Figures show the rate of refusal has increased.
Over 3,000 offers of social housing properties were turned down in the last two years, and the rate of refusal has increased in some of the country’s largest local authorities.
The Irish Examiner reports that the reasons for these refusals range from unsuitable location to the size of the property offered, with other factors also quoted.
Two offers made in Wicklow were both refused because the applicant wanted “a cottage on its own,” while an offer in Wexford was refused because it only had a street view.
Cork City Council also highlighted the large proportion of “unreasonable” refusals.
Out of the 468 refusals across both years, only 46 were deemed ‘reasonable’ by the housing department with the remainder considered ‘unreasonable’.
A spokesman for Cork City Council said: “It should be noted that the refusal rate for offers of property have declined significantly since the introduction of the Choice Based Letting (CBL) system in late 2015.
“As part of the terms and conditions of use of the CBL system, any applicant who places a bid on a property and subsequently declines the offer of the property on unreasonable grounds has their application deferred for a period of one year.
“On this basis, there are fewer instances of applicants refusing multiple offers than may previously have been the case.”
Cork City Council also said there were 371 instances of one refusal, 36 instances where an applicant refused twice, seven cases where an applicant turned down three offers and one case in which someone turned down four offers.
The highest number of refusals came in Dublin City at 615 for both years combined. In the south of the capital, four applicants did not accept an offer because they were in a feud with other families in the area and one person said the apartment had “too many steps outside to front door.”
They were 247 refusals in Co. Donegal with Limerick city and Galway city clocking in refusals of 72 and 33 respectively over the same period.
