Carlow County Council carry out inspections of private rented accommodation to ensure that the minimum standards required are place in all private rented accommodation in accordance with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019.
Minimum Standards
For each house let or available for letting, the landlord must ensure that the rental property is in a proper state of structural repair. This means that the landlord must maintain the property in a sound state, inside and out. Roofs, slates, windows, floors, ceilings, walls, stairs, doors, skirting boards, tiles on any floor, ceiling and wall, fascias, gutters, down pipes, fittings, gardens and common areas must be maintained in good condition and repair.
The landlord must ensure that all gas, oil and electricity installations are maintained in good repair and safe working order, and that every room has adequate ventilation and both natural and artificial lighting.
Suitable safety restrictors must be fitted to windows through which a person could fall in accordance with the Regulations.
The landlord must provide:
- a water closet, for the exclusive use of each rented unit, with a toilet, a washbasin and a fixed bath or shower with hot and cold water
- a fixed heating appliance in each room, which is capable of providing effective heating and which the tenant can control
- where necessary, suitably located devices for the detection and alarm of carbon monoxide
- facilities for cooking and for the hygienic storage of food including, a 4-ring hob with oven and grill, fridge-freezer and microwave oven
- access to a washing machine
- access to a clothes-dryer if the rented unit does not have a private garden or yard with a clothes line
- a smoke alarm and fire blanket
- access to vermin-proof and pest-proof refuse storage facilities.
- In multi-unit buildings, the landlord must provide each unit with a mains-wired smoke alarm, a fire blanket, and an emergency evacuation plan.
- There must also be emergency lighting in common areas.
For full details of rented accommodation requirements, please refer to the Regulations.
The Guidelines for Housing Authorities - Minimum Standards in Rented Accommodation outlines the main features.
Tenants must also take responsibility for the property. They are required to exercise due care when using the dwelling and the equipment in it and to promptly inform the landlord when repairs are needed. Tenants are responsible for the repair of damage, either accidental or deliberate, that is not attributable to normal use.
For general queries, contact 059-9136296 or email RentalInspections@carlowcoco.ie
Queries in relation to standards policy and legislation can be sent to RentalStandards@housing.gov.ie
Complaints
If you feel that your rented accommodation does not meet the minimum standards, you should first contact your landlord and give them an opportunity to rectify any issues.
If the issues are not rectified within an appropriate time period, please fill in the Inspection Request form at the bottom of this page and return by email to RentalInspections@CarlowCoCo.ie or by post to Rental Inspections, Housing Office, Carlow County Council, Tullow Civic Offices.
Please note that disputes between tenants and landlords should be addressed to the Residential Tenancies Board and do not fall under the remit of Carlow County Council.
Private Rental Inspections
The tenant and/or landlord will be contacted prior to inspection to arrange access. The Authorised Officer will need access to the whole of the rented property to conduct an effective inspection. The Authorised Officer will take notes and pictures during the inspection. Please note that children and pets are to be supervised while the Authorised Officer is present.
If a property is not compliant with the regulations, an Improvement Letter or Improvement Notice will be issued. Any contraventions must be rectified within a prescribed timeframe. Failure to meet this deadline may result in an escalation of enforcement proceedings.
Prohibition Notices
Where a landlord fails to comply with an Improvement Notice, the inspector may serve a Prohibition Notice and may consider instituting legal proceedings.
The Prohibition Notice will state that the landlord will not be permitted to re-let the house for rent or any other valuable consideration until the contraventions to which the Improvement Notice relates have been remedied.
In the interest of public health and safety, the address of the rental property in question may be published on this website.
Local Authority, Housing Body and Private Rental Long-Term Leases
Alternative requirements apply in respect of laundry, food preparation and storage facilities for local authority tenancies, approved housing body tenancies and private residential tenancy agreements with a minimum lease period of 10 years. In such cases the landlord need only provide:
- facilities for the installation of cooking equipment
- a sink, with a piped supply of potable cold water taken directly from the service pipe supplying water from the public main or other source to the building containing the house and a facility for the piped supply of hot water, and an adequate draining area
- suitable facilities for the effective and safe removal of fumes to the external air by means of a cooker hood or extractor fan
- suitable and adequate number of kitchen presses for food storage purposes.
If you are a local authority tenant or housing association tenant and you think that your rented property does not comply with the standards, you can make a complaint to your local authority.
If there is a maintenance issue with your accommodation, please contact 059-9136296 or email maintenance@carlowcoco.ie
If you are in a property operated by an Approved Housing Body and there is a maintenance issue please contact the Housing Body directly.