One third of rented housing substandard

SHOCKING new official figures show that a third of rented properties inspected during 2005 failed to meet minimum standards.

They also show that only a tiny proportion of private rented dwellings were inspected, despite a requirement on local authorities to do so.

The figures were disclosed in the Department of Environment’s Annual Housing Statistics Bulletin for 2005, published this week.

Local authorities inspected only 6,815 of the 150,000 rented properties throughout the country.

In addition, 19 city and county councils failed to carry out a single inspection in 2005. These included Limerick city and county councils, as well as Cork and Galway county councils.

The continuing problem with slum landlords and substandard accommodation was partly acknowledged by the department yesterday.

In a statement it accepted that the level of enforcement by a number of local authorities was unsatisfactory. It said this was despite adequate funding from the department, as well as repeated requests to local authorities for greater prioritisation.

But Threshold, the national housing organisation, called on the Government to tackle slum landlords by introducing new minimum standards legislation.

Its director Patrick Burke said that minimum standards meant a threshold that was very minimal indeed.

Many of the 2,000 properties found to be substandard lacked basic necessities that would be considered acceptable today.

“It is totally unacceptable that people are forced to live in windowless flats, sleep in bedrooms covered in mildew or make do without hot running water,” said Mr Burke.

Threshold dealt with 800 individual cases in 2005, some involving squalid conditions.

Threshold also berated the failure of some local authorities to carry out any inspections last year, contending it was sending out the wrong message to rogue landlords.

The department said yesterday that the junior minister with responsibility, Noel Ahern, would intensify efforts to promote further improvement in standards.

Among the measures Mr Ahern proposes is a penalty on local authorities who fail to fulfil their obligations. The €1.6 million annual funding will be performance-related in future.

The figures also show that legal action was initiated in only 11 cases, nine of them in Dublin. The four local authorities in Dublin city and county accounted for some 5,400 of the 6,600 inspections carried out.