A single mother – doing her best to get on in life – discovered honesty isn’t necessarily the best policy when it comes to Galway County Council…after she was hit with a massive rent-arrears bill for doing the right thing.

When the Athenry-based woman took up a new job in administration last June, she informed the Council of her changed financial circumstances, and was expecting a hike in rent to reflect the additional income from her 15-hours-per-week position.

But what she wasn’t expecting was a complete rent review by the Council, who then slapped her with a bill of more than €3,300 for rent arrears backdated to 2019.

“It really threw me and really upset me coming up to Christmas. It was hanging over me,” said the mother of four, with three under the age of 16.

She has appealed the decision but told The Connacht Tribune it was ‘completely unfair’ of the Council to bill her four years’ arrears.

The Council tenant is happy to pay the new weekly rent, which doubled to over €100, reflecting her changed circumstances due to her new part-time job.

But she said it was unfair of the Council to apply higher rents retrospectively based on budget increases in social welfare in the past few years.

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