RTB report shows ‘tsunami’ of evictions expected in coming months, says TD

The latest report from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) shows there will be a “tsunami” of evictions in the coming months, according to Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson Cian O’Callaghan.

“The RTB report states that 4,329 notices-to-quit were served to tenants between October and December of 2022,” Deputy O’Callaghan said.

“That’s in addition to the 4,741 notices-to-quit that were served between July and September of last year.

“This huge increase in the number of people facing into homelessness is unprecedented.

“In contrast, in Q2 of 2022, 1,600 notices to quit were issued to tenants.

“If the Government does not reverse its decision to lift the ban on no-fault evictions, we are facing a tsunami of evictions in the coming months – more than 9,000 – while homeless services are already operating beyond capacity.

“Thousands of people across the country are competing for a handful of available rental properties. This is causing immense stress to those who are facing into eviction with nowhere to go.”
The Dublin Bay North TD said the Government made the decision to lift the ban without the full data available to them.

“When the Government made their decision to lift the ban on no-fault evictions, they did not have access to key data,” he said.

“Crucially, the Government did not have the Notices of Termination Q3 and Q4 reports from the Residential Tenancies board which show that over 9,000 notices of termination were issued in the final six months of 2022.

“The Government also made its decision before the February homeless figures were published.

“Those figures showed that the eviction ban was working, with the number of people in homeless emergency accommodation stabilising for the first time in over a year.

“Now that the Government has this key data, showing that the eviction ban was working and showing an unprecedented number of renters facing evictions, the Government must reinstate the ban on evictions.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said this week that Cabinet had not known the number of notices to quit issued before making a decision on the eviction ban.

However, he said that it would not have changed the Government’s mind.

“That’s absolutely not the case,” he said.

One reason the decision was made not to extend it “was precisely because there was an acceleration of landlords leaving the market,” he said.