The number of disputes between landlords and tenants could be significantly reduced if the Government established a third-party scheme to protect deposits, the chairwoman of Threshold housing charity said today.
Speaking at the publication of the organisations annual report Aideen Hayden said deposits were at the root of more than 4,000 cases dealt with by the organisation this year.
She said this was symptomatic of the problems landlords were having in the recession and that many did not now have the money in their bank accounts to refund tenants.
Threshold believes the creation of a State deposit retention scheme - where the money would be held independently by a third party - could "resolve the issue to a large extent" by keeping the money separate from landlord and tenant.
Ms Hayden said 50 per cent of cases brought to Private Residential Tenancies Board relate to deposit retention and can take up to a year to be processed. In more than 75 per cent of cases some or all of the money is ordered to be returned to the tenants.
Minister of State for Housing Michael Finneran, who launched the report, said the Government was seeking to introduce fines for landlords who failed to return deposits. He said a similar system was introduced in the UK and had been successful in reducing the problem.
Threshold also described the number of illegal evictions occurring in the State as disturbing. It was presented with more than 1,000 such cases last year.
Ms Hayden said there had been a rise in evictions because of rent arrears, which had a huge human cost on those affected and often resulted in homelessness.
She said a scheme under which the Government paid rent supplement directly to property owners would be preferable as it would give landlords a steady income and allow the State to better negotiate how it spends more than €500 million on rent allowance annually.
Ms Hayden said such a move could help rent supplement tenants from being forced into poorer quality properties at the lower end of the market. She said the cap on what people in receipt of rent allowance could spend was creating a two-tier property market.
These people were being exposed to issues such as damp, fungus, vermin, bad wiring and no central heating.
Mr Finneran said the Government was committed to ensuring rental properties were of a high standard and that 20,000 local authority inspections were carried out last year.
Ms Hayden said 4,000 of the properties inspected failed to meet minimum standards but only three people were prosecuted.
