Call to pay tenants' deposits to the PRTB

HOUSING AGENCY Threshold has called for tenants’ deposits to be paid to the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) rather than the landlord to cut the number of disputes the State board deals with and reduce its operating costs.

The agency is also calling for a certification regime of properties similar to that for restaurants, so that they meet quality standards.

The PRTB was established to resolve landlord tenant disputes and 43 per cent of cases referred to it are about the failure to return a deposit, according to Threshold director Bob Jordan.

He told the Oireachtas Environment Committee that such a scheme, which operates effectively in the UK and Australia, would free up the PRTB to deal with ‘‘red card’’ issues such as illegal evictions and rent arrears cases, in a speedy fashion.

Mr Jordan said the money could be placed in an account earning interest, which the State would benefit from.

Threshold estimates that landlords hold €195 million in deposits. “The Department of Social and Family Affairs spends €6 million a year on rental deposits for rent supplement tenants,” which it never gets back. The scheme would make it easier to reclaim the money.

The Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) said such a deposit protection scheme was a “disproportionate response” to the problem and would add to bureaucracy. It would “be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”, according to IPAV chief executive Fintan McNamara.

Threshold chairwoman Aideen Hayden said “there is a culture in Ireland where the deposit is not repaid and that’s the bottom line”. She said a €1,000 deposit “is an incredible amount of money” and impossible for many tenants to come up with for further accommodation, if it is not paid back. She said there should be “more vigorous enforcement” in relation to rent supplement.

It should be paid directly to the landlord by the department, and would encourage more landlords to accept rental supplement, 50 per cent of whom currently refuse such tenants.

Ms Hayden said 40 per cent of the market is currently rental supplement so the State has an important role in bringing rents back into control.

Labour’s environment spokes- man, Ciarán Lynch TD, said there was an inspection rate of just 7 per cent and €10 million sitting unused in the PRTB’s accounts to pay for inspections. He sharply criticised Cork County Council which he said in 2006 carried out no inspections at all.

Senator Camillus Glynn, Fianna Fáil, believed that local authorities should “handle this entirely and set the rents as they do in the UK”. He also believed there should be a register of bad tenants and landlords, and he highlighted cases where the deposit given to a landlord did not cover the damage done to the property.

Johnny Brady TD, Fianna Fáil Meath West, criticised people who gave up their local authority housing and went back on rent supplement, and said this was “abuse”.