A campaign to tackle the issue of landlords withholding tenants' deposits will be launched today by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).

The USI said almost 60 per cent of renters experience difficulties getting their deposit back.

As part of its Homes for Study campaign, the union will announce a partnership with deposit management service Deposify.

The company is backed by Bank of Ireland and, according to its founder, John Bayle, "gives landlords and tenants a joint account for rental deposits, and lets them manage and control how and when deposits are paid and resolve deposit-related disputes".

Deposit management

USI president Annie Hoey said: "Last year, Ireland saw many problems in the accommodation sector, but this year USI is at the forefront of finding solutions to these problems, and a deposit management service with Deposify is a perfect solution for deposit disputes."

The USI is urging anyone with spare rooms to rent them out to students. It will relaunch its website homes.usi.ie, which links students with landlords who can lease rooms to students during the college term tax free up to €12,000 annually.

According to Daft.ie, there is 40 per cent less rental space available compared with last year while rents have increased by over 8 per cent nationally.

Trinity College and UCD last week launched an accommodation campaign in Dublin to encourage homeowners to provide student digs.

The project will include blogs of students’ positive experiences in digs which will be posted online as an encouragement for potential landlords.

The universities said they hope to create several hundred new bed spaces for students in a matter of weeks.

About 2,000 accommodation places at DIT’s new Grangegorman site should be in place by 2018, along with 280 beds at Trinity’s Oisín House on-campus accommodation project.