David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I dispute the statement that there is a landlord class. There are many different kinds of landlords, including huge institutional investors, individuals, pensioners and all the rest. It is not appropriate to say there is a landlord class.

I can add a sentence or two of context. Last Monday, we hit two new national records. The first was the lowest number of dwellings ever offered to rent and the second was the highest figure for average rent. The person who contacted me about those asked why anybody would be surprised because, for the past five or six years, punitive legislation has been enacted in waves, with each wave more extreme than the last. I can provide some evidence a little later. Another correspondent told me the following:

Substantial refurbishment, which is in a tenant's interest too, can cost up to €10,000, and this feature, if enacted, will cause deterioration in existing rental properties and create very poor accommodation as time goes by. Substantial refurbishment is not financially possible when, effectively, rent control is in place.

The two elements are in conflict and, as the Minister can see, I have a sheaf of correspondence from landlords. That is only a small portion and I have edited it so as to speak appropriately to the first amendment.

The Bill is so restrictive with regard to the definition of "substantial renovation" that most property owners will find it impossible to comply with the criteria and will not be able to increase their rent even after substantial expenditure. Apartments and pre-1963 multi-unit accommodation will be hardest hit.If enacted, investors will no longer purchase this type of accommodation, which will further decimate supply in the rental market. That is the market responding to the situation. Three issues, in particular, are causing concern. First, a permanent alteration of the internal structural layout cannot be made. This means that disability access changes may be impossible where, for example, an apartment block has no lift. Second, a permanent increase in the number of rooms will invalidate fire certificates. Third, an improvement in BER of two or more ratings is difficult to achieve and impossible for protected pre-63 buildings, which are exempt from BER. A logical solution is to link the substantial refurbishment spend to the existing rental price of the property such that a substantial refurbishment would involve an expenditure of more than 80% of the annual existing rent up to a maximum of €10,000. Under that model, apartments with rents of €1,500 per month would require an expenditure of €10,000, while properties renting for €500 per month would require an expenditure of €4,800.

Another item of correspondence, from Mr. Graham Farrington-Christie of Haden Properties in Dublin, accuses the Minister of conveniently brushing over two of the three additional measures, particularly the provision dealing with permanent alterations to the internal layout of a building The correspondent notes that the altering of the internal layout of a pre-63 building goes against the basis of the pre-63 legislation in the first instance. In terms of dwellings being adapted to provide for access and use by a person with a disability within the meaning of the Disability Act, it is noted that this type of accommodation is traditionally three floor over basement, which does not lend itself to any disability modification works given its status as a protected structure. The Minister's proposed solution for these properties is unattainable, the correspondent argues, a point he has highlighted to the Minister several times since meeting him on Monday, 13 May to explain his organisation's difficulties with the Bill. Mr. Farrington-Christie states in his letter to me that the issue is that the majority of the buildings in question are protected structures and are exempt from BER, as set out by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. He refers to the specific scale that is suggested to be utilised as a grading against refurbishment. He notes further that because they are protected structures constructed more than 100 years ago, should he follow the direction of the Minister and go against the legislation on protected structures, the buildings will only come up to the BER scale between three to four scales without external or internal insulation, both of which are blocked. In effect, landlords in this situation are caught in a catch-22 situation.

This is one type of horrifying situation landlords sometimes face. I accept that there are good and bad landlords. My sister, who went to a clinic in Malawi as a volunteer on no pay, let out her house in Kilkenny to a friend for a nominal rent of €500 per month. Being a good citizen, my sister declared the extra income only to be hit by penalties. I let out the basement apartment in my house, and I have had good tenants but also horrendous tenants. In one case, the tenants left the apartment in such a condition that I made an 11-minute television-quality film of it. I have a photograph here showing what the sheriff and I found last week when we inspected the property. It does not show the bedroom and bathroom, which I have not been able to get to yet. The woman involved owes me €11,000. I had to pay the solicitor €4,000 and the sheriff €2,700 to send two men out for ten minutes, and it will cost me at least €20,000, with no comeback, to repair the house. I would only be wasting more money trying to chase the tenant down for the moneys owed. The process to get her out took nearly two years from start to finish. Yet, if I as a landlord do anything wrong by a tenant, he or she can claim 15% to 20%-----