This article is from page 18 of the 2008-02-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
ONE is every nine Clare rental prop- erties inspected by Clare County Council was found to be in breach of the Private Rented Dwelling Regula- tions, it was revealed at last night’s meeting of the local authority.
A further 25 rental properties were found to have “serious faults” by the Clare Fire Authority, with legal ac- tion being taking against a total of six landlords who failed to resolve potential fire hazards when warned by Clare County Council.
Only 434 rented properties were registered with the Clare County Council last year. Of these, 53 were
found to be in breach of the Rented Dwelling Regulations.
According to Fine Gael council- lor Joe Arkins, many Clare people on low incomes are afraid to report poor housing conditions to the local authority. The Ruan native claimed that there is a double standard of rents in Clare.
“There is a problem with the qual- ity and choice of rental accommo- dation in this county. In relation to apartments, we have two main types. Those for the well-heeled people who are moving onwards and up- wards and those for people on the breadline who live in places where they will take rent allowance,” said
CiUlr Arkins.
“This is another case where the de- partment is calling the tune but it 1s not prepared to pay the piper. We just do not have the money to carry out these inspections to a satisfactory standard.
‘The people who are not complain- ing about their apartments are those on the lower echelons of society, peo- ple who have a fear of losing their tenancy. We need to get the fund- ing so we can really put the wind up these landlords.”
The motion was seconded by Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald (Lab) who claimed that many landlords are not even on the council’s register.
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modations out there. There are land- lords there ripping off young single parents, people who don’t have an option but to live in these places. A lot of these landlords are not even on the register,” said.
Commenting on the motion, Cllr Martin Conway compared the cur- rent situation to that of Michael Dav- itt and the land wars.
“We are dealing with a culture of landordism in this country. Land- lords and absentee landlords, the same as Davitt rose up against. Some of what I witnessed in rented accom- modation would absolutely horrify any person. We need to up our game in terms of inspection.”