Call for tenant deposits to protect council houses

TENANTS who rent houses from local authorities should pay a deposit which would be unreturnable if they damage the property.

That was the demand of a member of Cork County Council after it was revealed the local authority spent nearly €6 million repairing housing stock over a three-year period.

Cllr Patrick O’Driscoll said he was shocked that the repair bill from 2008 to 2010 amounted to €5,821,809.

However, he was unable to get a breakdown of how many houses were repaired and what type of cost was incurred in some cases.

The Fine Gael councillor said he would continue to seek the information from council officials as he thought it was vitally important.

“Cork County Council have in the region of 4,000 social housing units. If, for instance, 20% of these became vacant over those three years, the average cost of repair and refurbishment would be over €7,200 per unit,” Cllr O’Driscoll said.

“But that is only an estimation as the council do not have this information readily available, and I’ve been told it would take a long time to go through every file to get the information. I have stressed the need for this information to be retained in a computer file for ease of access.”

The councillor recently raised the issue of the cost of repairing a local authority-owned house in north Cork.

“It cost Fermoy Town Council €65,000 to repair one house while, at the same time, houses with little need of repair are left vacant because of a lack of funds to repair them,” Mr O’Driscoll said. “The turnover of vacant social houses can be slow. And while I and other councillors have repeatedly suggested tenants be allowed to undertake some work on houses offered to them — painting, replacing flooring — the council is unwilling to allow tenants to do this.”

He has proposed a deposit scheme should be considered for social housing.

“Tenants who leave houses in a condition that is beyond normal wear and tear should not be allowed to walk away with no sanction and, in some cases, even be re-housed by another local authority. If a deposit scheme was in place it would act as a deterrent against poor maintenance of social houses, and in the event of a good tenant leaving or buying the council out the deposit would be returned,” Mr O’Driscoll added.