“In some cases work is even being done to landscape gardens and driveways while city council tenants can’t get modest repairs carried out.”
TENANTS who cannot get Limerick City Council to carry out modest repair work to their homes, have to watch in frustration while the council carries out “on a daily basis, extensive and in most cases, unnecessary works on houses (purchased from private owners) before they are relet to new tenants”
Commenting to the Limerick Post, Cllr Joe Leddin, who is calling on the council to end the spending of significant expenditure on the refurbishment of houses they purchased under the Regeneration programme, said he has received numerous calls from people living in private housing estates regarding the issue.
“While I accept modest repair work may need to be done to bring houses up to acceptable BER rating standards, the replacement of kitchens, internal doors, windows, and substantial insulation works such as completely cladding the external perimeter of houses is, I believe excessive,” said Cllr Leddin.
“In some cases work is even being done to landscape gardens and driveways while city council tenants can’t get modest repairs done to improve the quality of their lives – I believe that this money could be and should be better spent in upgrading existing houses within Regeneration estates that are in need of essential repair works.
The city southside Labour councillor said the situation, where money is spent on purchasing houses, followed by substantially more money spent to retrofit and renovate the entire house before reletting takes place, is utterly farcical.
Pointing out that with property prices still falling the council is well positioned to purchase houses that only require limited repair works, rather than whole-scale renovation works, Cllr Leddin said that while he fully understands how residents living in private estates, who are trying to pay hefty mortgages feel when they see skips outside council-owned houses being filled up on a daily basis with perfectly good house fittings.
“I’m submitting a notice of motion to the city council calling for an immediate review of this refurbishment programme and for a cap to be placed on the amount of money spent on individual houses bought,” said the councillor who is a member of the city council’s housing committee.
