Crackdown finds 1,400 rented Dublin flats ‘unfit for living’

JupiterKid

Is it really any surprise to anyone on this forum that Dublin City Council, in an inspection of private rented accommodation in certain parts of the inner Dublin suburb areas - comprising traditional "flatland," found the a staggering 90 per cent of the units inspected were deemed unfit for human habitation?

This is an utter disgrace - and more, much more is to come as only a small proportion of the over 7,000 bedsits estimated to be in the Greater Dublin Area have so far been inspected by DCC. These are the conditions that those on the very bottom rung of the so-called "property ladder" are living in Ireland in the year 2013.

This is what results in a society that prizes property ownership above all else and has failed to provide anywhere near enough social housing units for those in need of them. :mad::(

Sobering reading ladies and gentlemen...

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/dublin-bedsit-blitz-finds-over-90-of-flats-do-not-meet-basic-standards-1.1373158

Dublin bedsit blitz finds over 90% of flats do not meet basic standards
Deficiencies found with electrics, bathrooms, damp, mould and heating

Flatlands: the targeted investigation of just under 1,500 flats in three areas of Dublin found that almost 1,400 did not meet the minimum legal standards for private rented accommodation

by Olivia Kelly, Irish Times

Fri, Apr 26, 2013

More than 90 per cent of flats inspected in a Dublin City Council crackdown on substandard private housing have been deemed unfit for habitation.
The targeted investigation of just under 1,500 flats found that almost 1,400 did not meet the minimum legal standards for private rented accommodation, with deficiencies including unsafe electrics, no private bathrooms, rooms without windows, damp, mould and inadequate heating.

The flats were selected as part of a €1 million three-year Intensified Inspection Programme funded by the Department of the Environment to identify and highlight slum conditions in the city’s private rented sector.
Figures for the first six months of the programme show that environmental health officers carried out 2,230 inspections on 1,499 properties. Of these properties, 1,384 did not meet the most basic standards.
Landlords have been served with 1,544 notices to improve their flats. Failure to do so will result in a ban on reletting the flats and legal action if the problems are not resolved.
Prior to the programme, council inspections of private rented housing were based on complaints from neighbours, local politicians and sometimes the tenants themselves.

New system of inspection
The new inspection programme works on a more proactive basis, whereby an area is chosen and every rented flat or house is inspected.
The figures above relate to just three roads with particularly high proportions of flats and bedsits: Cabra Park in Dublin 7, Grove Park in Rathmines and the North Circular Road from the Phoenix Park to Aughrim Street, but the council will be extending inspections to a further 7,000 properties throughout the city.

Almost all of the flats are in “pre-63” properties – houses that were split into flats before 1963, when legislation made it illegal to convert a house without planning permission. As a result, relatively modestly sized Victorian terraced housing has been divided into seven or eight flats, which would not be allowed under modern planning regulations.
“These are areas with a high concentration of bedsits and small flats. Almost all of the units would have shared bathroom facilities,” the council’s principal environmental health officer, Colm Smyth, said.

Under the inspection programme, the property cannot be relet until it is brought up to standard, but existing tenants can remain in situ.

pawrick

Apart from the social housing aspect proper regulation of the rental market should have driven these places out long ago but now we are stuck with lots of newer apartments unsuitable for families in the city or aimed price wise at having people sharing and crap left over from the 70's still for rent.

Pawwed Rig

Have to agree with pawrick. Standards have been ignored for so long and that is the fault of the council itself.

There is also an argument to be made for people who need cheap accommodation. Banning bedsits while idealogically fine is going to push alot of lower income earners onto public housing lists or out of the area altogether. There seems to have been no thought for these people in the new laws.

I would also suggest the 90% figure to be a silly statistic as presumably they are targetting those properties most likely to have issues.

hfallada

I surprised that DCC inspected the buildings in the first place. I imagine a lot of landlords would have assumed that the rules wouldnt havent been enforced and they could get away without updating the buildings. I believe a lot of people living in flats dont speak english as theyre first language and believe they cant complain or know the standards they are entitled to.

Sulla Felix

Properties should be named imo. So, for example, if they go back on the market they can be easily reported if the new tenant thinks no work has been done etc.

The_Conductor

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

I would also suggest the 90% figure to be a silly statistic as presumably they are targetting those properties most likely to have issues.

They didn't choose specific properties, they choose 3 streets in 3 areas, and inspected all properties in the streets, the good, the bad, the ugly......

The three streets surveyed were: Grove Park in Rathmines D6, Cabra Park in D7 and a short section of the North Circular Road from the Phoenix Park to Aughrim Street.

They have a list of 22 further streets that they propose to survey over the coming weeks, with over 7,500 properties they believe to be let as bedsits.

PhilMcGee

I used to live in Grove park and i can tell you most of those place are very grotty. But better than the ones on Leinster road.
They should go up and inspect georgian houses in Ranelagh and Leinster road and they will get more than 90% dumps. They do seem to be going for the most likely ones to be bad though. The pre 63 properties, which is a good place to start alright.
Thread title is definitely misleading though. HArdly at a point where you can say "Most Bedsits in Dublin Grossly Sub-standard".
At most you can say most bedsits in pre-63 properties on the 3 roads inspected

The_Conductor

Most bedsits are in Pre-63 properties, and very few have their own bathrooms- so it is actually a tru-ism. Things like their own electricity meter, controllable heating and even having natural daylight- are lacking in a surprisingly large number of these properties. I'm more than familiar with Leinster Road etc (having been a student at UCD many moons ago), and to say I'd be embarassed to allow a dog live in some of the conditions would be a fair assessment. There is a captive market of people on very very low incomes who simply can't afford proper accommodation- and these people are being allowed live in substandard conditions. The inverse of the coin is- they are unlikely to be able to afford proper accommodation.........

