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SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, April 11, 2022

QUESTION NO. 8

QUESTION: Councillor L. Dunne

To ask the Chief Executive how many private rental inspections have been carried out in the 1st quarter of 2022 and how many of those inspections were found to have breached minimum standards?

REPLY:

Inspections of private rented properties are primarily carried out on the Council's behalf by external contractors on a planned inspection programme covering properties with Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) and Approved Housing Bodies (AHB) tenancies.  In addition, Environmental Heath Officers (EHOs) inspect properties where complaints are reported to the Council.

Where properties fail any of the nine regulatory minimum standard items, the landlord will be notified of non-compliance and requested to resolve the issues identified with follow-up inspections arranged as necessary.  Several follow-up inspections may be carried out on the property depending on the nature of the non-compliance before a final inspection is undertaken.

Generally, the principal reasons for non-compliance with the minimum standards relate to easily rectifiable and/or relatively minor issues including window restrictors not being in place, absence of fire blankets, boiler servicing not up to date, the presence of mould, extractor fans not working etc.  Any major contraventions of the standards are referred to EHOs for final inspection and they will proceed to issue of a prosecution notice if the required works are not completed within a set timeframe.

The year-to-date figures for inspections carried out and non-compliance as at 30th March 2022 were as follows:

	No. Inspections	No. Non-Compliant
Planned First Inspections	549	532
Complaint-Related First inspections	43	39
Follow-up Inspections	293	261
Final Inspections	27	2