Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 June 2023
397. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the penalties, if any, that apply to individuals or families on local authority housing lists who are offered social housing but who turned down that offer; if he believes that any changes should be made to legislation governing these schemes to encourage acceptance of such offers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29754/23]
View answerThe Social Housing Allocation Regulations 2011, as amended, set out the penalties for refusing offers of dwellings made under a local authority's allocation scheme.
Under Regulation 12, a household that refuses two reasonable offers of social housing in any twelve-month period, other than an offer made under the Choice Based Letting (CBL) procedure, will not receive any further offers from any local authority for a period of one year from the date of the second refusal. An offer is deemed to be reasonable where the dwelling concerned would, in the opinion of the authority, meet the housing needs of the household and, except in an emergency, is located in an area of choice specified by the household.
CBL is a method whereby available social housing stock is let to qualified persons on the social housing waiting list by way of open advertisement. Qualified applicants register an interest in advertised homes, with the property then offered to a CBL applicant taking into account the priority and need of the household in line with the local authority's allocation scheme. This approach offers more choice and involvement for applicant households in selecting a home, thereby reducing the likelihood of a refusal, and helping to build sustainable tenancies and stable communities.
The penalties for refusing an offer under CBL are set out in Regulation 10 and provide where a household refuses a reasonable offer of a dwelling they expressed an interest in, that household may not apply for another dwelling under the CBL system for one year from the date of refusal.
There are no plans at this time to change the penalties outlined above.
However, given the benefits offered by CBL, including fewer refusals and greater choice for qualified households, my Department continues to liaise with the local authorities to support as wide a roll-out of CBL as possible across the country.
