Homelessness warning over deposits
The housing advice agency said many tenants could face losing their accommodation because their buy-to-let landlord might be in serious arrears.
In 2011 Threshold intervened and offered advice in more than 23,000 cases, but had to deal with 3,259 cases where landlords were holding onto a deposit.
The problem is becoming more pronounced due to the growth of the private rented sector and the importance of a deposit to allow movement between properties.
Threshold chairman Aideen Hayden said while the private rented sector is growing, home ownership has fallen back to 1970s levels and more than 98,000 households are on waiting lists for social housing.
“The illegal retention of tenants’ deposits by landlords was the most common problem encountered by Threshold,” she said.
“A typical deposit of €800 can represent the lifesavings of a low-income tenant. The loss of such an amount can lead to destitution and homelessness.”
Ms Hayden said in most cases deposit retention was completely unwarranted.
“In almost 80% of deposit retention cases that go before the Private Residential Tenancies Board [PRTB], the deposit is ordered to be returned to the tenant in whole or in part.”
Threshold has called for a UK-style system where deposits are held by independent third parties and not landlords, with the Government already saying it will look at the issue.
The Irish Property Owners’ Association said this was unnecessary and “a new layer of bureaucracy”, clai-ming that only 958 cases of deposit retention were lodged with the board in 2010, with 58% of landlords in those cases allowed to keep all or part of the deposit.
Sub-standard housing was also an issue for Threshold clients last year, as was the shrinking availability of housing that is affordable for people depending on social welfare payments.
Ms Hayden said it was now “virtually impossible” to find properties at the rent-cap levels in some parts of the country and that a recent survey in Cork had found that fewer than one in 10 landlords were accepting tenants at the lower rent supplement levels. She said this had contributed to homelessness.
Threshold CEO Bob Jordan said tenants faced new concerns last year, including the estimate that more than a quarter of buy-to-let landlords are in mortgage arrears, more than the number of homeowners in arrears.
“This is having a knock-on effect on tenants who in most cases will have no idea that their landlord is in financial trouble.”
He claimed many bank-appointed receivers do not give sufficient consideration to tenants’ rights when they seek to reclaim a property, meaning “fully paid-up tenants, who have not breached any of their obligations, are too often faced with the loss of their home, non-return of their rental deposit and an erosion of their tenancy rights”.
* 23,069 cases dealt with by Threshold last year
* 3,259 cases involved non-return of deposits
* 2,167 cases involved housing standards
* 50% increase last year in numbers seeking the access housing unit to deal with homelessness
* 76% of all cases were resolved by Threshold
* 41% of Threshold clients depended on social welfare
* 41% of Threshold clients were in their present accommodation for less than six months
* 9% of people were in their accommodation for more than four years
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