Calls in Cork for the Council to ‘blacklist’ substandard housing

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

Substandard housing should be blacklisted by Cork County Council so that the landlords who own them don’t receive any further housing support payments until the accommodation passes inspection by local authority inspectors, a Cork councillor has said.

In a motion at this week’s meeting of Cork County Council, Cllr Ger Curley called on the local authority to stop all payments to a landlord’s property after a tenant has received social housing from the council under the unfit conditions criteria.

“The reason for this motion is because of recent social housing allocation,” the Cllr said, in reference to a specific town “in which three families were allocated housing because of the unfit housing criteria. In fact, those accommodations were so bad they should be classed as slums owned by slum landlords. My fear is that these apartments will be leased out again without any upgrades having been carried out,” the Independent Ireland councillor said.

Cllr Curley described the properties in question as having “no heating, very little ventilation, damp and dangerous conditions, and a complete disregard for fire safety. The majority of landlords are decent and have their property in great condition but the rogue landlords are a disgrace.”

“I’m calling on any premises that has been perceived as unfit for human habitation to be put on a restriction list for financial support by Cork County Council for HAP [Housing Assistance Payment] or any support until substantial work has been carried out and that this premises is inspected by housing staff before support is given out again,” he said.

Cllr Curley’s motion was widely supported. Cllr Sinead Sheppard said “it's just a vicious circle that we're in with these landlords. We're paying out HAP for some of these properties and the condition that they're in is actually deplorable. It leads to pressure on us to try and house these people really quickly. We're housing them to get them out of this situation but then the landlords are going back and re-renting the same properties.”

Cllr Sheila O’Callaghan said the issue is “quite prevalent throughout the county” while Cllr Mary Linehan Foley said “every councillor has it in every area, we’re well aware of it every day of the week. It's a vicious cycle, unfortunately, because people will take anywhere because they have no other place to go.”

Cork County Council Divisional Manager Michael Lynch, in answering the motion, said that the council has a dedicated inspection team for private rented dwellings. Local authorities are required to commence the inspection process within eight months of HAP support being provided, if the dwelling was not already inspected within the previous 12 months. If there are issues with the property the inspectors will issue improvement notices and, in the absence of progress, prohibition notices.

Cllr Curley responded that he isn’t satisfied with the eight-month timeframe. “It needs to be done straightaway, otherwise that property is given out and rent is collected. What I'm saying is that that property should be blacklisted before any other payment goes in there.”