Force tenants to be accountable
As a landlord with one property let to a rent allowance tenant, I see it as the best option available. I know that every week, 94% of the rent is paid by a State body into my bank account.
Periodic checks by the Health Board on receipt of the remaining 6% by me from the tenant ensure the tenant keeps up to date.
The area with which I would have a problem, however, is the local authority rent deposit scheme. This is not a deposit in the standard sense of the word, in that it cannot be used by the landlord against unpaid rent or, more importantly, the cost of any damage done to the property by a vacating tenant. It must be returned by the landlord in full to the local authority upon vacation by the tenant. This defeats the whole purpose of a deposit.
I would suggest that the reason for this is that it is easier to sue a landlord, almost certainly of permanent abode, than it is a tenant who can move to another address and who may not be able to pay up.
The local authority should pay the deposit once, on the first take up of a rented property by a tenant, but from that point in, they should take responsibility for themselves.
Ewan Duffy,
175, Kingsbry,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare
