Banks have been accused of allowing houses they’ve repossessed fall into disrepair across Tipperary.
The issue was raised at the monthly meeting of the Tipperary – Cahir – Cashel Municipal District meeting during a discussion on derelict sites.
Councillor Andy Moloney hit out at financial institutions who he says are effectively preventing houses from going on the market.
“We all know that there’s so many hundreds of thousands in the country that are in dereliction at the moment. While some of them are privately owned some of them are owned by the banks. And the banks have a habit of sitting on properties for three to four years, allowing them to go into dereliction and then they sell them off at a lower price.
“You’d wonder why they can’t sell on the houses straight away and not to leave them go into disrepair. It’s causing serious problems – people are saying they’re belong to the council which they’re not. We can’t get them declared vacant sites and put an order on them.”
Councillor Moloney is calling on Tipperary County Council to find a way of forcing financial institutions to use or sell houses they have repossessed as quickly as possible.
He said these could help alleviate in some way the current housing crisis.
“We have to find a way to get at the banks to release these properties that they’re sitting on. They’re of no value to the banks going into disrepair and they’d be an awful lot better going into the hands of somebody that would use them.
“I’ve called on the council to investigate ways to get at the banks to see if we can try to get them to release these houses that unfortunately people have gone into payment issues with them but we can’t leave them go into wrack and ruin.”
