Louth Renters in arrears won't receive maintenance figure tops €4 million

Louth County Council tenants in rental arrears will not receive general maintenance works as the local authority attempts to clamp down on unpaid rents. 

It comes after calls were made at the March meeting of Drogheda Borough District for the local authority to incentivise tenants to clear rent arrears. 

Fianna Fáíl councillor for Drogheda Urban James Byrne said Louth County Council could consider maintenance requests from renters in arrears once they have entered into a payment plan. 

Cllr Byrne noted that Louth County Council is owed over €4 million in rent arrears and said it could "incentivise" tenants to enter into a payment plan. 

Declan Grimes, from Louth County Council's housing section ruled out any scheme that would allow such tenants to avail of housing maintenance. 

He said the local authority must hold a "firm line", and tenants who are "any sort of arrears" will not receive any routine maintenance work. 

However, Mr Grimes said Louth County Council does carry out essential and emergency works.

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"Housing maintenance requests and in particular our energy retrofit programme we hold a very strong line. In the context where tenants are in arrears unless it's emergency works or potential damage to property, we won’t be carrying out any planned works."

"We do carry out essential maintenance and other maintenance work on a case by case basis if we can see the tenant is working and trying to clear their arrears, but we do have to hold a firm line."

"We do have to send out a strong message that rents have to be paid on time and we will work with tenants," he said.

Mr Grimes said the council would work with tenants if a particular property has been earmarked to be retrofit. 

"Rather than missing out on that house we try to work with the tenants see are they in a position to clear their arrears," he said.

There are currently over 1500 tenants in rent arrears with Louth County Council, with over 1000 being 12 weeks or longer. 

The figure for rent arrears totals €4,075,989.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.