Sharp decline in Tipperary landlords joining rental schemes, council told
There has been a sharp decline in the number of Tipperary landlords renting properties to the local authority, raising concerns about the availability of housing for vulnerable tenants.
At the March meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District, Fine Gael councillor Phyll Bugler raised concerns about the numbers of landlords renting their properties to the council under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) or the long-term leasing scheme.
Under RAS, councils pay rent to the landlords, with tenants paying a differential rent to the council, based on their income. Properties must also be let below current market rates.
Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Bugler said that it was getting harder to find properties for people under the scheme.
"It seems to be getting more difficult to get landlords to rent out their properties on RAS, I always thought it was a good scheme for both parties,” Cllr Bugler said.
"Why is the uptake for it so low on the RAS properties, and on the long-term lease? That’s also a very good scheme where we can bring units back into use, and it helps the person who’s trying to develop the property, but it hasn’t really been a success story for us,” she added.
In response, Gillian Barry from the council’s housing section said that recently, the local authority had seen a sharp decline in the number of landlords renting properties on the RAS scheme.
"There has been a steep decline in landlords wanting to rent properties to us under the RAS scheme. The scheme looks for an 8pc reduction in market rent,” Ms Barry said.
"We have to get some reduction on market rent [under the scheme], it may not necessarily be 8pc but we have to get some sort of reduction,” she added.
Ms Barry explained that the council had flexibility to seek a 5pc reduction in market rent rather than 8pc, but added that this needed to be able to be justified to the Department of Housing.
Cllr Bugler asked Ms Barry what comeback the landlord of a property would have if there was damage done to the house by a council tenant.
"It’s under the private rental standards, so they’d have to go to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB),” Ms Barry said.
"The council are not responsible for the tenancy. We do our best to help manage the tenancy, and if there is an issue we will support the landlord, but we’re not responsible for the tenancy,” she added.