Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. My colleague, Senator Landy, has covered the broader aspects of the Bill so I will restrict my comments to the particular section of the Bill which deals with the landlord-tenant relationship and their obligations. It is my view and that of Threshold, a housing charity which deals with in the region of 20,000 tenants and 3,000 landlords per annum, that the proposed measures, as set out in the legislation, will not achieve the intended goal and will, in fact, add to the difficulties in the private rental sector. This sector is already experiencing supply and affordability issues, not to put too fine a tooth in it. We are concerned the proposals outlined in the Bill will put tenants in a vulnerable position with regard to their relationship with landlords. In summary, by making landlords responsible for their tenants' water charges, it will make it more difficult for low income tenants, in particular, to access housing. It will lead to demands for higher security deposits and increase the number of deposit retention cases, thus undermining the forthcoming deposit protection scheme the Minister intends to introduce shortly. It will increase the number of tenancy terminations and will generate a much higher workload for the dispute resolution service of the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB.

The Minister has indicated in a number of interviews that he is determined to ensure this legislation does not undermine the position of tenants. I will use this opportunity to outline some of the reasons we believe this will not be the case. The normal position in the rental sector is that utility accounts such as gas and electricity are in the tenant's name and not that of the landlord. In other words, it is the tenant's responsibility to pay and only in rare situations, where the landlord keeps responsibility for the utilities and retains the bill in his or her name, does the landlord have any call whatsoever on the tenant's deposit. Utility arrears in the tenant's name are, therefore, not deductible from the tenant's deposit.

The situation being proposed under this legislation makes the landlord accountable for the payment of the tenant's water bill. Where the landlord is not the occupier of the property, he or she must inform Irish Water of the identity of the tenant. Unlike other speakers, I do not have a difficulty with that obligation. There is already an obligation on landlords to register tenancies and both landlords and tenants are obliged to comply with the law as it currently stands. However, the proposed amendment states that where a tenant fails to register or pay, the landlord is liable to pay the water charge. This is completely different from current practice where a landlord has no responsibility for a tenant's electricity or gas bills.

In order to protect themselves against these situations, landlords will seek to increase the amount of a deposit required at the start of a tenancy. As I have already stated, this will make it more difficult for low income tenants to secure tenancies. Given the extreme difficulty low income tenants have securing accommodation at the moment, particularly tenants in receipt of rent supplement, it is inevitable that tenants will be the victims of any situation which tries to make landlords responsible for arrears in water charges.

The non-payment of a water charge will be a ground for terminating a tenancy under the proposed legislation. We have not yet come across a case where a tenancy was terminated due to the non-payment of a utility bill but we believe the proposed amendment makes the non-payment of a water charge grounds for terminating a tenancy. Tenants who have not paid their water charges face the prospect of eviction. We have serious concerns about this particular measure. If landlords are permitted to terminate tenancies in this way, it will lead to greater homelessness and a higher number of disputes, as I have already said, coming before the PRTB. Disputes relating to Irish Water are not currently dealt with by the PRTB and this will be an unnecessary addition to what is an already overburdened workload.

Our recommendation is that there should be no change to the current system, which operates effectively. In other words, utility bills are a matter for the tenant and not the landlord. Non-payment of water charges should not be a ground for ending a fixed-term or Part 4 tenancy. As a water charge is payable by the tenant, it should not be deductible from a security deposit. In our view, this is unworkable because a landlord will not know if a tenant is in arrears in their water charges. They would have to have a right to require information from Irish Water, which I believe would infringe data protection legislation. Before this legislation proceeds to Committee and Report Stages, I ask the Minister of State to consider seriously the situation. As already pointed out, one fifth of the Irish population live in rented housing. If we do not safeguard tenants, in particular those on low incomes, we may regret it.