![\"Mary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024d212-614.jpg\"\/)
\nMary Frances Fahy, property law specialist<\/p>\n
Carlow County Council has lost ownership of two council houses in a legal dispute with a local resident concerning adverse possession – commonly known as “squatter’s rights” – according to a council document.<\/p>\n
The local resident claimed adverse possession over three derelict council houses in Carlow Town, beside the council house where the resident lives.<\/p>\n
A briefing note provided to Carlow councillors earlier this year – and seen by RT\u00c9 Investigates – described the three neighbouring properties as derelict.<\/p>\n
As part of an out-of-court settlement reached last year, the council agreed to transfer ownership of the resident’s existing home and one of the three neighbouring houses. In return, the resident dropped adverse possession claims over the other two neighbouring properties.<\/p>\n
Under the settlement agreement, each party agreed to pay its own legal costs.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Carlow councillors voted in favour of approving the transfer, giving effect to the legal settlement.<\/p>\n
Council houses “boarded up” since 2005<\/p>\n
The case echoes findings in an RT\u00c9 Investigates report broadcast in June, which also highlighted how State-owned bodies were contributing to Ireland’s dereliction problem.<\/p>\n
Following the broadcast, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said he was “aghast at the responses from some local authorities” regarding their efforts to tackle dereliction.<\/p>\n
WATCH: How the State ends up fining itself over derelict sites<\/p>\n
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The case also highlights the potential consequences of council-owned housing being left vacant or derelict for prolonged periods.<\/p>\n
“Prolonged neglect increases the likelihood of a person succeeding in an adverse possession claim,” said Mary Frances Fahy, a property law specialist and principal solicitor at Fahy Neilan Solicitors in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon.<\/p>\n
To succeed in an adverse possession claim, a person must generally show that they have been in continuous possession of a property, without the true owner’s permission, for a certain period.<\/p>\n
While most State-owned land is subject to a 30-year period, land owned by local authorities is treated differently, with a 12-year period applying.<\/p>\n
“When you go into a property, you have to take occupation of it with the intention of taking possession of it adverse to the interest of the registered owner,” explained Ms Fahy.<\/p>\n
“If you get their permission to go into occupation of the property, then you will not succeed on a claim based on adverse possession,” she added.<\/p>\n
\nMary Frances Fahy, property law specialist<\/p>\n
In the Carlow case, the resident claimed that they took possession of the three neighbouring houses in 2003, court papers show.<\/p>\n
However, court papers also state that the Council was under the impression that the three houses had been “unoccupied and boarded up” since 2005.<\/p>\n
In 2019, the resident lodged an application with the Property Registration Authority (now known as Tailte \u00c9ireann) to be registered as the owner of the three houses based on adverse possession.<\/p>\n
The following year, Carlow County Council initiated Circuit Court proceedings against the resident, seeking an order preventing them from remaining in or interfering with the three houses.<\/p>\n
The Council said that the resident’s occupation prevented it from carrying out planned redevelopment works.<\/p>\n
Settlement<\/p>\n
Legal advice obtained by the Council concluded that the local resident had a strong adverse possession claim because the statutory 12-year period had expired.<\/p>\n
The parties reached a confidential settlement last year, while Carlow councillors were asked to approve the transfer of the two houses in a vote held last April.<\/p>\n
Cllr Adrienne Wallace (People Before Profit), who represents Carlow Town, told RT\u00c9 Investigates: “As councillors, we were told this is the best deal that we’re going to get from a legal perspective.”<\/p>\n
According to the Council’s briefing note, it considered the settlement the most favourable outcome available because of the lack of evidence to establish its ownership of the properties.<\/p>\n
The firm of solicitors that acted for the resident in the proceedings declined to respond to queries from RT\u00c9 Investigates.<\/p>\n
Derelict council houses not placed on derelict sites register<\/p>\n
Carlow County Council is responsible for enforcing the Derelict Sites Act within its area. The Act places a general duty on local authorities to prevent land, including land they own, from becoming or continuing to be derelict.<\/p>\n
It also requires each local authority to maintain a derelict sites register, which publicly lists derelict properties and enables local authorities to impose levies on owners of derelict sites.<\/p>\n
