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ALMOST 4,500 people have signed a petition calling for the Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, to stop the St Helen’s Court eviction in Dun Laoghaire.
It emerged last week that 17 tenants in the south Dublin apartment block had been served with notices to vacate by two investment firms – Apollo Global Management or Deutsche Bank – which own the properties.
The companies – so-called vulture funds – have told the tenants that they need to vacate the apartments so the complex can be refurbished. The tenants will have the opportunity to re-rent the apartments if they go back on the rental market.
However, the tenants believe they will be charged higher rents when they move back in.
Currently, landlords can only increase rents by 4% in Dublin – but this rule does not apply if significant refurbishment has been carried out.
Writing to minister
Local TD for the area Richard Boyd Barrett is advocating for the residents. He told TheJournal.ie today he has received “a perfunctory acknowledgement but no substantial response” to a letter he sent to Minister Murphy.
Boyd Barrett said this is “extremely disappointing”.
“A lot of people realise it could be them,” added Boyd Barrett of the support for the petition.
A meeting was held on Saturday where it was decided that all of the residents are going to write to the minister to appeal for him to intervene in the situation.
If the residents don’t receive a favourable response, it is understood they may consider a protest.
They are also urging Minister Murphy to communicate with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) on the issue.
They are going to appeal the situation to the RTB and want the minister to instruct the RTB that tenancy protection legislation “should not be abused”, said Boyd Barrett.
They want any loopholes in such legislation to be closed down.
“If there’s ambiguity in the law then the minister has an obligation to clarify what is the intent of the law,” he said.
Boyd Barrett said there should be a serious investigation into whether the works on the apartment block are necessary. He said that six of the units in the complex not owned by the two investment companies have not been asked by their landlords to leave over necessary works.
The residents have been trying to contact the investment companies to discuss the issue.
Alternative accommodation
The pending eviction has put a lot of pressure on residents, said Boyd Barrett, particularly families who have children in local schools.
“All of the residents are out there to find alternative accommodation if it can be found but they just can’t find anything in the Dun Laoghaire area,” he claimed. “You have families who are uncertain about whether their kids can go to their schools in the autumn.”
He said this is “obviously worrying for many of the people there”.
Boyd Barrett said that the residents want the minister to step in and intervene because it “isn’t just about the 17 families and households in St Helen’s Court, but potentially huge numbers of tenants that are in the same boat”.
“Excessive rent increases and evictions for spurious reasons will not be tolerated – that is the message that has to come from the minister,” said Boyd Barrett.
He also suggested that the government could purchase the apartments and rent them to the tenants under an affordable rental scheme.
“The government have talked a lot about it,” he said of such a scheme. “Here would be an opportunity to kick off an affordable rental scheme by stepping in, buying these places from the vulture funds and renting them back to tenants.”
“It would be entirely reasonable for the government to come in and offer some sort of price which would still allow these guys [the investment funds] to make a bit of money but which wouldn’t involve the eviction of tenants or increase of rents to unaffordable levels,” he said.
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There will be no intervention ,that’s a given
@Brian O Reilly: Venezuela invoked a wide range of price controls against private owner, it hasn’t done their economy any harm last time I looked.
@Brian O Reilly: how can you intervene so long as the law is not being broken? Noonans NAMA sell off approach is starting to kick in now whilst Bertie’s socialist policies remain in place
@alphanautica: So has Germany. Rent controls. Renters guaranteed rights. Hasnt done any harm to their economy either last time I looked.
Are you saying that giving citizens any sort of rights, or restrictions on certain types of property ownership, will lead to the collapse of the country?
@Good Early: but it’s not property ownership. The fund owns them. It’s not private landlords who should be responsible for social housing
@Michael Geraghty: Sure the fund owns the property, but the regulatory framework belongs to the public. If we regulate to ensure more fairness, thats our domain. It’s up to these funds if they want to continue business in OUR patch or not. We don’t owe them a living.
@alphanautica: No, Venezuela’s economic issues were largely due to the global collapse in oil where there economy is over reliant.
@Greg Blake: and who would have bought the properties if not the funds? Would you be bailing the funds out if they had lost money?
@Michael Geraghty:
Bailed out banks cannot take priority over peoples homes.
Over reliance on oil was a significant reason for Venezuelas collapse. Chavez had his heart in the right place but massive overspend on Welfare, an aggressive approach to foreign employers in Venezuela (which lead to their exit) and the non investment in forced purchase of state assets (farms ect) all played their part in bringing this country down. Socialist ideals gone tragically wrong.
A solution to this was offered by the head of the law society, and was ignored by FG in favour of the 0.1% becoming even wealthier while using tax loopholes to avoid hundreds of millions in tax which could be building more homes.
@The Risen:
Link ?
I keep forgetting what the difference is between renting and owning.
One of them means you own the property and are exposed to the ups and downs of the property market.
The other means you are paying the owner so as you can stay there temporarily, for a specific term and monthly rate, according to a contract and are exposed to the ups and downs of the rental market.
@alphanautica: Very simplistic. For example, rent increases can be easily sorted – by a fixed term (and rental) lease¡
@Fank Pulman: Pity his buddies in Fianna Gael didnt apply the same logic to unsecured bond holders!
@Fank Pulman: Yes it’s a two way negotiation. All of my tenants sign a 2 year lease minimum……and I have prospective tenants who don’t want to sign and indeed a tenant who wanted to get out of the lease they had signed after 9 months. Or do you want all the rights just for the tenant?
@alphanautica:
You are ignoring the new situation which has arisen since the economic crash, the bank bailout, and the imposition of austerity by the EU and our govt,. Normal rules cannot apply in the new situation.
@Mary Murphy: No…I do not.
