Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I also welcome the support for genuine tenants who will be protected from eviction at this difficult time. There are some excellent tenants and some excellent landlords who have been more than understanding of the loss of income and livelihoods as a result of this pandemic. Unfortunately, there are also rogue landlords and this Bill will help to provide their tenants with some protection.

A number of cases have been brought to my attention over recent months and I will provide the Minister with the details of just two of them. One case involves an 84-year-old landlady whose tenant has refused outright to pay rent since December 2019, before the pandemic arrived. This tenant, who was in receipt of social welfare payments, has not suffered any loss of income and had been claiming rent supplement. It is not known whether rent supplement is still being paid directly to her. This tenant is describing the property as her house and will not engage with the elderly landlady, any of her representatives or the RTB. She will not accept any registered letters and completely refuses to engage. This is despite the elderly landlady carrying out some refurbishments to the house earlier this year while the tenant was in default of rent. This has caused untold stress to this elderly lady to the point that she is now becoming ill. She is owed more than €10,000 in rent arrears and there is no end in sight.

In the second case, which also involves an elderly landlord, the tenant stopped paying the rent despite this rent also covering all of his utility bills. He used a previous ban on evictions to frustrate and delay the process of moving out and then took a case to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, on the grounds of discrimination. The landlord felt bullied into accepting the terms of the WRC's judgment, which meant that all rent arrears were waived. Threshold knew that the tenant was not paying the rent and was likely to lose his case with the RTB. The landlord subsequently learned, following a phone call to Threshold, that it is advising tenants to take cases to the WRC, which seems to be in bad faith and at odds with the function of this charity. The tenant in this case was also in receipt of social welfare payments and his income has been completely unaffected by the pandemic. This landlord lost in excess of €16,000 in rental income from this tenant.

These are elderly people and their cases are only two of several cases of which I have been made aware since March. In the case of the elderly lady in question, her family were informed by the RTB as recently as yesterday that the case will take a very long time to process due to Covid-19. Where is the fairness in this? While legislation should be in place to protect good tenants and to prevent homelessness during this unprecedented time, the situation is becoming even more difficult for genuine landlords who are unable to get fair play. I ask that provision be made in the new Bill for cases in which tenants are simply using the legislation to frustrate the system. I ask the Minister to ensure there is some fairness for landlords in these instances. Landlords who pay tax and comply with the law cannot be penalised by legislation introduced to protect those who are exploiting that same legislation for their own benefit. The legislation needs to include some provision to ensure fair play for all involved and protection for genuine tenants - and there are genuine tenants out there - and for genuine landlords. I look forward to the Minister's comments in this regard.

I also ask the Minister to outline his plans for supports for commercial tenants. I have been contacted by a commercial tenant of 20 years who has always kept rent payments up to date. Unfortunately, closure during lockdown has meant this tenant has been unable to pay rent. The landlord was unwilling to provide a rent break and actually increased the rent. This landlord has now issued a notice to vacate the property, despite the business having been there for 21 years and having not had any income for most of this year. Here we see a good tenant with a viable and successful firm being forced out of business. This issue has to be dealt with.

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