500 eviction notices served in Cork before eviction ban
Following a vote on Wednesday evening, the eviction ban is to be lifted at the end of this month. The Government won the Dáil vote opposing the Sinn Féin motion seeking to keep the eviction ban in place, with 82 TDs voting with the governmen coalition of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party, and 68 against.
Figures released by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) last week show there were 500 eviction notices served between July and September last year in Cork. This is the second highest in the country, second to Dublin’s 1,839. The figures represent the eviction notices served before the six-month eviction ban came into place.
The figures released were broken down by county and show that in the same time period, there were 211 eviction notices presented in Limerick, 119 in Waterford, and another 117 in Tipperary.
These figures are a result of new legislation that required all landlords to send a copy of the ‘notice of termination’ to the RTB at the same time that it is sent to the tenant. However, as this is a self-reporting mechanism, the real figure could be higher.
The most common reason for terminating a lease is that the landlord intends to sell the property. This accounted for 60% of notices served, followed by another 16% where a landlord’s family member intends on moving into the house. This was followed by 15% of cases whereby a tenant allegedly breached the obligations of their lease.
An eviction ban has been in place from October 30th until the end of this month. This eviction ban does not exempt the tenant from their obligations, and does not apply if the tenant fails to pay their rent or behaves antisocially.
The eviction ban has controversially not been extended by the government and is due to expire on 1st April, April Fool’s Day. The decision has been criticised by opposition parties and charities including Focus Ireland, who called it a mistake and criticised the “deeply worrying” failure of the government to listen to homeless organisations. They quoted a figure of 11,754 people homeless in Ireland today, which includes nearly 3,500 children. Furthermore, they anticipate “a new wave of terminations” from landlords come April.