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SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN / PALMERSTOWN / NORTH CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

QUESTION NO.26

QUESTION: Councillor N. Fennell

To ask the manager what responsibility the council have for mortgage to rent schemes. What is the role of Hone for life and what are the responsibility of tenants i.e. when maintenance issue arises. Can I ask the manager to give a statement on the matter.

REPLY:

The Mortgage to Rent (MTR) scheme is a government scheme to help homeowners who are at risk of losing their homes due to mortgage arrears. It allows homeowners in mortgage difficulty to switch from owning their home to renting their home as social housing tenants. The scheme is overseen by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and is administered by the Housing Agency. Authorisation to act as a provider of the Mortgage to Rent Scheme (purchaser) is awarded by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government.

The local authority inspects each property to ensure that it meets the required standards for the rental of the property to eligible applicants. Where a property does not meet these standards, the local authority will arrange with the purchaser to have the necessary works undertaken following completion of the MTR process.

Under the MTR process the homeowner becomes a tenant of the local authority and enters a Tenancy Agreement to that effect. The Tenancy Agreement sets out both tenant and local authority responsibilities.  The MTR provider is responsible for the maintenance and repair of the property as set out in the Tenancy Agreement.  MTR tenants are provided with contact details for MTR provider to enable reporting of all maintenance issues directly. MTR provider maintenance response times are identical to that of council response times.