This article is from page 13 of the 2011-04-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
CLARE County Council has said it is constantly monitoring the situation regarding outstanding rent payments.
It follows concerns raised at yesterday’s monthly council meeting over the level of rent arrears in local authority housing.
Commenting on the council’s annual report for 2010, Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said he was concerned that “certain sections” of local authority tenants are not paying rent.
He told the meeting that from his own analysis, the council was in arrears of around € 1.2 million.
He said this was not down to the performance of the council but rather to, “certain sections of society that just don’t want to pay”. He added that rent arrears are having an impact on the council’s cash flow and ability to provide services.
Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) said there was a problem for the council when tenants start accruing debts that run into thousands of euros. He urged the council to take a more pro-active approach and to start meeting with tenants as soon as arrears start to become an issue.
“Once its gone over the edge to € 4,000 or € 5,000, the horse has bolted,” he added.
Bernadette Kinsella of the council’s housing section said that the council has a policy of meeting and, if needs be, re-adjusting rent agreements with tenants if payment problems arise. Ms Kinsella agreed that the council needed to move as quickly as possible to communicate with local authority housing tenants that are finding it difficult to pay rent.
Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said the issue of homeowners seeking to have unfinished housing estates taken over by the council was a growing one in Clare.
Figures released in September 2010 showed that Ennis Town Council had taken over the running of two housing estates, while a further nine had applied to be taken in charge by the council. Cllr Flynn estimated that development bonds for estates in Ennis alone totalled around € 5 million. “This is an area of huge concern for many people,” he explained.