Problem tenants told to leave

Eight tenants of council houses in Cork City have either been evicted or voluntarily left their properties this year after being found to be involved in persistent antisocial behaviour.

The figures released by Cork City Council show that up to the middle of last month, local authority staff were also dealing with 72 cases of alleged anti-social behaviour among tenants.

Up to June 15 council officials had conducted 15 interviews with problem tenants. They had also issued 42 written and verbal warnings to tenants who were causing problems, advising them if their behaviour persisted they could be removed from their properties.

During the first six months of the year, they also issued two notices to quit to tenants and sought a court order to remove another.

The council takes anti- social behaviour very seriously and a wake-up call to private landlords also came from a case taken by residents of Lower Bishopscourt in Cork’s western suburbs.

The Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) awarded neighbours €29,250 in damages after the landlord’s tenants subjected them to serious antisocial behaviour.

The group of 13 residents took two cases to the PRTB against the landlord. In both, they highlighted out-of-control parties, excessive noise, and disturbance; drinking alcohol and urinating in public by the tenants, violent incidents and rubbish, including used nappies, being thrown into neighbouring gardens.

Meanwhile, the city council said it had also issued 73 litter fines from January 1 to May 31, of which 59 were paid. Officials were forced to go to court for seven unpaid fines and won all of those cases. Other cases are pending. The council received and responded to 87 complaints of littering during the same period and its waste management section dealt with a further 40 complaints about pollution. Its traffic section issued 7,142 fixed penalty notices during the period for illegal parking.

The city council also issued 17 fines for on-street drinking from January 1 to May 31, of which 13 were paid. The remaining four were referred to the gardaí for prosecution.