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THE NUMBER OF Notices to Quit from landlords to tenants in Ireland has spiked in recent months, prompting calls for urgent Government intervention to reduce evictions.
In the second quarter of 2022, the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) revealed that 1,781 eviction notices were served.
This is an increase on the first quarter of 2022, where there were 1,132 eviction notices and significantly up on the second quarter of 2021, when there were 841 notices.
John Mark McCafferty, CEO of Threshold said that the private rental sector was facing “an onslaught of evictions”.
“Behind the statistics are individuals and families entering homelessness and losing their homes. It is imperative that the government moves quickly to formulate a specific, targeted strategy for evictions to help keep people in their homes and ensures some level of security around this.
“This strategy must focus on how small landlords can be incentivised to remain in the sector. There have been widespread calls for reform of the taxation of rental income. If this is what is needed to keep them active in the sector, then the Government must introduce and expedite these changes.”
Sinn Féin’s Housing Spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin has called for “urgent action” to be taken to address the high levels of evictions.
This action includes, Ó Broin says, a temporary ban on evictions or tax reform within the rental sector.
“All options must be on the table for consideration including a temporary ban on evictions, an accelerated tenant in situ purchase scheme by Local Authorities, an acceleration of social housing delivery and tax reform in the private rental sector,” O Broin said.
However, it looks unlikely that the Government will implement an eviction ban, as they did during the height of the Covid-19 crisis.
While the number of eviction notices continues to rise, do tenants have rights when being served an eviction notice?
Length of tenancy
One of the key factors in whether or not a tenant can be evicted with or without a reason, depends on how long they have been leasing the property.
Under the Residential Tenancies Act, any tenancy – except fixed-term tenancies – can be ended for any reason in the first six months.
This means that a landlord who ends a tenancy does not need to provide a reason to a tenant who has lived in the property for less than six months.
After six months have passed however, under ‘security of tenure’ rules, landlords can only terminate a lease for several limited reasons.
These reasons include:
However, if a landlord intends to sell 10 or more properties within a development in a six month period, they are unable to terminate a tenancy unless the market value with a sitting tenant is over 20% below the market value for vacant possession, or stopping them ending the tenancy would cause ‘undue hardship’ for the landlord.
This is under the so-called ‘Tyrrelstown Amendment’, which was first introduced by the Government in 2016 to stop large numbers of tenants being evicted from developments at one time.
However, it does allow for up to 10 tenants to be evicted at any one time.
If a landlord does seek to terminate a lease, they must do so in writing to both the tenant and the RTB and they need to provide the tenant with a notice period.
These notice periods are set down under legislation, with the amount of time given changing depending on how long a tenant has lived in the property.
These notice periods are:
However, notice periods do not apply in a situation where either a tenant has breached the lease agreement or where they are in rent arrears.
Illegal evictions
There are situations where an eviction from a property is illegal.
According to Threshold, situations where a landlord prevents a sitting tenant from accessing their rented property either through force, intimidation or other means – including changing locks or cutting off household utilities – are classified as illegal evictions even if a valid notice of eviction is provided.
This also includes a landlord removing a tenant’s belongings from the property.
This is the case, even when a tenant is in rent arrears, as landlords must go through the legal process with the RTB complaints system.
Rising homelessness
Alongside rising levels of evictions, the number of people homeless in the state rose for the sixth consecutive month in June.
The number has risen significantly in recent months, with record levels of homeless adults now being reported by the Department of Housing.
In total, there were 10,492 people recorded as homeless in June, of which 5,177 were single adults.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has said that the number of people accessing emergency accommodation “is a serious concern”, adding that delivery of social housing and having more housing supply was key to resolving the homelessness crisis.
However, Labour Party housing spokesperson Senator Rebecca Moynihan referred to the report as “disgraceful” and that it “represents a total systems failure and the wasted years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in power”.
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Did he expect more than the 500,000 per annum he was being paid as a so-called ” consultant” . Not bad for someone who lost an empire buying a dodgy bank.
“What you mean I can’t bet the entire company in a game of poker? This is not what I thought we agreed”
You mean “how was I to know the dealer had the cards rigged in the Anglo Casino”.?
And they still can’t manage to put the dealer in prison.
Hey Sean you crook. Any chance you’d pay the insurance levy for me?
Sort of pity the man, But it was all down to one thing, mentioned so many times here, GREED.
Why exactly do you pity him, John?
I think you need to read up on the collapse of Anglo and Quinn’s involvement in that.
