Authorities owed 30m in unpaid housing rent

LOCAL authorities are owed almost 30 million in unpaid rent from council housing tenants.

The level of arrears has risen by 10% per year in recent years, despite the economic boom. Dublin’s four local authorities account for more than half the rent arrears nationally, according to Government figures.

Money from rent is ploughed back into maintenance and refurbishment of local authority houses and estates. However, because so much money is owed to local authorities, they cannot afford to carry out repair work, resulting in longer delays for those on housing waiting lists.

The latest available statistics for 2000, 2001 and 2002, obtained by Fine Gael environment spokesman Bernard Allen from Minister for Housing Noel Ahern, show the arrears have steadily risen by 5 million during that period alone, from almost 24 million to almost 30 million.

Tenants putting the payment of multi-channel and nights out ahead of the rent are being blamed for a large percentage of arrears.

Rent rates are assessed by a means test of income and can be as low as 15 a week, or just 11% of income in some cases. Yet despite lengthy waiting lists for accommodation, some tenants refuse to pay bills, irrespective of their income.

Local authorities issue a 13-stage warning to force tenants to pay up. Eviction threats are only issued if the bill is substantial.

The massive arrears highlight the inefficiencies of the rental system operated by local authorities, Deputy Allen said.

“I find local authorities are lenient enough, quite rightly, when there is genuine hardship but the scale of these figures warrant answers. Clearly the payment of rent in some cases is low priority and it comes after the multi-channel and the night out,” he said.

The Department of the Environment said collection of rents was entirely a matter for local authorities.

While the department does not get involved in the issue, a spokesperson pointed out that tenants cannot move to other local authority housing if existing accommodation is in arrears Youghal Town Council in Co Cork is the only local authority in the country with no rent arrears. The knock-on effect of failure to bring in rents is a shortfall in money available for housing maintenance and vacated houses are lying idle as cash-strapped local authorities cannot afford to refurbish them.

“It is a scandal that you have thousands of families on housing waiting lists and then houses are boarded up because there is no funding to refurbish them.

“It begs the question should local authorities be subcontracting out housing maintenance and rent collection,” Deputy Allen added.