Fears of housing crisis as March 1 brings rules change

Westmeath County Council has received notice from 100 private tenants that they are seeking accommodation due to having received Notice to Quit (NTQ) letters from their landlords.

Director of housing, Jackie Finney, said the council will be monitoring the figures to see if any increase occurs as the March 1 deadline for new rules governing private sector tenancies come into play – but county councillors have revealed they are already receiving representations from tenants facing being made homeless.

At the council’s first meeting of 2026, held in Mullingar, Cllr Mick Dollard said that all councillors have come in contact with people who have concerns over the terminations of tenancies ahead of March 1.

“In my view - and I’m sure a lot of the other councillors will share my concerns - it’s going to exacerbate the situation,” he said, asking if the council is purchasing houses from such landlords or if any landlords had indicated to the council that they want to actually dispose of the property.

Cllr Frankie Keena had similar concerns, while Cllr Vinny McCormack was also keen to know when the council would become aware of whether it would be in a position to acquire private rental properties being sold, and Cllr Paul Hogan noted that all of the 2025 budget for the tenant in situ scheme had been expended by the council.

“If we are going to be getting a budget, can we be actively looking at acquisitions now? Because, obviously, they take a long time to finalise. So, if there’s a budget coming,

I don’t think there’ll be any harm in starting the process on those acquisitions now where they’re deemed necessary,” Cllr McCormack said.

Cllr McCormack said he had sent in a query just a week earlier relating to a tenant whose NTQ has expired and who is now overholding, but he had received an almost-immediate response stating the council does not have a budget for acquisitions. Ms Finney said that when it comes to homeless prevention and there is a tenant in situ, the scheme is quite restricted.

Cllr Ken Glynn said the tenant in situ scheme seemed to have gone backwards rather than forwards, and that flexibility within the scheme was gone.

“We’re having to pull out of our own funds to actually carry out maintenance, where people have had their homes purchased by Westmeath County Council, and maybe two, three years later are still awaiting certain work to be done.” He felt the council should write to the minister telling him that the council is not happy with the restrictions on the scheme.

“The tenant-in-situ is a hugely helpful way to help keep people out of homelessness and to keep people in their homes, so I do think we should be seeking an expanded budget, and that we shouldn’t have to be pulling maintenance out of a house-purchasing budget,” he said.

Responding, Ms Finney said that the council is continuing to look at properties for potential purchase:

“We have seven completed and there are four being reviewed for possible purchase… we’re looking at others as well, and there are properties being inspected.”

Ms Finney said the council does receive approaches from landlords and does follow up on any expressions of interest, but as members had stated, the scheme now is more restrictive.

“You have to be in receipt of social housing support for over two years; it has to be a HAP tenancy or RAS, so it is a lot more restricted in terms of the tenant in situ element of it,” she said.

Ms Finney added that when it comes to the secondhand home acquisition scheme, the council receives no maintenance or refurbishment costs – “so obviously the condition of the property is important”.