The council had problems with its IT system, which led to the delay, said Paul Carroll, the council’s director of housing.
Council tenants in Fingal weren’t told how much more rent they would be paying until two weeks after the rate had increased in April, council officials said last Thursday.
Councillors agreed, in November, to increase rents – which the council said had not gone up since 2013 – from 12 percent of a tenant’s income to 14.5 percent.
The council issued an initial letter on 11 March outlining the general changes to the scheme, according to a written answer from council staff to Sinn Féin Councillor Angela Donnelly, at Thursday’s meeting of the Blanchardstown area committee.
The new rates came into effect on 25 April, said the answer from Sara McAvoy and Mark McGinty, senior executive officers in the council’s Housing Department. “And changes to the scheme were also communicated via social media and website updates,” they said.
But it wasn’t until 11 May that the council sent a second letter to its tenants, telling them their new individual rents, the answer said.
The decision to raise council rents – justified in part by the need to fund better maintenance of social homes – continues to be contested by some councillors on both Fingal County Council and Dublin City Council.
On Monday, Donnelly issued a statement saying the rent increases demonstrated a lack of awareness of the struggles faced by those renting in the county.
“Residents in Fingal are now facing increased property tax, council rents, increased HAP differential payments, increased gas and electricity bills, as well as increased oil and fuel costs,” she said.
Fingal County Council posted a notice to its Facebook page on 23 April, two days prior to the new rates taking effect, including a link to the scheme’s webpage.
But, it was appalling that residents were not sent a letter specifying their new rates until nearly three weeks after they had come into effect, Sinn Féin Councillor Donnelly said at the full council meeting on Monday evening.
Tenants were in arrears for weeks before the second notice was issued, she said. “After all the conversations we’ve had in the chamber, to tell tenants three weeks after the scheme came into effect, what the new rent is, I think is really poor.”
Paul Carroll, the council’s director of housing, said the council had problems with the IT system which led to the delay.
“But we have resolved that now, and if there’s any issues, we’ve engaged with any tenants to kind of make sure that that doesn’t cause any difficulties for individual tenants,” he said.
Under the new rental rates, a household’s primary earner pays 14.5 percent of their weekly net income, while a subsidiary earner pays the same but with a cap of €60 per week, according to the council’s website.
The website also notes that the lowest-income household will pay around €36.83 per week, while the average rent is €111 a week.
Back in mid-April, Sinn Féin Councillor Malachy Quinn tabled a motion asking councillors to support his request for the council to pause the rent increase. Quinn’s motion was agreed by 19 votes to 14.
But, a council spokesperson on 14 April would not comment on whether they would heed the motion and pause the increase, saying instead that they acknowledged concerns raised by councillors and noted the intent of the motion.
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