COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Tuesday, May 07, 2019

QUESTION NO. 6

QUESTION: Councillor D. Looney

To ask the Chief Executive to provide a year-on-year report of private rented tenancy inspections up to 2019, to note in the report the percentage of passes and failures in the reports, and to provide details on the nature of such failures.

REPLY:

Private Rented Properties in the South Dublin Area are inspected by the Council under the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 on behalf of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), which outlines the minimum standards required for private rented properties, detailing the different areas of its scope including: Structural Condition, Sanitary Facilities, Heating Facilities, Food Preparation and Storage and Laundry, Ventilation, Lighting, Fire Safety, Refuse Facilities, Gas, Oil and Electricity Installations, and Information.

The private rented inspection figures and associated failed inspections from 2015 to date are as follows:

Year

Total First Inspections

Failures

% Failure

2019(Jan-Mar)

345

313

91%

2018

1,891

1,697

90%

2017

1,362

1,135

83%

2016

1,353

1,195

88%

2015

1,731

1,081

62%

It is the experience of the Council's inspectors that a large amount of cases fail due to relatively minor, easily remedied contraventions of the minimum housing standards legislation e.g. no fire blanket in the kitchen, out of date or non-functioning smoke alarms, no microwave etc.  It has been also noted that properties frequently fail due to updating of regulations, e.g. requiring multiple carbon monoxide detectors (one is required at each point fossil fuels are burned, and at each upper storey); and window restrictors (required for all openable windows 1400mm above ground).

The Council continues to work with landlords and the Residential Tenancies Board to achieve compliance by following up on inspections, distributing information on the minimum standards to landlords to make them aware of their responsibilities, and highlight these common failure areas so they can address issues in advance and significant numbers of properties subsequently become compliant in advance of further inspections.

More complicated structural, electrical, sanitary issues etc.  are followed up by Environmental Health Officers who use the relevant legislative powers to pursue the landlord to effect necessary remedial and upgrade works.