National housing charity, Threshold has welcomed yesterday’s (18.09.18) ruling by the Workplace Relations Commission in favour of a client who was awarded €14,000 in compensation as a result of discrimination on the grounds of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).
Commenting, chief executive of Threshold John-Mark McCafferty said: “We are delighted with the outcome of this case. Our housing advisors based in our Cork regional office have been working very closely with this family. Our clients have a young family and had been paying €950 in rent per month but were struggling to make ends meet.
“Earlier this year we wrote to the landlord on behalf of our clients, setting out that landlords are legally obliged to accept HAP. Upon receipt of our correspondence, this landlord served our clients with a notice of termination. It is regrettable that the landlord did not heed our advice in relation to facilitating the HAP payment. We had no choice but to urge our client to adopt a twin-track approach and lodge a complaint with both the WRC and the RTB.”
Mr McCafferty added: “On a daily basis we are dealing with tenants in receipt of HAP who are encountering difficulties in renting. We frequently deal with queries from tenants whose requests to view properties are refused because they are in receipt of Rent Supplement, HAP or other social welfare payment. We are constantly intervening in situations where landlords are refusing to accept HAP payments when families’ financial circumstances change.”
“We hope that landlords heed yesterday’s ruling and facilitate tenants who are eligible for HAP.”
