding for local authorities to enforce standards in 2010.

Lord Mayor of Dublin Emer Costello told the seminar the standard of flats in old sub-divided houses remained particularly poor.

“The North Circular Road type of pre-’63 housing, where old houses are sub-divided into bedsits with shared bathrooms, can leave people living in the most appalling conditions,” she said. It was most disheartening that community welfare officers continued to pay rent allowance for such properties.