# 3,600 social houses lying empty



## Brendan Burgess (22 Oct 2018)

*https://www.newstalk.com/Thousands-of-council-homes-lying-vacant-as-housing-crisis-rolls-on
*
_More than 3,600 council houses are lying empty in the midst of the housing crisis.
...

The latest NOAC Performance Indicator Report found that it took an average of 28.9 weeks to re-let a council home in 2017 – down from an average of 33 weeks in 2016._


----------



## Steven Barrett (22 Oct 2018)

29 weeks to re-let a council house, down from 33 weeks!!! 

Part of the problem with the public sector is a lack of commercial experience. Most people in the public service are career public servants. They are always spending other people's money and when it is the State's money, there are no direct consequences of being over budget. How can any council be happy with it taking over 6 months to get a house ready for re-let?


----------



## Brendan Burgess (22 Oct 2018)

It would be interesting to find out why. 

A lot of offers of council houses are refused.  I presume that the offer is left open for some time. 

There may also be some outliers - houses which no one wants which bump up the average.

The median time empty would be a better measure.

Brendan


----------



## cremeegg (22 Oct 2018)

Please don’t derail another thread by dragging in your, of itself interesting , idea for re launching public housing. 



TheBigShort said:


> Houses are allocated on need - LA's are primarily focused on the need of homeless and those on waiting lists.
> .



Houses are allocated based on a points system. That system varies by local authority. 

I don’t think any council particularly  prioritises homeless applicants. 

A major criterion for most councils is time on the list. 

That is why so many offers are refused. The houses are offered to people who put their name down years ago. Have made alternative arrangements in the meantime and are often in a position to wait for a better offer.


----------



## jpd (22 Oct 2018)

If someone refuses an offer, do they go to the back of the queue?


----------



## mathepac (22 Oct 2018)

An applicant is allowed two refusals and then loses their "seniority" on the list.


----------



## Brendan Burgess (23 Oct 2018)

Some useful data here


----------



## odyssey06 (23 Oct 2018)

How can it cost 5 times more to get a property ready for re-letting in Cork than in Wexford?
Cork City's maintenance spend it twice that per property of Cork County?
And Dublin's is twice that again?


----------



## Tebbit (23 Oct 2018)

The figures for getting a house ready for letting in some cases are unbelievable!!!


----------



## Delboy (23 Oct 2018)

Why do houses need so much work to let/re-let in the first place? It appears they are being completely gutted and then renovated. Why?


----------



## cremeegg (23 Oct 2018)

Because they have the budget and so they must spend it ? Does that still happen ?


----------



## Bronte (24 Oct 2018)

Delboy said:


> Why do houses need so much work to let/re-let in the first place? It appears they are being completely gutted and then renovated. Why?



You want me to answer that? Here's my take on it

- LA houses are not respected
- Especially when the tenant is leaving
- Might be a tenant has been there for years and has let the place go
- Might be a tenant who died
- Might be a LA issue about whether the tenant's children want to take over the tenancy that delays things

Costs
- It's the state, everything costs more
- Because it's the state everything takes longer, a private landlord is ready to go immediately to get the place in ship shape condition
- As an example, it took me 2 weeks to do the following in a 3 bed, repaint it, tiled kitchen and hall floor, re-tile entire bathroom, then there's the cleaning, curtains (no idea what tenant's do to curtains), some new furniture.  And don't get me started on cookers and fridges.  About 7K I think it was about 10 years ago.  I hired Polish painters from a small ad and they did it I think in three days.  They were so fast my husband was in bed (it was xmas and I thought it would be a good idea to stay there) and they didn't care he was in bed, he hopped into the bathroom and they followed him in there, he will never agree again to stay in any of the rentals.
- For 20K your're maybe talking old electrics or plumbing, or else gutting it
- The state always gets screwed for costs by tradesmen, it's impossible for a guy in an office to invest their time and effort into getting the best costs, they just want Johnnie the registered electrician to go in and sort it out and send in the bill


----------



## Purple (5 Nov 2018)

Delboy said:


> Why do houses need so much work to let/re-let in the first place? It appears they are being completely gutted and then renovated. Why?


Because it's not their money. That's why.


----------