What I mean is, any man/woman that strive through their life for more and more money, even though they are adequately provided for including their family for the future. Their one and only aim is more money, and are prepared to put their life and everybody’s else life in jeopardy just to attain a few more bucks, they, and there is a lot of them in Eire, eat, sleep, and dream, more money. Greedy B@stards.
That is why the great divide between rich and poor widens daily. People now, if they can afford 2 holidays, lease a car, pay the mortgage and borrow as much as possible on credit, think they are on a winning streak, regardless of what happened in 07/08. The I’m allright Jack attitude so F U.
God I am depressing myself. Thanks for being a great audience, goodnight and safe home.
John you seem to be forgetting the fact that theree was no Quinn Industries before Sean Quinn creayed it. There were also no jobs in the border region before Quinn Industries. Spare a thought for the tax revenue created as a result of this industry and how this benifits us all. It is easy to drive down one man and his family but look what he has left behind him, rather than the risks and mistakes he made.
He left us the Irish tax payers with a hefty bill as well….
The Prime Time special on him 2 weeks ago was terrifying. Culture of fear and intimidation led by his supporters.
And he also left the Irish taxpayer with a conglomerate of huge successful companies across the world worth 1.5 times the value of his gambling debts.
1.5 times his debts my arse. That’s what he said, but he would, wouldn’t he.
If thats true Gareth, why did his son try to hide assets, his daughyers refised to comply with court orders. If he is such an honourable man, why didn’t he cash in his assets and help the country he was and inevitibly did …ruin.
If that is true Gareth why has my car, house and any other insurance I might be paying gone up?
Theres nothing wrong with being a capitolist..thats why a lot of people go into business. There is a problem when one gambles the fortunes or even the economics of a whole country. He and his associates( his family) should be made pay. Or be charged….and that could be treason. Now I wouldn’t advocate a charge of treason, I’d much prefer the man and his family admitted they were wrong and committed to making up the shortfall. Rather than my eventual grandkids and now seemingly my great grandkids do the job for him.in short..fu quin.
Spot on Brinster – prepare for a spate of arsons in Quinn country….
Because those assets were his families and not linked to the Anglo loans. He had been financially raped IBRC which was completely unnecessary. The whole case was really badly handled by IBRC, Central Bank and Government officials. They should have taken an equity stake in his companies and allowed him to trade his way out of debt and eventually buy back the shares of the state. No too unlike what the British Government did with Rolls Royce. We killed the goose that had laid the golden egg.
Inflation mate, inflation. It’s global and please don’t try say the Quinns invented it
Not sure if you’ve seen the inflation rates over the last 8 years, Gareth.
Gareth, for Quinn to have traded his way out of debt he would have had to be allowed to continue to operate Quinn Insurance illegally (ie. with insufficient reserves), something which the authorities quite rightly could/would not allow to happen.
You seem determined to defend Quinn at all costs despite what is known. Perhaps you like to comment on what Justice Peter Kelly had to say about him?:
“A High Court judge has lashed out at the Quinn family’s “deviousness” in attempting to put assets beyond the reach of the former Anglo Irish Bank.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly said their actions “reeked of dishonesty”.
The judge’s comments were made as he appointed receivers over assets owned by various members of the Quinn family.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly expressed his outrage at members of the Quinn family as he extended orders freezing the assets of the Quinn children and two in-laws.
He said he had been presiding over the commercial list since 2004 and has had to deal “more and more often with cases involving fraud, sharp practice, dishonesty and chicanery”.
However he added that never had he seen such conduct on the scale demonstrated in the Quinns’ case, nor with the “deviousness” with which this scheme had been operated.”
When PK made that statement he had no idea of what had been happening inside the walls of Anglo. Only when the Anglo tapes were disclosed did we get a taste of the “devious” corruption that was happening inside. Since when did Anglo become some kind of authority on ethical business. This is a dispute between two private businesses. The government you voted in decided on befall of the taxpayer without consultation to guarantee £29bn of David Drumms gambling debts.
Nobody is saying Anglo are angels. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
Insufficient reserves under Irish law but not European law.
Absolutely but if you read the comments you see that people with strong views believe Quinn broke the country. The promissory notes were written up for €64bn of which Anglo is responsible for €29. The state got €0 of Anglo.
The state wrongly allowed Quinn be put out of business and took an empire worth €4.7bn
And sold it off for a song to venture capitalists and other sitting vultures.
