HOUSING CHARITY THRESHOLD has called for an NCT-style system for housing to ensure standards are met following an increase in calls about poor standards of accommodation.

Threshold today released its Quarter 3 Impact report for the months of July to September.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Threshold CEO John-Mark McCafferty said that 7% of overall queries in Q3 related to accommodation standards, up from 4.5% in the previous quarter.

“The one thing that spiked this time around was the increased amount of tenant queries related to poor standards of accommodation and they might be issues of dampness, inadequate ventilation or insulation, increased costs associated with heating people’s homes,” said McCafferty.

“It’s important because poor conditions can cause or exacerbate both physical and mental health problems. It’s important to say that renters do have rights in this area.”

There are a minimum set of legal standards associated with accommodation, but McCaffery said: “The reality is that because of the pressures in the private rented sector and because of the number of tenancies ending and the lack of alternative accommodation, many renters may feel that they can’t go to their landlords to raise issues about standards.

“They don’t want to create tension or conflict with their landlord at a time when so many tenancies are ending because landlords are selling the properties.”

‘NCT system’

Threshold’s proposed system would require a landlord to provide a certificate of fitness following an inspection of the property by a registered building professional or Local Authority inspector to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) before renting their property.

Threshold adds that this would result in less renters living in substandard housing and reduce the number of cases regarding a breach in standards being brought to the RTB.

While local authorities can inspect rented accommodation, McCafferty said the “system right now isn’t working and we need, at the very least, an overhaul of the existing local authority inspection systems”.

He added: “There’s massive inconsistencies between local authorities regarding the inspection system and there’s difficulties in follow-up regarding the properties which fail inspections and a limited amount of properties that are actually inspected in the first place.

“So we need at the very least a consistent, statewide service in terms of either inspections or a self-certification system which we are espousing.”

When asked what the penalties would be for a property that failed the inspection, McCafferty said the system could “have a graduated grading element to it, or a system whereby you can only let if your property reaches the level and this can be phased”.

However, he noted that “we have to balance the fact that there’s an abject lack of supply and we don’t want a situation where we’re further undermining that supply”.

“We are very much conscious that with the pressure on accommodation right now, we have to find systems that both balance the incentives to remain in the market with the fact that this is a real issue that we found peaking over those three months,” said McCafferty.

“Renters are finding themselves in substandard accommodation, it’s having an impact on their physical and mental health, so we need to find a system that is much more consistent across the board that looks at the physical standards, as well as considering issues of supply.”

In its Q3 report, Threshold also said it supported over 900 households to stay in their homes or secure alternative housing, with 1,333 adults and 939 children supported.

Of the new households who contacted Threshold in Q3, 5,318 were at risk of losing their homes.

For the third consecutive quarter, most of these renters were at risk because their landlord wished to sell the home.

Overall, close to 9,000 households were supported by Threshold’s frontline advisors on wider issues regarding their tenancy.

More than half of the main queries in Q3 related to tenancy terminations, an increase from 38% in the same quarter last year.