Breakdown of rent arrears sought

RENT arrears to Louth County Council are continuing to mount, with the local owed over €5.2million in rents by 2,073 tenants, according to the latest report presented to councillors at their monthly meeting.

CLLR Edel Corrigan asked for a breakdown of figures to show the areas where problems are occurring.

She wanted to know if rent arrears were occurring because of changes in income or if it was the case that some people weren’t paying.

‘Is it a case that a rent review has been carried out and back dated and tenants then have to pay it,’ she asked. A break down of figures would help them identify the areas which needed to be addressed,

Chief Executive Ms Joan Martin replied that the issue of pursuing arrears of rents was an executive function and one dealt with at management team level.

She said that while they’d had a level of success as far as commercial rates were concerned, they still faced ‘ a battle’ in regards to rent arrears.

‘It’s a very big challenge on an ongoing basis,’ she stated. In some cases the council had to take legal recourse.

The recent rent review had identified a number of people who had failed to inform the council of new jobs and incomes which resulted in well over €300,000 being added to the rent arrears owing the local authority,

‘On top of that we still have a considerable number of tenants who are in arrears and barely keep pace with their weekly rent and claim not to be in a position to pay.’ There were, she continued, ‘ a small number of people with very major arrears.’

‘I think at one stage we had one person who never paid rent from day one.’

She also pointed out that they were ‘dealing with a vulnerable cohort of people with limited incomes’ and that there were people who didn’t