Cork City Council publishes reasons for turning down offers of social housing

Brendan Burgess

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Lack of private parking and garden size among reasons Cork council homes were rejected

More than a quarter of the 542 offers of housing were turned down in the first seven months of this year
www.irishexaminer.com

Cork City Council said that common reasons they are given for rejecting a property include:
  • The applicant changes their area preferences;
  • They want larger accommodation;
  • They want a detached or semi-detached house, not mid-terrace;
  • They want a house, not an apartment;
  • The applicant fails to contact the council about the offer for an extended period; and the applicant deemed the property unsuitable once they viewed it.
 
A lack of private parking, the location of a boiler, and a garden that was too small are just some of the reasons people have turned down permanent homes offered by Cork City Council.

A brand new, three-bedroom house was also rejected because there were only one-and-a-half bathrooms.
 
Whilst I'm not defending the applicants here; this is very much a 'half-story'.

Were I, for example, a wheelchair user, private parking might be a serious issue.

So called 1.5 bathrooms means there's one family bathroom upstairs and a loo downstairs.

If you purchase your first home, you may compromise on garden space or bathrooms on the basis that in a few years time you can trade up to get more space / another bathroom etc.

From the social housing applicants point of view, they only get one shot at this, so they are prepared to hold out.

There's an element of 'cheeky for a beggar' in publishing this.
 
Thirsty said:
From the social housing applicants point of view, they only get one shot at this, so they are prepared to hold out.
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I agree and think this is a big problem. Get a house and it's yours for life, even if you have spare bedrooms and other families with kids are in hostels, you get to keep it. Madness.
I think anyone rejecting a decent offering should be put to the back of the housing list.
 
To be honest, there are parts of Cork City where some of these houses are that I'd be in no rush to park a car on the road either. Likewise, hard to know what the "position of the boiler" means.

There is an element of CCC trying to put a spin on things here, "look at us, it's not our fault" so I'd take this story with a pinch of salt. No argument that some people have notions as to what they want from the Council but it's also quite possible an offer was made for the sake of making an offer.

Another headline could have read, "vast majority of council houses offered are accepted"
 
There's a lot of people living on their own in 3 and 4 bedroom houses provided by the council. Surely an annual check would sort this.
 
I am a bit slow in recommending this, but how about the RTP is expanded to review social houses for offer by a council? Once approved by the RTP, they are good to go and anyone refusing an offer be put at the back of the list?
 
There were 396 successful new tenancies out of 542 up to the end of July this year in Cork City. The remaining 146 units were not picked up by prospective tenants, Cork City Council said.

That is a huge rejection percentage! The wording is a little ambiguous, but could it mean absolutely nobody on the list of prospective tenants was prepared to accept those properties to live in?
Doesn't it mean many applicants on the list are living elsewhere quite comfortably, and are not really in need of accommodation, if they are happy to reject a place? It is a huge financial saving to be paying the council an affordable rent, rather than a private landlord's rate.
 
Hi Gervan

I am not familiar with the process, but apparently they have quite a while to make a decision. Not sure how long.

So we end up with empty houses while they are thinking.

Then if they reject them, the Council has to go back to the process again. So a house can be vacant for over a year.

They could redesign the system. If they have 50 houses, invite 70 people to register an interest in them a bit like the CAO. 1st Preference, 2nd preference, 3rd preference.

Then have a second round of offers, etc.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
They could redesign the system. If they have 50 houses, invite 70 people to register an interest in them a bit like the CAO. 1st Preference, 2nd preference, 3rd preference.

Then have a second round of offers, etc.

Brendan
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I think that's a great idea
 
My sister in law, got offered an affordable house many years ago in Cork county. She lived alone and she loved it. But it had been rejected several times by couples as being too small. And I would agree, while there was a large double bedroom, and a very decent bathroom, the living, kitchen, laundry, dining space was badly designed and laid out. No room for an oven for example. I could see a couple tripping over each other every day in the living space.

So I would agree that the reasons for rejection list sounds bad, there is probably a lot going on under the surface that could be delved into. And I agree, as painful as it sounds, once a family council home is down to one or 2 adults they need to be moved on to a smaller unit to make way for new families. I would not say it is easy at all working in a housing unit in a council, but the stock of social housing is too valuable for it not to be used to its full potential.

I missed this quote

“All of these properties had been chosen originally by the applicants after viewing them on the online Choice Based Letting System (CBL) which includes the address, a description of facilities, photographs, and a Google Map link showing the exact location of the property.”

So they had been selected by the candidate originally but ultimately 25% of them rejected the choice they made themselves.
 
So we need smaller units in areas where there is already social housing. I think there should be a needs assessment every 5 years and people should be moved as their family grows up and moved out but people should not be moved out of the area they have lived in all their life.
 
Agree Purple, and the cork city FAQ says “If you refuse a property offered to you under CBL, you will be deferred for one year off both social housing support waiting lists.” So there are real consequences for the people if they reject a house they selected.
 
Thirsty said:
From the social housing applicants point of view, they only get one shot at this, so they are prepared to hold out.
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This is dead right.

Tenure for life and a differential rent is a great deal.

But no one wants to live somewhere that's too small or with anti-social neighbours.

It makes sense to hold out for a better offer.
 
NoRegretsCoyote said:
This is dead right.

Tenure for life and a differential rent is a great deal.

But no one wants to live somewhere that's too small or with anti-social neighbours.

It makes sense to hold out for a better offer.
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From the tenants point of view they are completely correct in what they are doing.
The same applied to what many consider to be the 'abuse' of the HAPS system. If you have no realistic prospect of ever being able to afford to buy your own house because of economic policies that concentrate wealth amongst old people and those who own Capital (mainly old people) then why not use the system?
 
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It reads like a tabloid poor-baiting article to me.

One home was turned down because the property had no private, offroad parking, although onstreet parking was available.
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One home? What does that really tell us?
 
time to plan said:
It reads like a tabloid poor-baiting article to me.
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The income threshold to qualify for social housing in Dublin is €35,000 for a single person and up to €42,000 for a large family. €673 a week is hardly poor. It's certainly not enough to buy a house but it's far more than a family in Dublin, Cork or Galway earning €100,000 a year will be left with after they pay a mortgage on their first house.
 
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