PBPA TD calls for protection and rights for tenants in receivership and urgent action to prevent families being made homeless
A press conference today in Buswell’s Hotel, organised by People Before Profit Alliance TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, highlighted the plight of families facing imminent eviction from their rented homes at the hands of receivers appointed to manage properties owned by insolvent landlords.
The Press conference was addressed by Richard Boyd Barrett TD, Karl Deeter (Property expert) and by Wicklow residents, Rachael Kelly and Wayne Fitzgerald who face eviction at the hands of receivers Kavanagh-Fellen. Wayne and Rachael are the parents of three young children, one of whom (Rachael) has special needs, including a serious spinal and heart condition. Ten other families in the same estate also face eviction.
In the last two weeks, groups of tenants and individual families from a number of locations across the country, including Dublin, Dun Laoghaire, Wicklow, Sligo contacted Richard Boyd Barrett TD and other people Before Profit representatives appealing for help, as they face eviction and possible homelessness following the appointment of receivers to the property portfolios of insolvent landlords.
Deputy Boyd Barrett pointed out that these cases were not isolated but examples of a “looming crisis facing potentially thousands of families”. He noted that there were currently 240,000 buy-to-let properties with 40,000 of those in mortgage arrears. By January 2013 2250 rental properties have had rental receivers appointed.
The dire situation faced by the families is compounded by the chronic shortage of local authority housing and the impossibility of sourcing private rented accommodation against a background of spiralling rental prices and recent cuts in the rent allowance caps by Minster Joan Burton.
Deputy Boyd Barrett said the government had failed utterly to bring forward measures to protect tenant’s rights in receivership situations or to ensure that no family was made homeless as a result of circumstances entirely out of their control.
Deputy Boyd Barrett called for:
*Guidelines similar to the code of conduct on mortgage arrears for tenants in receivership situations.
*Amendment of residential tenancies act to protect tenants in receivership situations
*Government commitment to take urgent measures to ensure adequate provision of affordable accommodation and to prevent any family from being forced in homelessness
Richard Boyd Barrett said: “The crisis situation faced by families who are renting their homes when their landlord becomes insolvent and has their property put into receivership may well turn out to be even more serious than that faced by families in mortgage arrears.
Whereas much attention has been rightly focused on families in mortgage distress – forcing the government to put measures and guidelines in place – virtually no attention and absolutely no action has been directed at this huge problem, potentially facing thousands or even tens of thousands of families.
There is simply no protection or even guidelines to deal with situations where landlords have their property put into receivership and to protect the rights and security of tenure of tenants. Yet again, it seems ordinary families, in this case, families who have been good tenants and have paid up their rent, find themselves the victims of Banks and government inaction.
Taken together with spiralling rents, cuts in rent allowance the abysmal failure of the government to provide social housing, this crisis is leading families, often with young children into homelessness.
Looking at the huge numbers of buy-to-let properties in distress, it is absolutely certain that this crisis is going to deepen, particularly because as property and rental prices rise the banks maybe cynically calculating that they can make more money by evicting people than by keeping them on as tenants.
Jan O Sullivan said in July last year that something would be done about this situation but nothing has been done and the government’s policies, particularly cutting rent allowance have made a bad situation worse.
We are calling on the government to immediately take action and bring through emergency legislation if needed to provide guidelines in this area and protection for tenants. This should include preventing receivers from evicting tenants where they have paid up their rent.
Secondly, the government must vary the rent allowance caps to ensure no family is faced with homelessness because they can’t afford the cost of spiralling rents.
Finally and crucially, the government must initiate an emergency programme of council house construction. If we could build 70-90,000 houses a year during the so-called “Celtic Tiger,” the state is certainly capable of building 10-20,000 council houses a year for the next few years to address the enormous housing and homelessness crisis we now face.”
Other families facing eviction that have contacted PBPA include:
Sligo: Martin O’Dowd, single father with three teenage children similarly faces eviction at the hands of receivers KPMG. 6 other families in the same estate also face eviction.
Dublin: Carol Maguire and her two half year old daughter face eviction by Mazar receivers.
With 240,000 buy-to-let properties in the state, in 20% of which landlords are in mortgage arrears, speakers will explain that these instances of families facing eviction are not isolated examples but early instances of what is likely to become a major national crisis.