Tipperary Council buys up over 70 homes to keep roof over heads of tenants issued with notices to quit

Since last summer Tipperary County Council has purchased or is in the process of buying more than 70 homes where tenants in receipt of social housing support received notices to quit because their landlord was selling the property. 

The extent of the council’s purchasing of private homes to ensure people on the social housing list kept a roof over their heads,  was revealed at Tipperary County Council's monthly meeting in Clonmel on Monday where several councillors strongly criticised the Government’s decision to lift the ban on tenant evictions at the end of this month. 

They expressed deep concern that the lifting of the eviction ban will lead to a surge in families and people becoming homeless and requiring emergency accommodation due to the shortage of rental properties in the county. 

The council’s house buying spree is one of the key measures it’s taking to tackle the crisis caused by the perfect storm of a shortage of rental housing and surge in notices to quit being issued to people living in private rented accommodation because of an exodus of landlords from the private rental market.  

Sinead Carr, the Council’s Director of Housing Services,  said over the past nine months the council has pursued 128 properties for purchase as a result of notices to quit being issued to tenants, who are approved for social housing but living in private rental accommodation with the aid of Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) or another social housing support payment. 

So far, the council has purchased 44 of those homes and is in the process of purchasing a further 29 homes bringing the total to 73.   

She stressed  the council will not purchase every property where a tenant in receipt of social housing support is issued with a notice to quit and is finding it very difficult to get alternative accommodation. 

“We have to be very careful that we don’t inflate property prices. If a landlord looks for unreal money, we can’t go into that space. We are very careful with property purchases. We are also not going to buy properties that need a great level of investment,” she explained.  

Ms Carr reported that in January and February the  council was notified of 19 notices to quit issued to tenants in receipt of social housing support.  

While there is a shortage of private homes in the rental market, she reported the council is still  signing up four to five such properties a week to allocate to social housing applicants under the   HAP Scheme and Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS).        

Ms Carr outlined that for people whose income doesn’t qualify them for social housing, the Government is looking at options for Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to purchase homes and rent them to tenants in a scheme similar to the Cost Rental Scheme. 

Her comments were made in response to questions asked by several councillors about what the council is doing to purchase homes and help people in receipt of HAP and RAS payments who receive notices to quit from their private landlord. 

The first to raise the issue was Carrick-on-Suir MD Cathaoirleach Cllr David Dunne who declared he had never been as disillusioned by the housing crisis. He  confessed he had considered “packing in” his work as a public representative due to the pressure he was under due to constituents finding it difficult to keep a roof over their heads. 

“I have people ringing me roaring crying on the phone as they can’t get anywhere to live. I can’t give them any hope. It’s hopeless really. I am not exaggerating.” 

He said people living in Direct Provision who secured their Irish residency hadn’t been able to move out of the Direct Provision centre because of the difficulty of finding a home to rent and have  now been told they will have to leave the centre to make room for new arrivals.  

“I have a feeling we are going to have serious, serious problems. 

“I have every confidence in the (council) staff and your ability to deal with it but I don’t believe there is sufficient funds to deal with the problem. My fear is that we are going to have people sleeping in garda stations.” 

Mayor of Clonmel Cllr Pat English condemned the lifting of the eviction ban and said the Government will have to “seriously rethink” its decision because there are so many people going to be in difficulty. 

“I have received so many phone calls from people now facing becoming homeless by April,” he told the meeting. 

He pointed out that it now cost between €1,000 and €1,400 to rent a house in Clonmel and renewed his request for the council to seek Rent Pressure Zone designation for the town so a cap will be placed on annual rent increases. 

Tipperay Town Independent Cllr Annemarie Ryan described the lifting of the eviction ban as “just the worse thing” the Government could have done and also reported councillors were meeting people “worried sick” about the ban being lifted. 

She requested an update from council management on emergency accommodation available to deal with the extra numbers of people expected to become homeless when the eviction ban is lifted. 

Clonmel Fine Gael Cllr John Fitzgerald urged the council to “buy houses goodo” in cases where a rental property was put up for sale and the tenants in situ were approved for social housing. It was an “instant” and “permanent” solution to the problem, he argued. 

Another Clonmel Cllr Siobhán Ambrose of Fianna Fáil, however, stressed it was important that a message went out from the meeting that there were roughly 990 social houses either just finished or  under construction in the county. 

It was important to remember that Tipperary County Council was punching well above its weight in delivering social housing, she said. 

Responding to queries about emergency accommodation available to the council, Ms Carr said the council currently has three family and four single-person Own Front Door emergency accommodation homes across the county and it will have four more such properties in a few weeks time. 

The council also uses B&B accommodation in Cahir, Clonmel, Cashel and Tipperary. 

In relation to Cllr English’s call for another attempt to be made to get Clonmel designated a Rent Pressure Sone, she said the council previously made a submission to the Government and Clonmel didn’t meet the criteria. 

She explained that those criteria will not have changed significantly since that application was made.