The government put £29bn of tax payers future earnings into a defunct bank and that’s Quinns fault ????? I think not
A large chunk of the “€4.7bn empire” was a house of cards based on an unsustainable pyramid scheme. Good that you agree that QI was being operated illegally though.
The poor Quinns. Only paltry millions to their names!
Don’t forget the “Quinn Levy” which the whole of the country (mostly unknowingly) pays.
The Quinn levy was a government excuse to impose another stealth tax. Unknowingly paying for sins of PMPA.
@gareth that’s rubbish. The tax was due to Quinn’s mismanagement of his insurance company. And this was well before he destroyed the livlihoods of loads of people gambling on a bank. He’s a crook !
He was the only reason I could drive at age of 18, he created huge wealth, and showed Irish people how to be successful. The banking parasites had to destroy him. And I did it by convincing him to invest to a bank they knew was going to collapse. Interesting to see how quickly Irish people turn on him instead of the parasitic banking class.
Interesting to see how all insurance has doubled as soon as they got him out of the market.
He out of the market about 8 years. The insurance only started to double last year so that can’t be it.
@Alan Moore. “The bankers convinced him to buy a bank that they knew was doomed”
Yeah, the bankers, for some reason I typed that I did it, I don’t have that kind of power
Alan the insurance levels have doubled because of that persons actions. Try and keep up.
Awww bless Gareth and Alan – they’ve totally bought into the Quinnspin…
That is a very poor argument Gareth- he didn’t comply with the rules for reserves AND Quinn hoovered up market share by offering policies that left Quinn exposed. Poor business management
How did Dennis O’Brien manage to get write offs for his companies (eg The indo paper group, 147 million write off), Stat Oil, Site Serv etc … yet he was never held personally accountable. I agree that Quinn has to pay the price, but how come Dobbie got off scott free, in fact, made 100′s of millions off the collapse of Irish businesses? Something is rotten here.
Quinn gambled with his own money, Dobbo gambles with others money.
The fact that he’s been running the country through that clown enda for the last 5 years probably helped. Oh and our last Taoiseach went straight onto one of his boards after he was kicked out would suggest he might had a bit of involvement in the last government too.
He will be at Mass on Sunday and probably receiving communion. All started with illegal quarrying — no planning permission. Why did councils buy millions with of goods from illegal quarries all over Ireland?? Brown Envelopes.
I can’t understand why the ordinary Irish person has to pay off the debts incurred by these delusional business people. The European Central Bank under orders from Germany insisted the peasants pay what was owed by the elite. Same happened in Greece. Plucky Iceland told them where to go and do one. Iceland has had no austerity.
Iceland has had no austerity? Hahaha
Icelandic did not pay one cent that the dodgy bankers owed. They were threatened by the European Central Bank that their children would stave to death. Did it happen? Merkel thought she could bully them like she did with the PIGS. Don’t forget Germany has done very well out of the PIGS
SHUSH!!!
You’re not allowed talk about Iceland if you’re RTE and other biased censoring media.
Iceland had severe austerity, a doubling of unemployment and the pension of virtually every person over 50 was decimated.
That’s a bailout, not austerity. Austerity is cutting expenditure and raising taxes. They had to do a lot of that after their currency went to dog do do. And I think the leader of the party who led them to default was recently dome for tax evasion himself.
Iceland were bought out..by russia. Russia own iceland. Seriously to all the newbees on this site. Get your sh!T TOGETHER . Before you comment again. All yous young ones sound like a load of lab volunteers. In fact yous would be better off not commenting. Just a suggestion.
Jenni maybe take your own advice. Just a suggestion
Did the European Central Bank try to get back any of the billions that was paid to bankers? No! Under German instruction they forced the ordinary Joe and Mary and their that live in the PIG countries into financial poverty. In Greece I have witnessed elderly people scavenge of food in bins. The amount of people homeless in these countries beggars belief. These poor people don’t buy BMWs or Mercedes so they don’t matter to the father land.
He sounds like a very nice man loved by his own people but at the end of the day he robbed the people of this country and should be in jail
He made a business deal that went wrong. He didn’t rob any country of the people. You might be mixing up Sean Quinn with David Drumm who cost the state 29 billion
Gareth that is a load crap your going on with if Mr Quinn was in America he would be in jail for life .
If Mr Quinn was in America he would be running for president. Americans wouldn’t knock him down the Way the Irish do
He could run for President after he would get out of Jail if he would live that long .
