‘NCT for rental homes’

Shock RTÉ exposé leads to call for major overhaul of the inspection system

THE private rental market should be subject to NCTstyle tests to ensure minimum standards are met before accommodation can be rented out, Fianna Fáil have said.

Housing spokesman Barry Cowen TD has also called for local authorities to be given more powers to tackle problems in the private rented sector, and the establishment of a national inspections regime.

Mr Cowen’s comments come on the back of last night’s RTÉ Investigates programme, Nightmare To Let, which exposed dangerous levels of overcrowding in properties across Dublin, with multiple fire breaches.

Mr Cowen said: ‘There are over 175,000 landlords across the country with some 325,000 tenancies registered with the Residential Tenancies Board. Over 20% of people in Ireland live in the private rented sector. However, the scale of this shift has not been met with sufficient resources to regulate it. Shocking breaches in standards of decency and health and safety appear to be becoming all too common across the country.’

The six-month i nvestigation uncovered one building with over 60 people living in it, another with over 40 residents, while three properties in Crumlin, Kilmainham and Rathmines were forced to close after i nspections by Dublin Fire Brigade.

Responding to the programme, Fianna Fáil have called for strict new regulations and tough sanctions for landlords found to be in breach of regulations. ‘Fianna Fáil has called for a new NCT-style test for accommodation to ensure that renters know each unit is up to standard,’ Mr Cowen said, calling for a ‘Local Authority Quality Accommodation Certificate’ to be issued once every three years. ‘The certificate should be based on a points system across a range of criteria such as insulation, water supply, quality of households’ conveniences, etc.’

Threshold spokesman Aideen Hayden said the programme showed a ‘failure on the part of the Government’ in enforcing regulations. She added: ‘These are situations that should not be tolerated in a humane society. It is a failure on our part as a people.’

The Irish Mail on Sunday conducted its own investigation of the rent generated by one property in Crumlin in Dublin