Tenants of rented properties and their neighbours must have access to the names and addresses of landlords if they wish to make a complaint and the Minister for Environment must change legislation to allow this to happen.
This is the view of Independent Cllr Terry O’Flaherty. At Monday’s city council meeting, she put forward a motion which seeks to make public the names of landlords and compels them to maintain their properties in good order.
Cllr O’Flaherty’s motion called on the Galway City Council to recognise the “considerable difficulties” posed in many housing estates by landlords who “fail to maintain their properties in good and proper order”.
It also called on the council to acknowledge that landlords have a responsibility to “make regular checks on their property to ensure their condition does not act as a detriment to the local community”.
The final part of her motion calls on the Minister for Environment John Gormley to amend section 128 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to empower local communities to identify the owners of rented properties.
The motion received the full support of the other councillors. It will now be forwarded to Minister Gormley.
“The legislation should be changed to ensure that landlords declare their ownership on a register and that the register should be available to the public for examination,” she said. “Not being able to access the details of landlords under current legislation leaves residents with a terrible sense of powerlessness.”
Cllr O’Flaherty also called for the making public of landlords names in a submission to the private housing sector. The PHS is in the process of drawing up a revised set of standards which aim to transform “poor quality private rented accommodation and compel landlords to look after their property”.
