Local authority tenants owe at least €32m in rent to councils
The most recent figures show that in Dublin City alone, up to 13,400 tenants and their families owe €19.5m in rent.
In Cork City, rent arrears at the end of 2010 stood at €2.6m and 54% of the families have been in arrears for more than six months.
In Galway City, €2.53m is owed by tenants, while in the Dun Laoighaire/ Rathdown local authority area, €3.14m in rent was owed to the local council at the end of last year, with €2.1m of this more than six months outstanding. In Fingal, the local authority was down another €2.2m due to arrears at the start of this year.
The amount of tenants in rent arrears in the Cork County Council area is noticeably smaller with just €617,499, while in Limerick City, it stands at €427,206.
In Kerry County Council, just €289,000 is owed. Waterford City Council did not supply the figures when requested.
A Dublin City Council spokesman said that “any shortfall in one area has to be compensated for in another area”, while at Cork City Hall and Cork County Hall, officials explained that failure to pay rent meant that vacant local authority houses were being left boarded up as the council couldn’t afford to renovate them.
“Any shortfall in rental income has an effect on resources that can be spent in relation to maintenance of the city council rental stock,” a Cork City Hall spokesman said.
Evictions have taken place due to non payment of rent. In the Dublin City Council area, nine evictions took place in 2010, while there was one eviction in Galway City.
No evictions took place in Cork City, but court orders were granted to the council to evict tenants for non-payment of rent.
