'There is no fallback: Limerick teacher issued with notice to quit home 

Caitríona Ní Chatháin had been living with her ex-partner and sharing the rent with him. When the relationship broke down, she footed the full amount, €1,000, herself.

A Limerick schoolteacher who will lose her home after the Government’s decision to lift the eviction ban this week said “the horrors of renting in Ireland” mean that even professionals are now priced out of the market.

Secondary school teacher Caitríona Ní Chaitháin has been issued with a notice to quit the small annex property she has lived in for five years.

She said that the notice came after she contacted the Residential Tenancies Board about a sudden 25% rent increase — despite already paying high rent and being in a rent pressure zone where the max yearly increase can be 4%.

“If I cannot find another place I will not be able to go to work and do my job. I don’t have a car.

“This [housing crisis] is contributing to the teacher retention crisis that we are acutely aware of in all our schools at the moment.

“Teachers, professionals, are being priced out of the rental market.

“I’m the eldest of nine children. My mum is a single mum. 

There is no bank of mum and dad for me. There is no fallback.” 

She is calling on Government to renovate vacant buildings and to build public housing on public land.

“Housing has to be de-commodified. It cannot be just an investment asset.

It has to be something available to everyone — including migrants, refugees, all of us.

“Government needs to start building houses — not just developers and investment funds.” 

Her students are facing problems finding accommodation so they can go to college.

“My brother is 18 and he has to leave the house at 7am to get to Galway from out home in a rural part of Clare and is not back until after 7pm. What kind of college experience is that?

Caitríona Ní Chatháin had also offered to buy the home she is renting from her landlord, but was refused.

“And it’s again because the availability is not there and when it is, it’s so outside the reach of ordinary people, ordinary families.

“And again, it’s because the Government has relied on the private sector to do what it should have been doing — providing housing for its people.

“And it can be solved — by doing up vacant houses, by building the right type of houses — public houses on public land.

“I’ve lived in France and Spain where I’ve rented, and nothing compares to the horrors of renting in Ireland and the lack of control, the lack of rights, the fact that the rent can go up overnight,” she said.

The price people are paying and the value for money is so poor compared to my experience in other European countries.

“The fact that they’re lifting the eviction ban, God knows what’s going to happen now." 

“And all the empty homes we have. Government needs to start building more houses, they can’t leave it up to the private market.” 

Help from the RTB

Ms Ní Chaitháin said she was issued with a notice to quit her property in recent days after she raised concerns about a sudden €200 rent hike with the RTB.

Living in Limerick, originally from Clare, she had been living in a small annex home with her ex-partner for five years paying €1,000 rent. When they broke up last summer, she shouldered the €1,000 rent alone.

“It was a considerable expense, but I had no choice.

“I’m 35, a professional, I would rather not go into a house share.

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“We had been very good tenants, rent was always paid on time, and we never had any problems."

But her landlord suddenly demanded an extra €200 a month in January.

“That brought my rent to exactly half my wages. I was crushed and I said that to him. I told him my wages would not increase by €200 anytime soon.

“But I complied, I was living on my own and I was scared of any hassle. So I paid €1,200 in January.

“I contacted the RTB. I found out that my landlord was not registered with the RTB and that the property was in a rent pressure zone so could not be raised by more than 4% a year. That would be about €85.

“The RTB arranged mediation and I offered to pay the legal €85 extra.

I also offered to buy the property, which was refused.

“But the RTB’s judgment last week was that any money I paid over the €1,000 a month should be returned to me because the increase had been illegal and it was never issued in writing.

“I was then issued with a notice to quit [the property]."

Ms Ní Chaitháin said that finding another rental will be difficult and her recent experience has been so upsetting and unsettling that she is hoping she will not have to rent again.

Caitríona Ní Chatháin is a teacher in Limerick who has been served an eviction notice since the ban was lifted. Pictures: Brian Arthur

She has saved a small deposit to buy a home and is hoping she can find something suitable within her price range so that she is not subjected to the trauma of losing her home again.

“I’m hoping something comes up on my salary. It’s going to be a struggle as a teacher on a post-2011 pay scale and on a single salary.” 

Her comments came as heated arguments erupted over the ban in Dáil Eireann again yesterday.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin defended the Government’s decision to lift the evictions ban, saying he believed its continuation would damage supply and that an extension of the ban now would effectively mean extending it for two years.

But Social Democrat leader Holly Cairns said that lifting the ban now would mean plunging families into homelessness and trapping people, particularly children, in insecure and unsuitable emergency accommodation. 

She asked why Government had not put plans in place to alleviate the crisis during the previous six months the eviction ban was in place.