More a case of won’t pay than can’t pay? …
The council has so far secured four possession orders from the courts. In two of these cases, the tenants paid the full amount of arrears directly; in a third the tenant is now repaying the amount weekly, but in the fourth case the tenant will not pay.
The Herbert Hill story is even worse than we thought. It’s been bought by a German real estate fund and DLR Council “is expected to pay €2,000 to €3,000 a month to lease each of the 87 new apartments at Herbert Hill”.
These are the best apartments built in Dundrum recently and in a great location, 2 minutes to the LUAS and just across the road from Ireland’s finest shopping centre. Like the car park in the Town Centre, this decision is wrong on so many levels.
How long before we hear that a relative of one of the councillors has been given one of these apartment at a fraction of the rent which the council will be paying to the Germans?
I guess no-one ever told the council:
“Renting is dead money”
or
“It is cheaper to buy than to rent”
I wonder are they finding it harder to shift some of these units now as we can see from PS’s numbers that rents have plateaued… if that is the case then who better than the council to come in and pay top dollar for the whole lot?
Where’s my nama? extends to Council tenants
Top-earning city council tenants most likely to default on rent
[Dublin] social housing tenants with the highest incomes are most likely to be in arrears on their rent, with 25 tenants in the top qualifying wage bracket owing more than €27,000 each in unpaid rents to [Dublin City Council]It emerged last month that the council is owed some €33 million by tenants, the largest sum ever owed to any local authority in unpaid rents. It represents an increase of more than €10 million over the last decade, with €19.5 million owed in 2009.
Almost 60 per cent of council tenants are behind on their rents, with figures presented to councillors on Monday showing higher earners owe the most.
The council’s 24,574 tenants pay rent based on their incomes. The average rent paid is €69.41 a week, but almost half of tenants – 11,888, largely those whose only income comes from social welfare benefits – are paying the minimum rent of €25.65 weekly.
The maximum rent the city council charges is €425 a week, but no tenant is currently paying this amount, with the current highest weekly charge set at €265.87.