Limerick council tenants 'distraught' after facing rental bill of up to €20,000

SOME council tenants in Limerick are facing one-off charges of up to €20,000 in rent leaving many “completely and utterly distraught”.

That’s according to Sinn Fein City North councillor Sharon Benson, who raised their plight at this month’s local authority meeting.

In 2023, council wrote to its 5,000 tenants carrying out a ‘global rent review’.

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This takes place on a periodic basis when the council looks at all its homes at once, and decides whether -and by how much - to change the rents.

People renting are asked to submit details of their income to inform the review.

But Cllr Benson said it was only mid-way through 2025 that local authority bosses actually got back to many tenants, leaving some facing thousands of euro in back-pay.

“If you got a letter in 2023, and your income had just gone up €100 a week, you’d submit those details, you think ‘great, that’s that box ticked’. Then you don’t hear anything, you forget about it, keep paying your rent. Then you’d get a letter in the door saying it’s taken council 18 months to calculate your rent and now you owe us a year-and-a-half worth of arrears,” said Cllr Benson.

She acknowledged council are not asking for full amounts upfront, instead getting people to put a payment plan in place.

But she feels the tenant should have been given more consideration in the process.

“The council is only seeing this as a process in their system. They are forgetting about the tenant getting the letter in the door. I had one girl and she was in absolute bits. She was completely and utterly distraught,” Cllr Benson added.

“There seems to be zero thought for the tenant. It’s enough to shock anyone, it’s enough to cause health problems to anyone.”

She brought the matter up in the context of the council’s audit review, which was before members for approval this month.

In response to the issue, council director general Dr Pat Daly wrote the local authority is focused on improving the collection of housing rents, in particular outstanding arrears.

“Progress continues to be made in the setting up of payment plans for those in arrears, which were the subject of rent reviews.”