Plan for council tenants to purchase their flats

More than 20,000 tenants of local authority flats are to have the opportunity to buy their homes under new legislation being drafted by the Department of the Environment.

Until now only tenants of local authority houses could buy their homes. A tenant-purchase scheme for flats was introduced by Dublin Corporation, now Dublin City Council, in 1988, but was withdrawn after it was found to be unworkable.

The scheme collapsed because of a lack of legislation to deal with issues such as the ownership and maintenance of common areas, such as stairwells and gardens, and the protection of residents who chose not to buy and remain tenants.

The city council, which is the State's largest landlord with a housing stock of more than 26,500 homes, about 16,000 of which are in flats, put proposals for a new sale of flats scheme to the Department of the Environment last February.

Under the scheme a community association would be established for each flat complex.

The council would remain the managing agents of a complex until more than 50 per cent of the units were sold, then the association would decide whether to retain the council's services or outsource a third party.

The scheme could be applied nationally to the 20,218 local authority flats and apartments that are part of a total housing stock of 109,779.

Until recently the Department of the Environment said the proposal was under consideration by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche. A spokesman for the department has now confirmed that legislation is being drafted to allow the scheme to go ahead.

A date for the publication of the legislation has yet to be decided, and it is unclear whether the billions of euro that could be generated by the sales will remain within the coffers of local authorities or be returned to the Government.

The leader of the Labour group on the city council, Kevin Humphreys, said the continuing delay was unacceptable.

"I believe the Minister is just dragging this out to announce it closer to the general election, but in the meantime 16,000 families are waiting for a decision. And while they may not necessarily all want to buy, the price of their homes is continuing to rise."

He said when setting the price of flats the Government must take into account that families might have wanted to buy their homes since 1988. "Under the 1988 scheme many tenants agreed to purchase their homes from the council but due to legal technicalities were denied the right the purchase."

The council is seeking a meeting with the Minister with responsibility for housing, Noel Ahern, to discuss the roll-out of the scheme.