Tipperary council notified of 24 more notices to quit housing cases since evictions ban lifted

Tipperary County Council has been notified of 24 more cases of people in private rented accommodation receiving notices to quit since the end of March when the no fault evictions ban was lifted by the Government.

The latest figures on the rental housing crisis were outlined to councillors at the May meeting of Tipperary County Council in Clonmel last week.

The council’s Director of Housing Services Sinead Carr outlined that the council has been notified of 248 notices to quit cases since June last year with 24 of those cases notified since March 29.

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The council has purchased 56 of those properties from landlords under the Tenant In-Situ scheme which allows the tenants to remain in the house. A further 32 of these private rental homes are at various stages of consideration for purchase by the council under the scheme.

The council is assisting the outstanding notices to quit cases involving recipients of the Housing Assistance Payment in a number of ways.

Ms Carr said the council was working with landlords to extend the deadline of notices to quit received by people in receipt of HAP.

The council’s HAP place finders were also working solidly to come up with alternative accommodation for those issued with notices to quit.

For people facing homelessness, she said the council has sourced additional B&B accommodation and seven Own Front Door homes have been returned to the council because alternative accommodation has been found for their occupants.

“It’s very challenging; it's a difficult space to be in but solutions are being found. Once we get past July, the number of notices to quit are significantly less than what we had been dealing with,” she pointed out.

She repeated the council’s advice to HAP tenants who receive notices to quit to contact the council as soon as they receive the notice rather than leaving it to close to the six month deadline.

Ms Carr informed the council meeting there were 16 people and four families living in emergency B&B accommodation in county Tipperary at the end of March, which represented a “significant drop” compared to the same month last year.

She said a “pathway” is in place to secure homes for two of the families in emergency accommodation and the local authority is working with the other two families and individuals in emergency accommodation to find them housing.

She explained that the 114 homeless presentations to the council since January didn’t represent the number of people who presented to the local authority as homeless. There were a lot of repeat presentations by people coming back to the council regularly.

Ms Carr detailed the figures in response to queries about the ongoing housing crisis from Clonmel councillor Richie Molloy and Pat English, who is Mayor of Clonmel Borough District.