@Fank Pulman: so then why would tenants not sign longer leases on offer? Or why would they try to break leases? Or why do tenants not request longer leases?
@Mary Murphy: You can’t judge all renters by this. Some want long leases and some don’t. Families with children in local schools often prefer longer leases whereas migratory workers don’t. Maybe it would be better to advertise that your leases are a minimum of two years.
Vulture fund ‘landlords’ that have no duty of care to tenants, just profits. Well done Noonan, FG and NAMA. Another few families to add to the six thousand homeless created under your steerage. Keep the recovery going, eh?
@DaisyChainsaw: as a renter this frightens the crap out of me!!!
Will never affect me, I don’t rent. If you rent, then you have flexibility and so should the landlord. If you want petmanentcy you need to buy.
@Bunny Johnson: Ignorant comment. So as long as it doesn’t affect you, let the vulture funds turf tenants out whenever they feel like it. Did you not read this part of the article …
“All of the residents are out there to find alternative accommodation if it can be found but they just can’t find anything in the Dun Laoghaire area,” he claimed. “You have families who are uncertain about whether their kids can go to their schools in the autumn.”
@Bunny Johnson: Ah yeah, sure it’s that simple. Did your parents buy the corpo house and let you live there?
@Bunny Johnson: sure arn’t you just wonderful …
@Bunny Johnson: and he if you want to spell words correctly you use a dictionary or take the lazy option and use spell check.
@Bunny Johnson: Yes, because it’s just that simple to save and buy a house alright whilst paying extortionate rents.
@Bunny Johnson: as a single parent I don’t earn enough to get a mortgage for a home of my own. So glad you feel so smug in your house but there are other citizens in this country.
@Bunny Johnson:
You are a part of the cossetted elite and stakeholder class, and you views can have no application to the bulk of ordinary Irish people.
@Con Murphy: Nah I suspect Bunny is just an idiot with no compassion at all. Because Bunny is doing fine thanks……
@Bunny Johnson: What an obnoxious ignorant comment.
@Super Ted: My comment isn’t ludicrous, you are living in a fantasy world. The people involved chose to rent and therefore they are subject to change. It’s not my fault, it’s there’s.
I have worked all my life, normal jobs nothing special, have a wife and four kids. I drive an 05 Passat, I don’t drink much or gamble. I saved up and saved very hard to buy my first place and then renovated it and moved on. My wife has spent most of her life with some part of the house being improved.
I am not making fun of those people’s predicament but as they are renting it’s inevitable. If they can’t afford somewhere local then they will have to move somewhere cheaper. No one owes them the right to call their current home theirs forever, that comes with a mortgage. That was all I was saying
@Bunny Johnson: No, they’re not living in a fantasy, our government is and you seem you have bought in to it. Not many people “choose” to rent, they do so because it’s the only option available. Our government has mismanaged our housing sector in favour of the interests of capital above the welfare of our citizens. Many can’t afford a mortgage because there’s a lack of supply driving up house prices and the rental sector is shambolic because landlords have to drive up prices to make a profit. Also, there’s no protection from vulture funds who are turfing families out on the street exacerbating the homeless crisis which is going to have further deleterious effects down the road. The situation is simply untenable, we have a corrupt/incompetent government who are simply uninterested in the lower orders of our society and this is a recipe for further disaster.
It’s time Ireland had a proper taoiseach and stood up for family’s and their homes.
@@mdmak33: Too busy pandering to his vulture fund mates and the landlords in his party.
Surprising that only 4400 people signed the petition considering the seriousness of the issue, 44,000 wouldn’t have been an overwhelming number.
@Charles Coughlan:
Less than half of RBB’s first preference vote or 2% of the population of Dún Laoghaire rathdown constituency,
@P.J. Nolan:
5%
@Charles Coughlan: I didn’t know about it but I’ve signed it now. If they get away with this it will just open the flood gates for other landlords.
@Charles Coughlan: 5’049 now.
All part of the Banks plans to get back to profitability at the expense of ordinary Irish people. Stay in your homes, fight the banks.
What the funds are doing is entirely legal, and nothing is going to result from the petition. Of course if you want to pick and mix which laws suit you, try driving on the right.
@James Dean: That’s nonsensical. Petitions can and do make a difference because public opinion makes a difference. The water charges are a good example. It’s our government who are driving on the right.
I agree with mr Boyd Barrett – it is truly unbelievable even in a democracy like ours that a vulture fund can – on the pretext of refurbishment ( it’s a scam to raise rent) evict 17 tenants and throw them to the wolves! Shame on the new so called / hands on ! Will do ! Minister – get a quick grip now and stop this nonsense right now . Rory Hearne
It’s time for RBB to put his war face on. The only thing these parasitic landlords understand is direct action.
These are comparitively newly built, it would be surprising if they had to be generally refurbished based on any other criteria than that they would command a higher rent than the rent control legislation allows.
Send in independent surveyors and if this is a smokescreen let the law be enforced, and the tenants should be compensated from Deutsche Banks deep pockets
As a once Fine Gael voter, I am incensed with Noonan and Kenny’s policies in favour of these blood sucking vulture funds. Trouble is that The new guy seems no better and Noonan will ride of into the sunset with a huge underserved pension The ultra right So n So
@Randal McNally: What needs to happen is for corrupt and under performing politicians whose policies create a net loss to lose their pensions. We’d soon see them take our country’s welfare a lot more seriously if that were the case. No more voting machine or water fiascos…
These apartments needed serious refurbishment when I went to view them 5 years ago I wouldn’t live there..Along with most of the apartments in dun laoghaire. Electric storage heating. Bad insulation. Old windows. I only wish they could get the other owners to to knock these and make them modern apartments in one of the most sought after and scenic areas. . Great to see investment.
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