However, the three derelict houses in the adverse possession case were not placed on the council’s derelict sites register.<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 Investigates asked Carlow County Council why it had allowed the three houses to become derelict and why it had not detected occupation of the properties from 2003.<\/p>\n
We also asked why it had not taken steps during the statutory limitation period to recover possession of the houses, which would have defeated any adverse possession claim.<\/p>\n
In response, it acknowledged that the properties “were vacant for a significant period.” It also said that they “formed part of an ageing housing stock portfolio and at various times were considered unsuitable for re-letting without substantial investment.”<\/p>\n
It added: “The issues raised in the proceedings related to historical events spanning a considerable period of time.”<\/p>\n
“As the matter was fully contested and subsequently resolved, Carlow County Council does not intend to comment further on the details of the allegations made during the course of those proceedings.”<\/p>\n
The Council refused to say why it had not entered the three derelict housing units on its derelict sites register but explained that it assesses “properties on a case-by-case basis having regard to the provisions of the legislation.”<\/p>\n
The Council also refused to say how much it spent on legal fees as part of the Circuit Court case.<\/p>\n
‘This is what happens when the council leaves properties derelict’<\/p>\n
Carlow councillors have criticised the Council’s management of the houses.<\/p>\n
“This is exactly what happens when the council leaves properties derelict for this long,” Cllr Wallace told RT\u00c9 Investigates.<\/p>\n
“It’s their responsibility to inspect them, to renovate them, to re-let them, and they failed to do that. As a result, we have two fewer properties on our social housing database,” Cllr Wallace added.<\/p>\n
Cllr Wallace also said that the most recent council housing report found that there were close to 200 homeless adults and children in Carlow. “That’s the highest I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I remember being horrified a few years ago when it was 75.”<\/p>\n
![\"Cllr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024d221-614.jpg\"\/)
\nCllr Adrienne Wallace, People Before Profit<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Cllr Fergal Browne (FG), who also represents Carlow Town, told RT\u00c9 Investigates he was “unhappy that this situation arose in the first place” and that “lessons need to be learned”.<\/p>\n
OPW lost two properties to squatters<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 Investigates has also identified other recent examples in which the State has lost property due to adverse possession claims.<\/p>\n
In reply to a Freedom of Information request from RT\u00c9 Investigates, the Office of Public Works (OPW) confirmed that it lost properties through successful adverse possession claims in Kerry in 2025 and in Galway the previous year.<\/p>\n
It refused to provide the addresses of either property, however, claiming this was personal information and could identify individual property owners.<\/p>\n
It also refused to provide the locations of these properties in response to a parliamentary question from Aont\u00fa TD Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn last year, on data protection grounds.<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 Investigates recently asked the OPW if the two properties were buildings or land, and whether it could provide approximate valuations of the properties at the time they were surrendered.<\/p>\n
It claimed that it couldn’t provide these details because doing so would “potentially identify a property and subsequently an individual concerned.”<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9 Investigates then asked the OPW if it would provide a combined valuation and property size for the Kerry and Galway properties, on the basis that aggregating these details would prevent the identification of any individuals. The OPW declined to do so.<\/p>\n
Separately, the Department of Agriculture confirmed that it lost ownership of a house on State-owned land in north Dublin following an adverse possession claim in 2024.<\/p>\n
The house is located near the Sport Ireland Campus at Abbotstown and originally formed part of a larger estate used by UCD’s veterinary school until 1984.<\/p>\n
Much of the estate was transferred to Sport Ireland in 2012. After a resident lodged an adverse possession claim over the house in 2024, the department investigated ownership and asked Sport Ireland whether the house was included in the transfer. Sport Ireland confirmed that it was not.<\/p>\n
The department told RT\u00c9 Investigates that “after seeking legal advice\u2026 a decision was made not to contest the adverse possession claim.”<\/p>\n
Tailte \u00c9ireann registered the local resident as the owner of the property in December 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlow County Council has lost ownership of two council houses in a legal dispute with a local resident…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-588937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}