A non-EU national who applied for a Local Authority Home Loan claims that it has been denied on the basis of nationality in a ruling that was issued under guidance from a shadow policy that he has been refused access to.
The Indian national, whom Gript has been in contact with but who wishes to remain anonymous, made a joint application for the loan together with his wife to a county council earlier this year, which then forwarded the application to the Housing Agency for underwriting.
The Local Authority Home Loan (LAHL) requires of non-EU/EEA citizens making a joint application that they have lived legally in Ireland for a period of five years, or have leave to remain for five years’ residence, or that they have indefinite leave to remain in the State.
The applicants, the husband having lived and worked legally in Ireland since 2019 and the wife having legally immigrated to Ireland and being in possession of a Stamp 3 Join Spouse residence permit, had their first application refused due to what the underwriters considered insufficient documentation related to their residency status in Ireland.
This was despite the provision of all the documentation the local home authority loan application asked for, and additional immigration documentation that wasn’t requested.
The rejection cited LAHL policy that is not publicly available for viewing, despite legislation that requires the housing minister and relevant authorities to publish and make public guidelines issued under it.
The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, Section 5 (2) requires that the Minister “shall publish or cause to be published, in the manner he or she considers appropriate, any guidelines issued under this section”. Meanwhile, Section 5 (3) states that a housing authority “shall make available for inspection by members of the public, without charge, on the Internet and at its offices and such other places as it considers appropriate, during normal working hours, a copy of any guidelines issued to it under this section”.
A Parliamentary Question submitted by Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín in February of this year requesting clarity on the residency eligibility criteria for the LAHL scheme for non-EU/EEA applicants received a response confirming that the Credit Policy is made in accordance with the provisions of the above act and section, which means that it ought to be accessible to the public.
Despite this, the applicants submitted further documentation related to their immigration status in Ireland, which was sent by the county council to the Housing Agency’s underwriters.
This too was rejected, with the county council communication saying that they are considered ineligible because neither applicant has leave to remain extending to potentially permit five years’ residence.
The applicants did, and do, have permission to remain in the State, with the husband having a valid work permit that enables him to renew his residence permit every year. Following the second rejection, he renewed his residence permit three months early, which is now valid through to early 2025, to prove that his residence permit can be renewed every year through his valid work permit.
His wife being in possession of a Stamp 3, which allows her to remain in Ireland with her non-EU/EEA spouse who is based here on a valid work permit, both applicants have leave to remain in Ireland. The husband is also eligible this year for a Stamp 4 (permanent residency), which will allow him to work in Ireland without a work permit – a fact that the applicant had made the local authority aware of.
Following his renewed residency, the county council re-sent the application to the Housing Agency, which rejected the application for a third and final time. On this occasion, they acknowledged that the husband met their Credit Policy’s criteria for joint non-EU/EEA applicants, but ruled that his wife did not.
The Housing Loans Regulations 2021, Section 7 (c) provides that an applicant is eligible for a housing loan if each of the persons making the application has a right to reside in the State, which in this case, they do.
The male applicant has claimed that he believes the Housing Agency has engaged in unlawful discrimination against them, on the basis that the Equal Status Act 2000 prohibits discrimination on the basis of nationality in the provision of services, including financial services as in this case.
The Act does allow for certain differential treatment based on nationality, but these are only permitted when they have been substantiated by actuarial and statistical data. The Minister for Housing, in response to a separate PQ submitted by Deputy Tóibín, acknowledged that they are in possession of no such data.
In response to yet another PQ in March of this year on the topic of LAHL applications, Minister Darragh O’Brien said that decisions on all housing loan applications must be made “in accordance with the Regulations establishing the scheme and the credit policy that underpins the scheme”.
As there is nothing apparent in the regulations barring the applicants in question from receiving approval for their LAHL loan, and considering the citation of LAHL Credit Policy in the rejections, the male applicant submitted a Freedom of Information request, seen by Gript alongside the rejection letters, to the Housing Agency, requesting among other things a copy of the guidelines issued by the minister according to which the residency criteria for non-EEA/EU applicants was added.
The request was refused, and after the applicant made an internal review request as is allowed for under the FOI Act 2014, the request was denied again.
This denial was made “in respect of information obtained in confidence by the Housing Agency”.
“The reason this exemption is being applied is due to the Housing Agency not having the authority to publish this record. This authority is with the Minister, and until such time as the Minister publishes this record, the Housing Agency is unable to release it,” the internal review decision stated.
With that being the case, it appears that a Credit Policy that ought to be made public under the Housing Act 2009, is rather being kept confidential and is nonetheless guiding the Housing Agency’s adjudication of Local Authority Home Loan applications in so far as non-EU/EEA applicants are concerned.