The Irish will knock down anyone who has done good even Bono for all his charity work gets a slating from the ill informed. Begrudgry fostered by ignorance.
Two private businesses did business together which went wrong for one. The other happens to have more influence in a civil court than the other. Therefore it had nothing to do with the tax payer until your government decided to intervene and bail out the wrong party with taxpayers money (without consultation).
It’s that simple.
Bono is full of shit as well ,go away and bullshit the Country where he pays his taxes. Mr Quinn has said on numerous occasions that he would pay back the money he owes instead of hiding it all over the world .I read all your comments and it looks like you’re the only one in the Country that thinks it was ok ,only one man shown his ignorance here .
Gareth wait a few years you will be part of a united Ireland so you will find it easier to understand
Shocking what happened to that man.
Absolutely shocking.
A billionaire wanted billions more.
The banks conned him.
Maybe they did. Maybe he got greedy and lost his gamble. Either way, he could have said no and been happy being a multi billionaire.
Conned by the banks! Sean Quinn was a lot of things but naive he was not.
@Cal. I take it you live in the greater Ballyconnell area where this gangster is treated like a God.
Irish banks were still proclaiming that ‘the economy is buoyant’ right to the death.
And everyone in the country is paying an levey on every insurance policy they take out thanks to Mr Quinn’s reckless actions.
He didn’t gamble he made a business decision based on the share value and liquidity of Anglo. There are currently three Anglo directors being charged with manipulating the share value of Anglo which would vindicate his family should the prosecution win.
But this is Ireland where the house always wins.
You paint him as if he was some innocent gombeem up from bally go backwards for the day. The man ran a multi billion euro empire. He knew exactly what he was doing.
He made a bet on share values, whether they go up or down, not on actual shares. He got burned. He lost the bet and took all of us with him. None of us agreed to be part of it. He should be worked, like a horse, to make all that money back for us. He should be given a court sentence, and his kids, that says they all have to work to make enough money to pay back the debt, and it should carry down through the generations until all the debt is gone. That would make them think about what they’ve done.
If anything Quinn conned the banks by using a series of front companies to hide the true level of his exposure.
Not really Cal, he gambled, he lost. It’s sinfully painful and wrong, that we have to pay his gambling debts.
There’ll be a levy stuck on after the whole setanta fiasco, If its hasn’t already been added on. Funny thing is theres been very little about that in the news or about the fact that the maltese authorities are having a hard time finding the identity of the irishman behind setanta insurance. I wonder who that could be ?
Sean quinn needs to be given a chance like the rest of them his only problem is he fought back. The rest of them are up and running again and not a word about them
The “rest of them” lost millions. OK.
Quinn’s greed got the better of him and he lost Billions betting on CFDs, knowing that the taxpayer would ultimately pick up the tab.
Give him a chance, my arse!
Sean Quinn needs to be given a chance. A chance to pay his debts? A chance to f u c k off to a desert island somewhere?
Amen
He offered to pay his debts but IBRC seen more value in taking his companies than giving him a chance to recover. Blame Noonan Nama/IBRC for this problem.
Quinns proposals to repay his debts were deemed to be absolute pie in the sky fantasy stuff.
Gareth- you seem to have ascribed Quinn’s problems to external circumstances. Do you think he is in any way responsible- and please don’t met ion Drumm etc- we know that all the others are responsible. So what about Seanie?
Why did they need all of this money ? Pure greed greed and greed
The Insurance company had a bit of a black hole that needed filling. That’s why!
This element of the Group was the cash cow that milked well for years providing essential lubricant to grease the machinery of any subsidiary business activity that squeaked, including those ultimately fatal eleventh hour high risk gambles involving CFD’s.
A powerful domineering CEO is not acceptable in modern business, especially one at the helm for 35 years +.
Failure of adequate internal checks and balances by management and non executive directors; incompetence of external audit effort by supposedly independent firms, further incompetence from regulators and other business monitoring agencies, all combined to blow a once priceless rural success story out of the water.
The expensive lessons learnt from those 2008 era financial calamities in Ireland must remain etched on the consciousness of all of our present and future entrepreneurs, to avoid any repeat.
I’ll just leave this here http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/2-insurance-levy-to-remain-until-2037-239591.html
About time!
Any chance he’d contribute towards the levy we all pay for his mistakes?
Good riddance
I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this and I await it with interest. Or maybe I should just blame Denis O’Brien and go back to sleep.
have your say