COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 08, 2007

QUESTION NO. 1

QUESTION: Councillor C. King

To ask the Manager to provide details of the average time taken to re-allocate a vacant/boarded-up house in 2007 in comparison to the period of time it took in 2005 and 2006 and can the Manager specify the current number of vacant/boarded up houses there are now (Oct 07) in comparison to the same month in 2005 and 2006?

REPLY:

It should be noted that houses become vacant for a wide variety of reasons including the surrender or abandonment of a house by the tenant, fire damage, vandalism by anti-social elements within the community, wilful damage caused by tenant or member of his /her household and to facilitate transfer requests. Houses are being handed over to Housing Department for pre-let reparis at a rate of two to three per week.The time it takes to allocate houses can vary significantly, depending on the works that have to be carried out to restore the dwelling to an acceptable standard for re-letting, some house have to be refurbished completely, while with others only minor repairs and decoration are needed.

The average time to allocate houses during 2007 is 3 to 4 weeks, in 2006 the average time was 4 to 6 weeks compared to an average of 8 weeks in 2005.

The time involved in sourcing suitable tenants can vary greatly, in some cases houses are allocated on the same day, while in others several prospective tenants have refused offers of accommodation, recently as many as six offers were made before a tenant accepted.

The number of vacant houses at end of August 2007 was 73, which included 2 houses thatwere being refurbished. Forthe same period in 2006, the number of vacant houses were 79, which included 4 houses which were being refurbished and in 2005, the number of vacant units was 60, which included 12 houses, which were retained for refurbishment. The comparable figure for October 2007 is not available.