Calls for landlords to be stopped from evicting tenants when selling homes

"We need a ban on eviction where a landlord is selling. If the landlord is selling let them sell, but with the tenants in situ, that increases the likelihood of property being bought by another landlord," said Mr Ó Broin. File photo

Calls have been made to urgently ban landlords from evicting tenants when selling properties to stop a "relentless rise" in homelessness.

The latest figures from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) show the number of termination notices and rent arrears warning notices have almost doubled from 271 in January to 532 in July.

Sinn Féin's Housing spokesperson Éoin Ó Broin has raised serious concerns around the upward trend, as he said notices of termination are the primary driver of homelessness.

He said the figures are "the canary in the coal mine telling us things are going to continue to get worse, unless we see some changes in government policy".

There were 271 arrears warnings sent out to tenants who were behind in their rent in January of this year. However, this rose to 532 in July.

In August, 459 of these 28-day written rent arrears warnings were issued. There were a further 451 issued in September and 440 in October.

Mr Ó Broin said rent arrears warning notices are now "really high", which he described as "alarming".

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"My worry is, given the high levels of rent arrears notices, particularly in the latter half of this year, that's also going to then feed an ongoing increase in the notice of termination.

"So it's a gloomy picture in terms of the potential levels of notice to quit. And of course we know what that means - potential continued increase in levels of homelessness," he said.

There were 1,853 notices of termination of tenancy served between August 2020 and October of this year according to RTB data. This included 108 in October, 134 in September and 154 in August of this year.

Mr Ó Broin said that a lot of evictions served in late summer/early autumn will be reaching the end of their notice period just ahead of Christmas and in the New Year, which he fears will result in more people becoming homeless.

"We need a ban on eviction where a landlord is selling. If the landlord is selling let them sell, but with the tenants in situ, that increases the likelihood of property being bought by another landlord," said Mr Ó Broin. "Where a landlord is selling and the property is occupied by HAP, RAS or rent supplement tenants, the local authority should be allowed buy those properties, they are currently not allowed buy them," Mr Ó Broin said.