LIMERICK city council got eviction orders against nine people last year and had 13 more homes surrendered, mostly as a result of anti-social behaviour.
According to figures secured by the Limerick Post, the local authority acted on 303 complaints of anti-social behaviour where there was evidence for the complaints, and resolved 293 of these between January and December of last year.
Of the cases where evictions or surrenders were achieved, more than 90 per cent were as a result of anti-social behaviour rather than non payment of rent or other reasons, sources in the council’s housing department revealed.
And the council is now making full use of CCTV cameras to record evidence of such behaviour, a spokesperson said.
The discrepancy between the number of cases opened and closed and the number of eviction orders and surrenders arises out of the fact that many of these cases would have been opened more than a year ago and had been going through the process.
The department’s tenancy enforcement officers issued 111 written warnings to troublesome tenants, and this only after initial interviews with the people involved, warning they should desist from the behaviour.
Six houses were repossesed and three of the District Court eviction orders are currently under appeal to the Circuit Court
The authority also applied for, and was granted, one exclusion order to keep a person out of an area where they were causing trouble.
“There is a confidential helpline where people can report anti-social behaviour but we only call someone in after we have evidence of it. We are using camera evidence quite a bit now as there are cameras in most areas. We also have the assistance of the gardai in some cases,“ the spokesman told the Limerick Post.
Once a person is evicted from a local authority home for anti-social behaviour, it is not council policy to re-house them elsewhere, the spokesman added.
“What usually happens is that they go into private rented or emergency accommodation. It would certainly mitigate against them getting any local authority accommodation in the future”.
