No improvement or prohibition notices served by Cork City Council for rental properties inspected in Q1 of 2024

New figures show that no improvement notices or prohibition notices were served by Cork City Council in the first quarter of 2024 for rental properties it inspected.

This is despite the fact that Cork City Council had the highest number of inspections of rental properties out of all local authorities in the country in the first quarter of 2024 and that it has issued over 3,000 letters to improve already this year.

The figures were provided to Labour Party Leader Ivana Bacik via parliamentary question and show that Cork City Council carried out 4,289 inspections from January to the end of March this year.

This is more than double the amount carried out by any authority, with the second highest amount of inspections carried out by Dublin City Council, where there were 1,826 inspections. 

Just four of 31 local authorities carried out more than 1,000 inspections.

Nationally, 18,059 inspections were carried out and 13,004 improvement letters were issued. 

Some 3,286 improvement letters were issued by Cork City Council. 

Overall,  Cork City Council carried out over 23% of all inspections and issued over 25% of all improvement letters.

Despite this, there were no improvement notices or prohibition notices served and no legal action initiated in Cork city. 

Labour Cork City Councillor Laura Harmon said that while it is welcome to see that Cork City Council is leading when it comes to inspecting rental properties,  "there is zero enforcement" occurring.

“From over 3,000 letters to improve being issued in early 2024, not one follow-up appears to have been done to enforce the rental standards that are in place for tenants.

“This is a worrying trend because we know that in 2023 and 2022, Cork City Council issued zero improvement notices or took any further actions to enforce the standards," she said.

“I've no doubt that many properties inspected are in good stead but the fact that Cork City Council issued over 18,000 improvement letters to landlords over 2022, 2023 and in the first quarter of 2024, and yet zero further enforcement notices were carried out shows that many tenants continue to live in substandard properties.

“It is vital that the Government equips councils with the necessary resources to enforce standards otherwise this is just a Mickey Mouse exercise where properties are being inspected, letters are sent to those who need to make improvements and then zero further action occurs.” 

A spokesperson for Cork City Council told The Echo, “Cork City Council carried out its highest-ever number of private rental inspections in 2023 and this rate of inspections has continued in 2024.

“The number of inspections being carried out is leading to a large increase in compliance. It is expected that improvement notices will form a part of the Cork City Council strategy in this regard moving forward.”

The figures also show that Cork County Council undertook 745 inspections, issued 640 letters of improvement, served one improvement notice and two prohibition notices.