‘Trail of destruction’ left in Castlebar rental home
A meeting of the Castlebar MD held at Aras an Chontae heard of 'tenants from hell' who caused over €40,000 in damage to a property they were renting
Mayo County Council must take greater care when assessing the suitability of candidates for social housing, councillors in the Castlebar Municipal District have warned.
Fine Gael Cllr Ger Deere told last week's district meeting about a couple that "left a trail of destruction" after them and owed thousands in arrears of rent to a private landlord.
The couple are now out of the house but Cllr Deere said it is terrible to see they are now in line to receive a social house from the council.
"The house has now been left in a deplorable condition and it will cost about €40,000 to €50,000 to repair," he said, adding that the landlord had made numerous attempts to evict the tenants.
Cllr Deere said four skips of rubbish had to be removed from the house, which had attracted rats due to its condition and that the couple had also "terrorised" neighbours in the area.
"Where is the deterrent for people renting a house to not leave it in such a state?" he asked. "RAS and HAP should be taken out of their pocket as a deterrent.
"It is terrible for these people who owned the house and worked hard to have it as a pension for later on in life."
Separately, Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne questioned why the council has not taken action against tenants who have been convicted of possession of drugs.
"The council has a duty when letting houses but you can see the cases in the local papers every week and they publish the name and address of these people and yet not one case has been taken by Mayo County Council against a tenant caught in possession of drugs," he said. "It is terrible that genuine people might miss out on social housing. Every thug who gets in prevents a genuine person from having their housing needs resolved."
Cllr Kilcoyne added that Garda checks should be stringently carried out on all prospective council tenants.
Fine Gael Cllr Donna Sheridan said she has previously lived in areas where neighbours would be engaged in "unnerving" anti-social behaviour and said she would like to see the council develop a policy to prevent those engaging in this behaviour from getting a local authority house.
"We don't want to see anyone evicted but no one should not pay rent or destroy the property," she said. "This is terrible on private landlords."
