Carrick-on-Suir councillors press council to review social housing tenancy succession policy

Some council housing residents as old as their 70s face being uprooted by Tipperary County Council from their lifelong home after their parents die because they aren’t the official tenants and the property is deemed too large for their needs.

Carrick-on-Suir’s two county councillors are pressing the county council to adopt a more flexible tenancy succession policy to deal with people in these situations who have lived in the same council house all their lives.

The council’s current policy is that when tenants of a council home die, relatives who had lived with them and qualify for social housing are offered alternative smaller council accommodation as their old home is considered too large for their needs.

Also read: 

Roll out of SIRO fibre broadband to begin in Tipperary Town next month

Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District Cathaoirleach Cllr David Dunne and fellow Carrick Cllr Kieran Bourke called for a review of the council’s tenancy succession policy in such cases at Tipperary County Council’s May meeting in Clonmel.

Cllr Kieran Bourke told the meeting there were four succession cases in his hometown at the moment. Some of the surviving family members in these council owned homes were senior citizens.

He said they suddenly found they had no rights and shouldn’t be in the house when their parents, who were the tenants, died.

He warned that issues around succession rights to council owned homes were going to get worse because most of the council’s housing stock were built in the 1930s, 40s and 50s and their tenants were now passing on.

He cited the case of one council tenant, who was dying, and was so worried about what would happen to his family members after he passed away that he purchased his home from the council shortly before his death after meeting pension qualifying criteria.

“He died a happy man. He secured his property and was able to pass it on successfully to family,” said the Fianna Fáil councillor.

He suggested that Tipperary County Council's Housing Strategic Policy Committee, which he chairs, should review the succession policy and come back to the full council with a proposal.

“We can’t put our heads in the sand. We need to have a serious discussion and probably that should start at SPC level,” he said, proposing the issue be on the agenda of the next Housing SPC meeting.

Cllr Dunne, who was the first to raise the tenancy succession rights issue at the council meeting, supported the Housing SPC reviewing the council’s policy.

He said he knew a number of elderly people in this situation and questioned the merit of uprooting them from their home when they are aged in their 70s and offering them alternative housing even if it was somewhere else in the same town.

These people had a sentimental attachment to the homes they lived in all their lives and didn’t want to leave them, the Sinn Féin councillor argued.

He said he didn’t want the council to get into conflict with such people where it ended in the council going to court to secure eviction orders.

Tipperary County Council’s Director of Housing Services Sinead Carr agreed there were a number of tenancy succession cases coming on stream at the moment.

She pointed out that the council formulated a tenancy succession policy a number of years ago but indicated she was “happy” to review it again.

Ms Carr said she knew a number of councillors have dealt with difficult tenancy succession cases and acknowledged it was a “very emotional” and “very difficult” time for surviving family members who had lived in a council house with a tenant before their death.

She had sympathy for these cases but stressed the council had to have a framework to work within. And she cautioned that whatever policy change they came up with, someone will fall outside it.

There were certain tweaks to the policy that could be made but it wouldn’t capture everyone and difficult decisions had to be made.

She reminded councillors that they were in the middle of a housing crisis. The council had to manage its housing stock of two, three and four-bedroom homes and difficult decisions had to be made.

“When we have the majority of the backlog (of housing applicants on the waiting list) cleared, we may be in a position to be more sympathetic,” she added.