Cork City Council inspected 10,552 properties last year but didn't issue any improvement notices 

CONCERNS have been raised about the lack of improvement notices and prohibition notices issued by Cork City Council after rental inspections in the city last year.

Labour candidates Laura Harmon and Peter Horgan, for Cork City South West and for Cork City South East, highlighted the issue after figures obtained by party leader Ivana Bacik showed that no improvement notices or prohibition notices were issued from Q1 to Q3 in 2023.

An improvement notice outlines what the landlord must do to fix the breach of regulations. If the landlord does not do these works, the local authority can issue a prohibition notice, which tells the landlord not to re-let the property until the breach is fixed.

Some accommodation 'positively awful'

The figures were issued to Ms Bacik in response to a parliamentary question (PQ) submitted to Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien, which showed that 10,552 property inspections were carried out in Cork City between Q1 and Q3. Of those, 8,303 improvement letters were issued, but no improvement or prohibition notices were served.

In Cork County, 1,477 inspections and 1,273 improvement letters were issued. 18 total improvement notices and six prohibition notices were served.

“There’s no doubt that a lot of rental properties in Cork are in good stead. However, from over 8,000 letters to improve, not one follow-up was done, seemingly, to enforce the rental standards that are there for tenants,” Mr Horgan said.

“I am dealing with tenants who get radio silence from their landlord and are in fear of rocking the boat in case homelessness is threatened.

“One tenant had no heating for November and December, but simply had to put up with it or face eviction. Something is not right there.”

Ms Harmon said that some accommodation for rent is “positively awful” and that refurbishments, as reflected by the 8,000 improvement letters, are needed.

“We are not seeking to apportion blame, we merely wish to speak for these people who are voiceless,” she said.

“The local authorities are at the pin of their collars in trying to manage this service. It is unfair to expect them to do more with less, in terms of the number of employees who are tasked with this job, in respect of whole-time equivalence as to personnel.”

Funding to help meet rental inspection targets 

Responding to Ms Bacik’s PQ, Minister O’Brien said the government is committed to ensuring that a stock of high-quality accommodation is available for those who live in the private rented sector and that a total of €9 million in Exchequer funding is being made available by his Department to local authorities this year to help them meet their private rental inspection targets.

“Local authorities conducted over 49,000 inspections of private rented dwellings in 2022, up from circa 25,000 in 2020 and 20,000 in 2021, when pandemic restrictions had impacted on inspections. Figures from Q1 to the end of Q3 2023 show that the number of inspections continued to increase significantly last year with over 48,000 conducted,” he said.