Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 412: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if landlords who consistently rent to tenants engaging in anti-social and criminal behaviour can be held legally responsibly for the action of their tenants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26313/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will appreciate that it is not a matter for me to interpret the application of the law in particular circumstances. However, the following general information relating to anti-social behaviour by tenants may be helpful. I am informed that in the case of private rented dwellings landlords are responsible for enforcing the obligations that apply to their tenants under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, which is under the aegis of my colleague the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. The Act inter alia prohibits a tenant in a private residential tenancy from engaging in anti-social behaviour in, or in the vicinity of, a dwelling to which the Act applies. It allows a landlord to terminate any tenancy where the tenant is engaging in or allowing others to engage in such behaviour, subject to a notice period of only seven days in the case of serious anti-social behaviour or 28 days in the case of less serious but persistent behaviour.

The Act also provides that a third party directly and adversely affected by anti-social behaviour may, subject to certain conditions, refer a complaint to the Private Residential Tenancies Board against a landlord who has failed to enforce tenant obligations. A specific condition is that the third party complainant must have taken reasonable steps to resolve the matter by communicating or attempting to communicate with the parties to the tenancy concerned. Section 23 of the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011 provides that an owners' management company may make house rules for the effective operation and maintenance of the multi-unit development. The rules must be consistent with any covenants or conditions contained in the documents of title and have the objective of advancing the quiet enjoyment of the unit owners and achieving a fair balancing of the rights of such owners. The section also provides that where a unit is let it shall be a term of the letting that it is subject to the observance of the house rules by the tenants. A summary of the relevant conditions and covenants together with a copy of any house rules must be incorporated into the letting agreement relating to the unit concerned. Where a person, who is obliged to comply with house rules, commits a material breach of the rules, the Act provides that the owners' management company of the development concerned may recover the reasonable costs of remedying the breach from the person and those costs may be recovered as a simple contract debt in a court of competent jurisdiction.

Local authorities are required by law to adopt anti-social behaviour strategies for the prevention and reduction of anti-social behaviour in housing provided by them. The Housing Acts 1966 to 2009, which are also under the aegis of my colleague the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, include a range of measures to assist housing authorities to give effect to their strategies, including the power to refuse to allocate, or to defer the allocation of, a dwelling to a person engaged in anti-social behaviour or where an allocation to that person would not be in the interest of good estate management. Other powers available to housing authorities include application for civil excluding orders prohibiting a person engaged in anti-social behaviour from entering a specific local authority house and/or neighbourhood and, in extreme cases, eviction of a household engaged in anti-social behaviour.