Almost 200 council tenants paying weekly €20 penalty

At the present time there are 172 tenants of Westmeath County Council paying a penalty of €20 extra per week in rent as a result of their failure to provide sufficient information for the council's annual rent review.

The figure was given to members of the council at their monthly meeting by Michael Hand, the acting director of finance. Mr Hand said that the budgeted income from the council's housing stock for 2024 amounted to €8,526,429. That included an upward revision of rents that was to apply from February 24 of this year.

He added that any increase in rent arising from the rent review, which is based on qualifying income of the household, was being restricted to the lesser of €20 per week or 25% of the current weekly rent. However, there were the 172 tenants who failed to provide sufficient information to facilitate their annual rent review.

Responding to queries from councillors on this issue, Director of Services Jackie Finney stated that it was not entirely clear why these people had not responded, but she said the council would be getting in touch with them again.

Mr Hand pointed out that because of the extra charge on these people, they were paying the maximum rent and if they actually filled in the forms and completed their applications, it would mean for some of them the rent would actually come down.