Concerns over lifting of eviction ban raised at Donegal Municipal District

The lifting of the recent eviction ban by the government has been raised by councillors at the monthly meeting of the Donegal Municipal District.

Clr Noel Jordan (SF) asked for further clarification regarding the tenants in-situ scheme.

“Are we any closer to clarifying the situation as people continue to ask me about this scheme?" he said.

The situation needed to be clarified properly as he felt that the government was “deliberately throwing the local authorities under the bus”.

Cllr Barry Sweeny (FG) added that it is easy for statements to be put out, and new criteria for the ability to buy houses was very welcome, but it is a very complicated process and is causing huge difficulty to the local authorities.

He said that it looked like it would be on a ‘case by case’ basis, how much would be on offer for premises and who is going to be responsible for its operation. It was not a simple matter, but rather a massive challenge, all exacerbated by the fact that there was no emergency accommodation in the Donegal MD.

Cllr Michael McMahon (SF) said that a recent situation in his hometown had highlighted the need for an agency to deal directly with the fallout from such evictions.

Pauric Sheerin, the area manager of the Donegal MD said to have a tenant in situ arrangement, the landlord must be willing to sell and other circumstances such as cost, location, and condition of the property would be essential prerequisites before any purchase could even be considered by a local authority.

There was a lot of work being done within the council at present, whether that is in the form of creating records or whether evictions had been issued either verbally or through some formal notice structure.

He said that the overriding advice to tenants of these private landlords was to get in contact initially with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) or Threshold (which provides free, independent, confidential advice to anyone in Ireland with tenancy problems). He also stated that tenants should get that advice first and independently.

He added that the tenant/s themselves needed to work on their notices, whether any evictions to quit were legal or legitimate and then whether the circumstances fit into the purchase guidelines and conditions, which would technically render them homeless and whether they have any alternative.

He added that there was a “clear direction” that had emanated from government circulars in recent times of homelessness trumping any existing housing allocation scheme within local authorities, but that did not necessarily mean there was a contradiction in either scheme format.

He gave, as an example, a situation where a private landlord issued a notice to quit to an existing tenant, on the basis that it was to accommodate members of the landlord’s own family. In such a case a tenant in-situ approach would not be feasible.

He said that while members of the public also some tenants found that their local councillors were a conduit to their concerns about potential evictions, Mr Sheerin said that he would encourage the tenant to come directly to the housing office to allow them to ascertain the full information and allow them to capture it, rather than through third parties.

He promised members that they would be fully briefed at workshops on all concerned matters.

Regarding Emergency accommodation, Mr Sheerin said that Donegal County Council had adopted the regional homeless plan, but at this time, such accommodation was “extremely limited”.

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Senior council staff had a meeting last week, on the basis that they would be facing more presentations for such emergency accommodation, be it singles, couples and families.

He added that the Department had also given approval to appoint a HAP Placefinder Officer to work with Estate Agents and clients to identify suitable properties.