Department endorsed lifting of eviction ban due to 'negative impacts on landlords'

Separately, the department warned that any extension of the eviction ban could cost the State in the region of €500m each year in compensation for landlords being unable to access their properties. File photo: iStock

The Department of Housing recommended the lifting of the eviction ban to the Government due to the “negative impacts on landlords” who may have been trying to repossess their property while the ban remained in place.

Separately, the department warned that any extension of the ban could cost the State in the region of €500m each year in compensation for landlords being unable to access their properties.

A policy paper delivered to the Department of the Taoiseach ahead of a crucial Cabinet meeting on the ban outlined three options upon the expiry of the ban on March 31 — an extension of the moratorium for two years, the imposition of an annual winter eviction ban, and ending the ban in its entirety.

Whichever option was chosen, the paper acknowledged the need to “urgently and substantially” scale up housing delivery in order to avoid having to legislate in the future for further “emergency interference with the constitutionally protected property right of landlords". 

The paper makes clear that the Attorney General Rossa Fanning was of the opinion that any extension of the eviction ban would require “substantial evidence and legal and policy justification".

The department, meanwhile, said that any extension of the ban would have to meet three tests: 

• it would need to apply for a minimum of two years to allow the bumping up of housing supply; 
• it would need to introduce “significant financial reliefs” for landlords; 
• and it would need to provide exemptions, for example for landlords returning from abroad seeking to live in their own properties.

A continuation of the ban was dismissed by the department as “highly likely to deter new investors” from entering the Irish property market, adding that the now-expired ban was “preventing property sales at an opportune time for investors to divest and realise some profit/minimise any loss.

It added that extending the ban for two years would exacerbate the issue of “uncertainty and loss in sale proceeds” given the prospect of further interest rate rises. The point is also made in the paper that extending the ban could potentially dry up the supply and impact the price of houses for first-time buyers, “some of whom are renters “.

Initial views from the Office of the Attorney General indicated that the longer the restriction on property rights, the more substantial the evidence required to support it, the paper states. “The department considers that this would be a very difficult test to meet."

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The option endorsed by the department was the removal of the ban in full, a decision the Cabinet made at its meeting on March 6 and which led to a storm of criticism from opposition TDs and housing charities.

The department said its officials were of the view that any extension would likely “significantly reduce housing supply, including for rent” in the medium and long term, with the ending of the ban described as the most “straightforward, legally solid option".

It would also have a negative effect on Ireland’s competitiveness, the department said, citing a report by IBEC which suggested that the housing crisis is “impacting Ireland’s attractiveness”.

A recurring winter ban meanwhile, while not endorsed by the department, was considered the “least worst” alternative to ending the moratorium as it would “demonstrate the Government’s commitment to... grow the participation of small landlords” in the housing market.