Elderly residents in Dublin complex face 26% rise in rents

Residents of a State-funded senior citizens’ complex in Dublin face a 26 per cent rise in the rent charged by the Catholic housing body that owns the apartments.

Chief executive of the Housing Agency John O'Connor has questioned the reasons for the rent increase given by the Catholic Housing Aid Society.

Fr Scully House is a complex of 99 apartments near Mountjoy Square which was completed in late 2014 at a cost of €17 million.

It was at the centre of a seven-month rent dispute between the society and Dublin City Council which was resolved just over a year ago.

The society wanted to charge an average monthly rent of €580 for the apartments, but the council had argued the average weekly rent for housing built under the State-funded Capital Assistance Scheme was €66 to €68.

Following the intervention by Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and the Housing Agency, two separate rent agreements were reached.

First agreement

Under the first agreement, 23 tenants who had been residents of the old Fr Scully House complex, before its demolition and regeneration, would continue to pay the monthly rent of €316 that they were paying when the agreement was reached at the end of December 2014.

In February 2015, the council agreed a monthly rent for the 76 remaining apartments, which were to be allocated to older people on the city council’s housing waiting list, of €400.

In a letter to the 23 tenants on December 9th, the society’s directors said they had agreed to “maintain your rent at present levels and not request a deposit”.

However, a letter received by the same residents in recent days states that it had been agreed in December 2014 that “your rent would remain the same for the first year of your tenancy”.

The society had been put under “severe financial pressure due to new government regulations being imposed on voluntary housing charities”, the letter said and its board had “reluctantly decided” to increase the monthly rent to €400.

Lack of consultation

“Amongst the new statutory requirements are the need to put aside c.30 per cent of rents received for future repairs and maintenance and the obligation to register with the new Residential Tenancies Board.”

Mr O’Connor said these claims lacked legitimacy. “There is no requirement for 30 per cent of rental income to be put into a sinking fund. Obviously it’s important to have an adequate sinking fund in place, but there is no statutory requirement.”

In relation to the registration with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), Mr O'Connor said: "From April 1st approved housing bodies have to register with the PRTB.

“It costs €45 per tenancy, that’s half what private landlords have to pay, and it’s per tenancy, not per year, so if their tenant stays for 10 years they don’t have to pay it again.”

Mr O’Connor added that he would have expected the city council to be consulted before there was any change to rent structures.

A spokesman for the society said the tenants had been “informed verbally” their rent would be reviewed after a year.

These tenants were receiving the same services as those on higher rents he added.

He also cited the costs associated with PRTB registration and the statutory requirement to set aside 30 per cent of rental income for future repairs.