PhilMcGee

smccarrick wrote: »

Most bedsits are in Pre-63 properties, and very few have their own bathrooms- so it is actually a tru-ism. Things like their own electricity meter, controllable heating and even having natural daylight- are lacking in a surprisingly large number of these properties. I'm more than familiar with Leinster Road etc (having been a student at UCD many moons ago), and to say I'd be embarassed to allow a dog live in some of the conditions would be a fair assessment. There is a captive market of people on very very low incomes who simply can't afford proper accommodation- and these people are being allowed live in substandard conditions. The inverse of the coin is- they are unlikely to be able to afford proper accommodation.........

It is in no way an accurate statement to say "Most Bedsits in Dublin Grossly Sub-standard" from a sample like this. Its a massive leap.

You are right on Leinster road. I actually moved out of there to move to Grove Park and Grove park was like paradise. I was there in student days too. It was a good community. And since most of the other lads were living there too you would get to see a lot of places and my god some were bad, but they suited us as we couldnt afford better. Shared bathrooms are a curse on humanity.

The_Conductor

PhilMcGee wrote: »

It is in no way an accurate statement to say "Most Bedsits in Dublin Grossly Sub-standard" from a sample like this. Its a massive leap.

By sub-standard I mean they are not compliant with current renting standards. Renting standards have been improved considerably over the past decade- councils have been damn slow to inspect older buildings to see if they comply with them. Some buildings are lovely- and are fully compliant, some need minor remedial work to bring them up to compliance, however in the case of bedsits in particular- it quite simply is the truth- the vast majority of them are substandard, and require considerable, rather than minor, remedial work to bring them up to modern renting standards. The fact that the vast majority of these residential types are in Pre-63 dwellings, simply highlights this fact- they were a very handy tax avoidance measure for folks, and a cash-cow that brought remarkable returns for investors. It simply wasn't in most people's interests to invest money to bring them up to standard- why bother, when they weren't even being inspected?

PhilMcGee

smccarrick wrote: »

By sub-standard I mean they are not compliant with current renting standards. Renting standards have been improved considerably over the past decade- councils have been damn slow to inspect older buildings to see if they comply with them. Some buildings are lovely- and are fully compliant, some need minor remedial work to bring them up to compliance, however in the case of bedsits in particular- it quite simply is the truth- the vast majority of them are substandard, and require considerable, rather than minor, remedial work to bring them up to modern renting standards. The fact that the vast majority of these residential types are in Pre-63 dwellings, simply highlights this fact- they were a very handy tax avoidance measure for folks, and a cash-cow that brought remarkable returns for investors. It simply wasn't in most people's interests to invest money to bring them up to standard- why bother, when they weren't even being inspected?

Im not arguing at all that there arent many flea pit bedsits. Ive seen them. Ive lived in them. I saw one once that was an upstairs landing with a door.

My point is only that the thread title is a huge stretch from the sample size. Thats all. Maybe all bedsits in the rest of Dublin are actually sub-standard, but that sample is not enough to determine that.

Pawwed Rig

smccarrick wrote: »

They didn't choose specific properties, they choose 3 streets in 3 areas, and inspected all properties in the streets, the good, the bad, the ugly......

The three streets surveyed were: Grove Park in Rathmines D6, Cabra Park in D7 and a short section of the North Circular Road from the Phoenix Park to Aughrim Street.

Yes but 3 streets with alot of bedsit type properties on them. My point is it would be wrong to assume that 90% of properties are below standards. Inspecting bedsit is the smart way to go so I am surprised the council are doing it like this

The_Conductor

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Yes but 3 streets with alot of bedsit type properties on them. My point is it would be wrong to assume that 90% of properties are below standards. Inspecting bedsit is the smart way to go so I am surprised the council are doing it like this

Noted. I've changed the title.

Boom__Boom

Personally I think they should list the landlords of these sub-standard properties publicly.

Name and shame the landlords.

the_syco

Not surprised. Pre-63 properties were always left out of any standards/inspections/etc.

Scortho

Would it not be better to inspect, do a revenue audit and then fine those substantially for not abiding by the regulations.

Say a house is subdivided into 8 beds sits. Rent on each bedsit is 500 a month. That's 48000 a year.
A fine of 2 years rent on non compliant landlords would end the problem. The ones that abide by the law have bothing to fear, the onrs that break it get a smack of reality that the old standards arent allowed anymore.
Also get revenue to audit them. While not all bedsit owners are tax dodgers, some are.
Lastly if a fire officer can kick a couple of hundred apartment owners and tenants out of their homes because the block doesn't meet fire regulations, surely they can do the same with bedsits that fail to meet fire safety standards.
Or change the legislation so that the tenants can be evacuated from substandard accomadation.