Tipperary council policy change allows adult children of deceased tenants remain in family home

Tipperary County Council has changed its social housing tenancy succession policy to allow qualifying older adult children of deceased council tenants to remain in the home they shared with their parents under certain circumstances.

The council will now allow the children of deceased tenants to take over the tenancy of their council home, regardless of the size of the house, if they have lived in the residence for the previous 15 years or more and are 55 years and older.

Housing Section Senior Executive Officer Cora Morrissey announced this change in policy while presenting the Council’s Draft Housing Allocation Scheme to the local authority’s elected members for approval at their monthly meeting in Clonmel on Friday, January 12.

She outlined how specific aspects of the Housing Allocation Scheme were reviewed by the Council’s Housing Strategic Policy Committee arising from requests made at county council and district meetings.

The tenancy succession policy was one of these aspects of the scheme reviewed by a sub-group in the SPC comprising Committee Chairman Cllr Kieran Bourke, Cllr Marie Murphy and Tipperary Chamber CEO Michelle Aylward.

A motion jointly tabled by Cllr Bourke and fellow Carrick councillor David Dunne and passed at last May’s county council meeting had appealed for a more flexible tenancy succession policy to humanely deal with people who faced being uprooted from their lifelong home after their parents die because they aren’t the official tenants of the house and the property is deemed too large for their needs.

Where these relatives qualify for social housing the council offers alternative smaller council accommodation.

The councillors highlighted how this situation impacted some council residents who were themselves pensioners as old as 70 years of age.

Ms Morrissey told this month’s council meeting there weren’t many council housing residents who wanted to stay in the council home they had lived in with their parents but there were enough to warrant a change in policy.

“We are proposing in the circumstances to allow them stay on condition the applicant has resided in the property for the 15 previous years consecutively and are aged 55 years and over.”

In proposing the draft scheme’s approval, Housing SPC Chairman Cllr Bourke said a lot of time, debate and thought was put in by the sub-group into the Housing Allocation Scheme.

He believed the scheme being put forward to the council for approval was “much fairer and urged the council to support the document.

Cllr David Dunne welcomed the change to the policy on council housing succession. He said this had been a huge issue and allowing people aged 55 and over to stay in their family home was very fair and welcome.