11,656 inspections have been carried out on rental properties

Over 11,500 inspections of private rental properties have been carried out in Tallaght, Clondalkin, Lucan and other areas of the county since September 2023.

11,656 inspections of rental properties have been carried out in postcode areas related to South Dublin since the council appointed an external contractor in September 2023, and almost 10,000 of these come from Tallaght, Clondalkin, Lucan and nearby areas.

Just over 8,300 improvement letters have been issued to landlords as a result of these inspections, which have been aided by the appointment of an in-house inspector at the local council who was appointed in September 2025.

The Residential Tenancies Board’s reporting system “does not support the breakdown of information by Local Electoral Area”, according to South Dublin County Council, so the data was provided by postcode.

Listed in postcodes, the D24 area, including Tallaght, Jobstown and Old Bawn, stands out as most inspected part of South Dublin with 4,371 inspections, as well as the area with largest amount of improvement letters issued at 3,282 – likely due to population and housing stock status.

There are ten specific legal breaches that the RTB can investigate and sanction landlords for, named Regulation 4 all the way up to Regulation 13.

Most of the failed inspections in D24 related to Regulations 4 and 10, surrounding the structural condition and fire safety of a property.

The regulations relate to minimum standards and others cover utilities provided, information given by the landlord, ventilation and heating to name a few.

The typical inspection cycle carried out includes a first inspection and one re-inspection. Where breaches are identified, an improvement letter is issued to the landlord with noted violations and a timeframe for completion of works.

The structural condition of private rental properties was the primary reason for the largest single chunk of all 11,000 inspections.

The D22 area involving Clondalkin, Neilstown and Bawnogue saw the highest number of failures relating to Regulation 11 – refuse facilities, with 15. It is the only area to have 10 or more of these failures in the two and a half years of inspections.

The Lucan (K78) area received the second-highest number of inspections from the external contractor and outperformed all other postcodes when it came to Regulation 12, concerning gas, oil and electricity installations at properties.

Most other post codes inspected have a large amount of area covered by another local authority, but some surprising numbers cropped up nonetheless.

South Dublin’s patch of D14, an area cut up by three local authorities, has seen more Regulation 12 failures (139) than D16 (95), which it shares Rathfarnham with.

Where there is continued non-compliance on completion of the inspection cycle, properties are escalated to the Environmental Health Office for follow up, with the view to achieving compliance.

The Environmental Health Officers actively work with landlords to achieve compliance with the regulations and they can issue further warnings, such as improvement notices, prohibition notices and if all else fails, initiate legal proceedings against a non-compliant landlord.

Since appointment of the contractor in September 2023, 22 improvement notices and two prohibition notices have been served on landlords operating in South Dublin.

Legal proceedings have been initiated against the landlord of three properties, which are at various stages of progression with SDCC’s Law Department.

The potential outcome of legal proceedings is a fine of up to €1,270 and/or a criminal conviction.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.