PROPERTY AND HOUSING EXPERTS have questioned the resourcing and “lack of detail” around a heavily-promoted scheme to prevent tenants losing their homes.

A number of local authorities have told The Journal that they’ve seen an “exponential increase” in the number of queries from tenants since the lifting of the eviction ban was announced by the Government, with some flagging that they need more staff to manage the scheme. 

As part of its measures to mitigate the lifting of the ban, the government has said the tenant in situ scheme will be expanded with the Department of Housing to finance the purchases.

It has set a target for 1,500 properties to be acquired under the tenant in situ scheme, which sees councils step in and purchase a privately rented property where a landlord is looking to sell – representing a significant increase on the past target of 200 properties per year. 

The decision to end the ban was taken by Cabinet last month, with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien defending the decision saying that retaining it would further reduce the number of rental properties available.

Figures seen by this website showed how many of the larger local authorities have managed a handful of purchases through the scheme to date, with it taking up to half a year to progress each sale. 

Figures published earlier this week show that landlords intending to sell their rental property remained the main reason provided for serving a Notice of Termination in the majority of cases. This stands at 2,513 properties, or 58% of total figures according to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). 

Over 4,300 notices of termination were served to tenants in the last three months of 2022, the RTB said. 

The head of one charity involved in rolling out the scheme questioned how the expansion will work, asking whether there is the capacity in the sector to handle the “enormous” jump in property transfers projected by the Government’s figures.

Focus Ireland is involved in a number of purchases via the scheme throughout the country, in situations where the tenant might need additional support from the charity.   

“In the normal turnover of housing purchases in Ireland, of all the solicitors doing conveyancing and all the engineers doing house prices, we’re looking at a very large jump compared with the normal number of turnover and housing units,” Mike Allen of Focus Ireland said. 

“Are there enough of them to actually handle this scale of property transfer transfers?”

Allen said Focus Ireland has seen its own target “grow out of proportion” from 20 to 30 properties through the tenant in situ scheme to 100. 

“It’s a huge resource from our focus housing unit to try and do this, which we’ve got no additional resources to do,” Allen said. 

A property law expert also spoke of how there remains “still little detail” from the government on how it will improve the scheme in light of the eviction ban ending.

Rachael Walsh, associate professor in property law at Trinity College Dublin, said finer detail for measures promoting a “renters’ safety net” have yet to materialise.

Councils

Each local authority has been given a new target for the tenant-in-situ scheme.

There are widely varying results from city councils on their use of the scheme to date, before the government’s fresh targets to cope with upcoming evictions were issued.

To meet the new national target of 1,500 homes through the tenant-in-situ scheme, with larger city-based councils now told they will be provided financial support to carry out anywhere between 50 and 80 purchases each.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Cork City Council have both managed just three purchases while there have been none to date in Waterford. Likewise, Galway City Council only bought four properties as of early March while Fingal County Council gone sale-agreed on 14 properties, although it has yet to add a property to the books.

On the other end of the scale, Dublin City Council – one of the country’s largest councils – has been able to buy 29 properties.

The scheme progresses through four stages, starting with checks on the tenant’s finances, then an inspection of the building before moving towards a valuation of the property and an offer. 

One issue which Walsh said may also need to be tackled is whether local authorities have enough valuers to carry out inspections of the properties to meet the demand required. 

“We’re also waiting to see detail on those technical but important matters in terms of how quickly they can roll those schemes out on a widespread basis,” she said. 

“The question is will there be enough valuers to quickly value properties so tenants can buy those to avail of the right of first refusal given the number of notices to quit.” 

Limerick City and County Council, which has acquired 12 properties through the scheme, said a range of staff will be needed to manage the increased number of properties, with it having a new target of 75 properties for the scheme. 

It has seen an “exponential increase” since the early March announcement of the ending the eviction ban, with 160 properties at proposal stage. A further 18 are at the sale-agreed stage of discussions.

“Staff will be required to deal with increase in volume, administer assessments, liaise with valuers, arrange for refurbishment estimates, manage the conveyancing process and prepare claims to the Department of Housing,” the council said, adding that more technical staff will be required to prepare designs and specifications for refurbishments.

A spokesperson for the council added: “Limerick has been notified by the Department of Housing of a target of 75 [new units] this year. So far on our books we have 223 units.  It can take six months plus to conveyance a property from proposal to sale close.”

Elsewhere, Cork City Council said it believes it can carry out the work with its current number of staff and a spokesperson for Waterford City and County Council said it hopes to use “local, independent estate agents” for its new target.

Dublin City Council said it has seen a total of 288 offers made to the council – with over a hundred offers made in recent weeks as the eviction ban was set to lift.

A total of 81 more properties have made it to the final stages of negotiations and are awaiting sign off to hand over the keys to the tenant. 

Council chief executive Owen Keegan told councillors that the scheme focuses on people who’ve received notices to quit and who are housing assistance payment (HAP) and rental accommodation scheme (RAS) tenants. 

He said it also applies to where a landlord has issued a notice to quit with the intention of selling and the tenant is in a long-term leasing arrangement. 

“All tenant in situ acquisitions costs are fully recoupable and no annual budget limit has been set by the department for DCC in this regard,” Keegan said.

Tenants or landlords typically contact the council to enquire about opening discussions with a council about buying the property.

This takes place after a notice to quit has been issued, which Focus Ireland has called “traumatic” for renters facing homelessness. 

Allen said it also needed to remembered that 709 notices to quit were issued as the landlord or their family member intended to move into the rental property, which means these properties would not be eligible for the scheme. 

“Those are people who are going to fall into homelessness,” he said. 

“One of the questions is are landlords going to have the patience or the capacity to go along with a long winded process when they might be looking to sell? We don’t know that yet.”