Tenants ordered to pay €13,000 rent arrears to building company

Ballymote Construction Ltd took a case to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) over the outstanding rent. Two tenants living in a property in Cnoc na Sí, Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, had not paid their rent of €1,600 for several of months.

The RTB ordered payment of the arrears of €13,300 and found the eviction notice to be valid, advising the tenants they had 21 days to leave the property.

Over the years, Ballymote Construction has been involved in 17 disputes with tenants over arrears, eviction notices and rent increases. The RTB found in Ballymote’s favour in 16 of the cases.

The one it lost concerned an invalid notice of termination served on a tenant in 2016. Other cases brought by tenants were not upheld, while some were ordered to pay arrears of more than €3,000.

Concerns have previously been raised about the company’s rent prices.

Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny told the Dáil how a tenant renting a house from Ballymote Construction had her monthly payment increased from €800 to €1,400.

She had been living in a three-bed house in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, for two years with her husband and small child when the rent was hiked, Mr Kenny said.

Tubbercurry is not a designated Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) – an area where rent cannot be increased by more than 2pc each year.

Landlords leasing properties outside an RPZ are entitled to increase rents to a market rate once a lease has been in place for 24 months. The new rent must also be shown to be on par with other prices charged in the area.

A tenant living in another house in Cnoc na Sí took a rent review case against Ballymote Construction last year. However, it was not upheld by the RTB.

The Irish Independent contacted Ballymote director Hugh Adams for comment, but he did not wish to respond.

A number of recent decisions by the RTB involve significant rent arrears.

In one, a woman appointed executor of the estate of her late brother took a dispute with the RTB after her tenant failed to pay nearly €20,000 in rent. The tenant, who lived in a house in Co Limerick, was ordered to pay the arrears and vacate the house.

Elsewhere, renters living in a house owned by Circle Housing were ordered to pay arrears of €4,500.

Rents in new tenancies went up faster than in existing tenancies from last July to September. National average rents for new tenancies were €1,598 a month, up 11pc on the previous year, while existing tenancies rose 5.2pc to a national average of €1,357.

There was a higher percentage increase in new tenancies outside Dublin, where monthly rent costs rose by nearly 13pc, compared with a 10pc rise in the capital.