LAST UPDATE | 1 Mar

MORE THAN 30 households in a Co Wexford estate are facing eviction after being served notices by their shared landlord.

The notices were served in recent days in Bridgetown, near Rosslare, ahead of new rental rules introduced by the Government taking effect from today.

However the householders have been told the properties are to be sold and will not be rented out again.

Local TDs have criticised Housing Minister and Wexford TD James Browne due to the evictions were taking place in his “backyard”, with meetings planned in the coming days to help residents in the village.

According to the notice – seen by The Journal – many of the tenants in the Hazelwood estate in Bridgetown have until August to vacate.

The homes are owned by Wexford-based firm Patchflow Ltd. They have been contacted for comment but had not replied by time of publication. The notice said the landlord intends to sell the properties.

One tenant, Ana Barron, told The Journal that she and her neighbours were “in shock” after receiving the letters.

“Everybody is in shock,” the 59 year old said.

“It’s just me and my husband but there are people here with kids and there is panic.”

Barron explained how the estate is now faced with huge uncertainty after receiving the notices on Friday.

“It’s so hard to get any house out here. I don’t need this at 59,” she said.

For all tenancies that began before the new rules came into effect today, landlords were entitled to give notice of ending the tenancy if they planned to sell the property within nine months.

However, the Department of Housing has said that legislation offers protection to renters, as it pointed to the ‘Tyrrelstown amendment’ contained within the Residential Tenancies Acts.

The department noted that where a “landlord proposes to sell 10 or more units within a single development at the same time, that sale is subject to the existing tenants remaining in situ, other than in exceptional circumstances”.

“If tenants believe they have been issued with an invalid Notice of Termination, they should raise a case with the Residential Tenancies Board,” the spokesperson said.

Meetings taking place for tenants

Local councillor Aoife Rose O’Brien told The Journal that the evictions, if they proceed, would “devastate” the village’s community.

“These people are in our schools, they’re part of the community here – but we don’t have 36 homes in the Rosslare district for those people,” the Sinn Féin representative said.

“I’m hopeful the council steps up here especially given this is the Minister for Housing’s constituency and hopefully something can be done for these people.”

O’Brien and the local branch of the Community Action Tenants’ Union (Catu) are holding a public meeting in the village this afternoon with several of the affected tenants.

“We’re talking them through a step-by-step step process on what they need to do next to register their notices with the Residential Tenancies Board to try and fight this,” O’Brien explained.

Wexford County Council is to hold an information meeting for the households facing eviction in the local area next week to discuss their situation.

In a message addressed to households, the council said they appreciated it was a “extremely worrying” development and urged them to attend a “specific clinic for households in this situation” in the town on Monday.

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Local TDs react

Labour TD George Lawlor has called on Government to urgently intervene to prevent “further mass evictions”.

“To hear that 36 Notices of Termination have been issued by a single developer in Wexford is deeply troubling,” Lawlor said.

“Behind every one of those notices is a family, a worker, a child in a local school, a person who has built their life here in Wexford and who now faces the very real prospect of losing their home.”

Lawlor added that it was “no coincidence that this wave of notices” comes amid the Government’s sweeping changes to the rental market.

Wexford already struggles with housing supply and soaring rents. Families cannot simply pick up and find another affordable home at short notice.

Lawlor added that the terminations will have a “ripple effect” across the entire local community.

Local Sinn Féin TD Johnny Mythen said on social media that the case shows widespread evictions are “happening in the minister’s backyard” as he urged the Government to reverse the change.

“Where are these people to go?” Mythen said.

Rent reforms

The new rental rules have come in for major criticism from the opposition parties but the Government has maintained that the new rules, which allow landlords to reset rents to the price quoted elsewhere on the market between tenancies, will attract investment into the private sector to ensure fresh supply of apartments and housing.

The new rules will only apply to tenants taking out a lease from today. Under the changes, all tenancies created from today will last for a minimum of six years.