14 August 2017
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Solidarity TD Mick Barry this morning condemned the practice of landlords asking for “holding deposits” from prospective tenants to secure leases.
Mick Barry TD
This morning’s Irish Times carries a report which claims that prospective tenants are being routinely asked for holding deposits of between 300 and 700 euro to increase their chances of being given a lease without any guarantee of the money being refunded whether or not the lease is secured.
According to Threshold the practice is not covered by the Residential Tenancies Act and is not illegal.
Deputy Barry said this morning: “This practice may not be illegal yet but it’s certainly immoral. In effect potential tenants are being asked to hand over sums roughly equal to a weeks pay just to be considered for a tenancy. The housing crisis created by Government inaction is being exploited here to inflict highway robbery on people in need of accommodation. Today’s newspaper report highlights the practice as being quite common in Dublin. Anyone who has experienced this issue in Cork is welcome to contact me and I will have no problem highlighting it with a view to getting the practice stopped.”
Deputy Barry concluded by saying by saying that if the practice is not illegal it should be and that if legislation is necessary to outlaw the practice then Solidarity will support such the introduction of such measures.
