‘NEIGHBOURS FROM HELL CAUSING HAVOC’
UNRULY tenants who move into a private housing estates are unleashing havoc on residents who bought their homes during the boom.
That is the view of Diarmuid Cronin of Muintir Na Tire who told The Corkman that he regularly comes across residents’ woes in his catchment region of Cork, Kerry and Limerick.
Mr Cronin said that sometimes landlords don’t undertake any vetting process when they leave tenants in and quite often the landlord simply needs the rent to pay the mortgage.
“What happens is that tenants simply go into an estate and they are from the onset the neighbours from hell,” he said.
Mr Cronin who recently addressed the Dail Committee said the Privacy Tenancy Act needs to be greatly changed to bring about greater protection to residents in private estates.
It was his view that the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 gave far more protection to the tenant than the landlord.
He said at present “all the legislative weight of protection” protects the neighbour from hell.
“If there is a person or indeed a family who move into a private home in a private estate then the law needs to be changed so that protection must be given to the existing residents. At meetings throughout the region, I have heard of people taking drugs to noisy parties to verbal abuse to harassment to rubbish being discarded. It is a true nightmare for residents to have to look at this, particularly, when many bought their homes at the high end prices during the boom years.”
“What I do know is that when these people move in, very little can be done to get them out. The one problem I see and hear of time and time again at our meetings is the angst which neighbours from hell are causing. There is a huge level of intimidation being given out by these unruly tenants. It is truly frightening,” he said.
At the Dail committee meeting, it was his view that a community group should be allowed to sign a statement outlining the difficulties they are having with residents in private rented accommodation.
“From a garda point of view, they need one signature. However, if it is a community group, then there is strength in numbers. People really need to be helped if they are living in an estate and their lives are being made a misery because of tenants,” he said.