93.4% of rental properties inspected in 2020 breached standards 

Only one in 14 private rental properties were inspected by council officials last year.

Almost 19 out of every 20 private rental properties inspected last year were found to be in breach of standards regulations for registered tenancies — the highest non-compliance rate in recent years.

New figures show that the proportion of inspected rental properties which are non-compliant has risen annually from 75.0% in 2016 to 94.3% last year.

Six local authorities — Laois, Galway City, Waterford, Kilkenny, Cavan, and Carlow — found every single rental property inspected by their officials last year was non-compliant.

Monaghan County Council reported the best compliance rate, even though 55% of rental properties in the county still breached the regulations.

The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations stipulate that a landlord must ensure that a property is in a proper state of structural repair and that all gas, oil, and electricity installations are maintained in good repair and safe working order with all rooms required to have adequate ventilation, lighting, and heating.

Other standards cover the provision of cooking, washing machines, and storage facilities as well as smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

The figures show that approximately a third of non-compliant dwellings last year became compliant during the course of 2020 — a total of 7,400 properties.

Low rates of inspection 

They also highlight how only one in 14 private rental properties were inspected by council officials last year.

Just 6.7% of registered tenancies were the subject of an inspection during 2020 — down from 9.9% the previous year.

While there were more than 10,000 additional private rental properties registered last year, there were over 10,000 fewer inspections, although the decrease is largely due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figures show 22,517 out of almost 334,600 registered tenancies were inspected during 2020.

The inspection rate was as low as 2% in Cork City where just 415 out of over 20,000 rental properties were checked last year.

The highest rate was recorded by South Dublin County Council with almost 18% as nearly 3,000 out of around 16,700 rental properties were inspected.

The number of registered tenancies has increased by more than 17% since 2014 to 334,558 last year.

The figures are contained in the latest annual report by the National Oversight and Audit Commission, which measures the performance of the country’s 31 local authorities across a range of services.

Inspections of new buildings also decline

They also reveal that the number of inspections of new buildings to check for compliance with building regulations fell for the first time since 2016 last year.

A total of 17,267 new properties were subject to building control inspections last year — a reduction of more than 2,500 on 2019 levels or a drop of 13%.

Overall, just over one-fifth of all notified new buildings were inspected by council officials during 2020.

Figures compiled by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) show the national inspection rate was 21.7% last year — down from 23.9% in 2019.

Eight local authorities failed to meet the minimum inspection rate of 12-15% required under the Code of Practice for Inspecting and Certifying Buildings and Works.

They were Cavan, Clare, Cork City, Galway City, Kerry, Longford, Louth and Sligo.

“These inspections are vital to ensure buildings are being constructed in line with legislation,” NOAC said.

NOAC acknowledged that the impact of Covid-19 and public health restrictions meant some local authorities were not in a position to carry out inspections as normal but said it expected the performance would improve this year in line with the easing of restrictions around the pandemic.