TALKS IN A long-running dispute in Letterkenny over the future of several homes appear to have definitively ended in collapse.

It means that nine families face losing their homes after negotiations between Donegal County Council and the landlord, property firm Twin Estates, ended this week over claims that the company has not provided documentation to close the deal.

It follows 18 months of negotiations and interjections involving council officials, the residents’ association and politicians, but to little avail.

The moves by Twin Estates to sell the homes originated with the Government’s decision to lift the eviction ban two years ago.

The company initially offered up 15 of the properties to the council, but relations soured amid claim and counter-claim over the suitability of the homes and over who would pay for tests on any mica in the concrete.

It left tenants feeling helpless in the middle, with one man summing it up last year as feeling “like pawns on a chessboard” while Twin Estates and the council increasingly dug into their positions.

Six households have already left the estate. Last year, the other nine received notices to quit their rented homes at the Ballymacool housing estate in Letterkenny. These notices are likely to now take effect, with the landlord telling tenants recently that he would move ahead with “selling the house privately with vacant possession”, meaning after the families have been moved out.

In a letter received by the renting families from the council this week, they were told that efforts to secure documentation from Twin Estates covering the quality of the buildings were unsuccessful over the past 18 months.

A section of the letter received by tenants.

“Following a detailed assessment process over the last number of months, Donegal County Council has concluded that it is unable to proceed with the acquisition of the property,” the council’s housing office told tenants.

“While every effort was made to progress the purchase, the necessary information required to support a positive recommendation in line with the Council’s acquisition policy has not been provided to the Council.

It added: “Given the time that has now passed, the Council must bring this process to a close.”

The council acknowledged this was an “uncertain time” for the impacted families and sought to assure them that it was “fully committed to supporting you and your family in securing suitable alternative accommodation” over the coming weeks.

Twin Estates and a number of tenants have previously confirmed to The Journal that the company has gone through the “process of evictions” with the Residential Tenancies Board, which found in favour of the company on a number of properties.

The talks were looking to allow Twin Estates to sell the local authority the properties under the Tenant In Situ Scheme.

This scheme has been pushed by the Government as a solution to prevent homelessness since it lifted the eviction ban in 2023, but renters looking to avoid homelessness have increasingly hit into barriers to due lack of funding and restrictions to the scheme.

Speaking to The Journal previously, Twin Estates director Phil Boyle blamed the government for relying on the private rental sector, saying that a number of his tenants are “effectively social housing claimants” as they receive state support to stay in the private accommodation.

This meant that companies such as Twin Estates were “making up for the government’s lack of action” on social housing, Boyle said in December.