Rent increase or pay another bill??

fifib

Hey
ive recently just moved to the "big smoke" n its my first time living away from home so i really am very clueless to all this renting n rights malarchy. Neways was just wondering if anyone had any advice for me.... according to the others i share with the landlord apparantly puts up the rent round this time of year (not more than €20) cept this time he's saying he wont do that if we wana pay the gas bill instead...which was fair enough i thought but when i saw the bill for 1 month it was €40 and most (actually nearly all )of that was VAT and ive just heard that their increasing by 30% aswell!! So basically coming into winter and that when we'd have the heating on is the best option to have the rent increased or just pay another bill!!

kippy

Well without knowing more details, such as your actual rent and the bills that the landlord does pay I would say:
If I were you I would have a look on daft for alternative accomodation or question the landlords reasoning in an annual increase in rent.
If you look through a few threads here you'll see that in general rents have stated static or come down in some cases in the majority of instances in Dublin in the past few years, and the Value for money stakes have improved dramaticilly.
Its not actually common for the landlord to pay any bills so depending on what bills are paid and the amount of rent you are paying you may not get a better deal elsewhere.
Kippy

Lex Luthor

what does your lease state when it comes to increases? I would stay away from agreeing to pay the gas bill especially with the increases that are being imposed.

fifib

i never signed any lease when i moved in. dont think the others did either but their there longer than me

Victor

Be very careful. The gas bill may be 40 euro in summer, but could be 200+ euro in winter. Ask for copies of the old bills and factor in the increase.

If necessary, ask for a reduction in the rent (equal to last year's gas bill) if you are taking on the gas bill.

blorg

Firstly, it is very unusual for a landlord to pay bills such as the gas bill. My landlord pays the bin charge and I'm thankful for that, I was surprised and certainly didn't expect it. So I would factor that in if you are comparing rents, that in any other case the rent you are comparing against will _not_ include the gas bill.

The gas bill comes every two months but I would expect costs to be substantially higher than 40 in the winter. It does depend what you use the gas for of course, and some things such as open 'coal effect' fires are absolute killers. The VAT is not the bulk of the bill, it's only 13.5%, so you must be reading something wrong there.

Your landlord has the right to put the rent up so there is no issue of your "rights" here; your only "right" would be to move out. Once a year is quite normal for a review, although as others have pointed out rents _have_ been static in Dublin for a good few years now.

Why don't you post your location, type of property, number sharing and rent and people can advise on whether we think you are paying market rates or not.

Victor

The bulk of a summer gas bill wil be the standing charge.

BC

I know plenty of people who have lived in places in Dublin whereby the bills were paid. In my first place my heating was paid by the landlord. Its not normal practice but its not very uncommon either.

OP - Are you saying that you have the choice of an extra 20 euro a month or else paying the gas bill yourself? If so, how many of you are in the house? Have you seen copies of old gas bills?

Obviously bills are different for everyone but myself and 3 friends share a house. Gas is usually 60-80 every two months during the summer but 150-200 every two months during the winter.