There are 95 vacant social houses in the county

THERE are currently 95 vacant social houses in South County Dublin according to a recent report from South Dublin County Council.

The housing maintenance section is currently managing re-let works on the 95 vacant properties in the county.

Of these 95 houses, 26 of the properties works are complete with an average period of 20 weeks vacant from surrender to the completion of works.

There are 42 properties where re-let works are in progress with an estimated average number of weeks from surrender to works complete of 23 weeks.

Currently awaiting quotations from contractors are 21 properties with a projected average vacancy time from surrender to completion of works complete of an estimated 16 weeks and six properties are awaiting engineer’s reports to confirm the scale of works needed.

According to the report, which was given at a council meeting in the first week of September, the average re-let time from January to July this year was 27 weeks.

The report also revealed that in August, several longer-term vacancies were successfully allocated after “intensive efforts” to secure tenants for these properties, many of which had been subject of estate management issues, significant maintenance requirements and multiple refusals and the average re-let time for these properties was 40 weeks.

South Dublin County Council added: “Our housing allocations, maintenance and estate management teams are engaged in a review of all their inputs relating to the re-let process, including the surrender process, appointment of contractors, delivery schedule of works, the allocation of properties to tenants and the use of the new integrated housing system, to increase efficiencies and improve our average re-let times.”