In February, the owner of a house in Dublin 14 told a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal how his tenant had not paid his rent since March 2020.
George Maloney explained that his tenant, Brendan Madden, who did not attend the hearing, had accrued rent arrears of €105,750, a sum accepted by the tribunal.
Despite this, the maximum amount the tribunal could order Mr Madden to pay was two years’ rent (€54,000), though even with this legally binding order, those in the sector believe it is unlikely Mr Maloney will receive those funds.
His case was one of the 1,010 involving rent arrears published last year.
Rent arrears, overholding and a combination of both accounted for 42 per cent of disputes lodged with the RTB from January to November 2024, many of which detail “desperation” of tenants unable to sustain current rent levels.
An Irish Times analysis of the 1,010 determination orders found that tenants were ordered to pay more than €4.3 million in rent arrears by RTB tribunals.
The calculations of the orders did not include associated damages awarded to landlords, and accounted for deductions made whereby rental deposits were retained by landlords due to the arrears.
It also excluded disputes where a confidential agreement was made.
The sum of more than €4.3 million accounts for determination orders issued in 2024 only and published until late December. Arrears ordered to be paid by tenants varied from as little as €62.80 to as much as €60,000.
The lower amounts owed are often built up by tenants renting from non-profits such as Tuath Housing Association or Clúid Housing.
John-Mark McCafferty, chief executive of housing charity Threshold, which often assists tenants in the RTB dispute process, said the figure is “not necessarily” surprising.
“Arrears have been a more significant part of the rental landscape since the beginning of the recovery, in 2013 or 2014, when rents began to increase significantly,” he says.
Housing supply and high rents, particularly for those on low to middle incomes, and denial of housing assistance payments (HAP) whereby landlords refuse to sign the required forms, often result in arrears building up, he says.
“It’s certainly a concern,” he says, adding: “The bigger the sum and the shorter the time to pay it back, the bigger the challenge and the less possible it is.”
In George Maloney’s case, his tenant was ordered to pay the €54,000 by way of 10 monthly payments, though many are ordered to pay large sums within 28 days.
Rent arrears often come hand in hand with overholding, generally a symptom of few affordable housing options, based on evidence given in tribunal hearings.
One such case was that of Joan King, who had been renting a property in Ballsbridge, Dublin, since 1995.
Ms King told the tribunal how she was “hoping to have a roof over her head for her 80th birthday” and had a “history” with the house, in which she lived in a one-bedroom apartment on the top floor for €1,141 per month.
She was not disputing that she had been overholding and had sought help from her local authority and local councillors to find alternative accommodation, but had “nowhere to go,” she said.
She explained how she found just one landlord who accepts HAP but she was 12th on his list, adding she was as anxious to move as the landlord was.
Her landlord, John Meares, said Ms King had “rolling arrears” since her tenancy began.
Ms King was ordered to vacate the property within 28 days, having overheld for almost a year, and to repay €27,384 in rent arrears in 12 monthly instalments, while Mr Meares was directed to return the rental deposit of €60 which she had paid decades prior.
“We witness a lot of desperation in the private rental sector with tenants with few options because of a lack of alternative options,” Mr McCafferty says.
While most landlords and tenants have good relationships, according to Mary Conway, chair of the Irish Property Owners Association, those owed rent arrears from overholding tenants face lengthy waits for determinations ordering tenants to vacate and repay.
Average times for dispute resolution reduced “significantly” in 2024, according to the RTB, with mediation cases taking six weeks on average this year, while the average time to resolve an adjudication case was 19 weeks.
If landlords or tenants choose to appeal following either of those routes, the next step is a tribunal hearing which had an average processing time of 16 weeks, meaning tenants and landlords could be waiting up to almost nine months for determination orders.
After the decision is made, and tenants are ordered to repay the arrears, “in most cases, landlords don’t get arrears back, it would be very unusual,” Ms Conway says.
Landlords and tenants can seek assistance from the RTB to enforce determination orders and latest available figures show that in 2023 the rental watchdog received 390 such requests.
However, Ms Conway said the majority of landlords accept the loss and do not pursue this avenue.
“How are you going to get money from someone who doesn’t have it?” she says.
Overall, 9,114 new dispute applications were lodged until the end of November, slightly down from the 9,284 cases received during the same period in 2023.
The slight decrease suggests dispute application levels have “stabilised”, according to the RTB, after an “unprecedented increase” between 2021 and 2023, during which applications grew by 75 per cent from 5,675 to 9,908.
Deposit retention was the subject of 19 per cent of new disputes received in the first 11 months of 2024, followed by breach of landlord obligations (18 per cent).
The validity of a termination notice accounted for 17 per cent of disputes.
The 9,114 disputes heard of tension between tenants who installed CCTV cameras in shared living spaces and numerous “stark” illegal evictions, including one of a family in the lead-up to Christmas.
Ciara Leavy was pregnant while renting with her partner and their one-year-old child in Mornington, Co Meath, when their landlord, Janet Muteweye, changed the locks and evicted them 10 days before Christmas in 2023.
She recalled being “humiliated” and left without access to their belongings when she arrived to find the locks changed.
The tribunal described the eviction carried out by Ms Muteweye while the family was out of the house as “stark” and “egregious”, according to a tribunal report published in July.
They later discovered all of their possessions were moved to a storage unit, though some items were missing. Ms Muteweye was ordered to pay the family €15,000 in damages.
A separate case heard how the friendship between tenants Gabriel Lazar and Marius Cadar had broken down, during which Mr Cadar installed a CCTV camera in their livingroom in Dublin 11, it was claimed.
The case was taken by Mr Lazar against his landlord LiChang Liu, claiming he took no action on receipt of his complaints about his cotenant. The tribunal ordered Mr Liu to pay €500 in damages.
Another case involved 92-year-old tenant Ita McDonnell who was awarded €3,750 in damages after her landlord, Patrick Molloy, tried to evict her so he could increase the rent beyond rent pressure zone caps, a move described by the tribunal as “unconscionable”.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our In The News podcast is now published daily – Find the latest episode here
