Brian Stanley warns over illegal HAP top-ups, calls for action

Thanks, Mayor. Just the views of the Irish Property Owners Association, just in regard to top-up rents, because I've come across, you know, right over the last 20 years, but particularly in the last 10 years, the increase in use of the rent, particularly HAP, HAP is so much, the tenant pays that to the council, but in some cases I come across where actually there's a top-up payment to the landlord that is way in excess of what the amount for the top-up, so you wind up maybe paying double or triple what the differential rent is to the local authority, just in a word, what's your view of that? And that's widespread, you know, because you mentioned about being on the ground, I would be fairly well on the ground for a good number of years, and, you know, meeting people, you know, and I understand it's not on one side of it, you know, but specifically on that issue, if you could address that for me, Maurice, please, in a word, what's your view of that, and what are you doing to stamp that out among your members? Would I be able to take it? No, you take it. Sorry, just that, when HAP was introduced, there were top-ups that had to be paid by people to the landlord as well, the capital limit, and they allowed a certain amount to be topped up by the local, or by the tenant themselves. I've heard it's an undeclared top-up, Margaret, where the top-up is undeclared in a word. Now, if there's an undeclared top-up, or there's money that's being paid over, that's illegal, the law is the law, and the rent must be the rent. And you're reminding your members of that, are you? Sorry? Your organisation is reminding your members of that, are you? We would always work with our members around that. My next question is just in relation to unkept private tenancy accommodation, inside might be great, might be kept well, where the tenant actually, the part that the tenant looks after and keeps the external, you know, no rubbish around outside, but the actual condition, physical condition of the property, I mean, I could bring it to estates, I can tell you which houses are rented just by walking around it. I can tell you which houses, you know, clearly some houses you can see, some you can't tell the difference, but some you can clearly tell the difference, where they're kept in a, you know, where there's clear exterior work to be done, and it's not being done. What's the solution to that, Maurice? There's obligations on both parties, on tenants and on landlords. Landlords must maintain their properties to a good standard, and they should do, and tenants also must keep the properties to a good standard to a degree. So, payment management fees, where there's a management company, you know, you come across situations where the, the single owners, the owner occupiers of apartments, typically they're paying, some landlords are paying, the local authorities are paying, if they have a number of units in the same complex, but you come across situations, and I certainly come across, where a considerable number of private landlords who owned apartments in a complex are not paying. Thanks very much. So, what's, what's the solution to that, in a word, just in a word, it's a really important issue. Multi-unit accommodation, huge difficulties around getting service charges from different people. It is, it's a huge, it needs legislation. It's a consistent process. When they go to sell on the property, because the landlord was a property, you can't get clearance to sell it. Thank you very much. Sorry. It allows the complex to go to rack and ruin. And we're going to have to just,