NEARLY 5,000 EVICTION notices were served on tenants between July and September last summer, new figures from the Residential Tenancies Board have shown.
Landlords served 4,741 eviction notices on tenants during the period, up from 1,132 eviction notices from January to March and 1,666 from April to June last year.
The rental sector is under scrutiny in the wake of the government’s decision not to extend an eviction ban that is due to expire at the end of this month, leaving many tenants without secure housing once the ban is lifted.
Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for housing described the new figures from the RTB, published today, on last summer’s evictions “truly shocking and seriously worrying” in the context of the ban ending.
TD Eoin Ó Broin said that “the latest figures show that the sale of homeless risk from April 1st, when the government’s ban on evictions ends, is much worse than expected”.
“Notices issued from July to September would have, in many cases, fallen due from February during the ban period. A huge number of these notices will now fall due in April,” he said.
This will mean more people than ever before will have to leave their rental homes. There is simply no way that homeless services will be able to cope with this level of need.
“The consequence will be thousands of people forced to stay with family and friends or overhold in their rental accommodation. It will also see a rise in rough sleeping and the prospect of families with children being referred to Garda stations for a safe place to sleep,” he said.
In its Q3 2022 report, the Residential Tenancies Board notes that from 6 July last year, new legislation came into effect that requires landlords to send a copy of all notices of terminations to the board on the same day the notice was served on the tenant, with the notice considered invalid if the requirement was not met.
It also notes that one notice does not directly equate to one tenant as some notices can relate to multiple tenants.
60% of eviction notices issued during the quarter involved cases where landlords said they intended to sell the property, with a further 16.75% linked to instances of landlords saying a family member planned to move in.
15.57% involved a breach of tenant obligations.
Homelessness charities have warned that they anticipate a jump in the number of people without a home when the eviction ban is allowed to lapse.
Wayne Stanley, the Executive Director of the Simon Communities of Ireland, told The Journal this week that the ending of the moratorium is “very worrying” because while “people still became homeless when the eviction ban was in place, it absolutely prevented homelessness”.
“Even having that quite significant preventative measure, we still saw homeless numbers grow, particularly in the Dublin region,” said Stanley.
“So once that’s lifted and we return to the levels of growth in homelessness that preceded it, it’s very worrying because our services were already stretched.
“So the pressure is on from every side and it’s a really dark picture at the moment.”
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