rent allowance question

tesslab

Hi I'm unemployed but my b/f is working. We need to look for a new place to rent as house we're staying in is for sale.(we are not renting this place.) Could i apply for any kind of rent allowance for a new place??

PurpleBerry

In order to claim Rent Supplement (new name for Rent Allowance) your residence needs to be on the Housing List. You can check this with the Housing Authority.

If it is you then go to your Community Welfare Officer to apply. Rent Supplement is means-teasted so whether or not you recieve it depends on your (and your partners if you're co-habiting) income(s).

You will also need to get your landlord to sign the form, confirming details such as how many people living there, size (bedsit, flat, apartment etc), and details about the rent and deposit.

If you are recieving Social Welfare and your boyfriend is working it's unlikely you will pass the means test if you are living together as you'll possibly be considered to be earning too much but go to your Community Welfare to make sure.

confuseddotcom

Not all Landlords will sign Forms for you as I discovered when it was too late! I think this may be because not all Landlords are registered with the Tenacies Board. I'm not sure if this is a requirement by law, I think it's totally up to each individual Landlord to let you accommodate rent-free or not, and if it means any type of implications with red tape such as signing forms etc. they won't sign!

Before agreeing to move into a place, casually ask in passing if they are registered, or if they ever provide rent allowance if you can bring it into a conversation. And then at least you will know!

I was renting a room and then got made redundant from my last job. But my Landlady wouldn't agree to Rent Allowance. So I was paying rent for 6-7 months by myself, till I had to stop renting as I couldn't afford it anymore, the rent had been quite dear. I had been getting weekly Jobseeker's Benefit alright, but additional Rental Allowance / Supplement would have been good to help towards my paying my rent!

Anyways the way I look at it, is that the State still owes me months of State Aid for Rent, which I paid for myself even though having no job. (Rental Assistance still is a Benefit for the Unemployed.)

Actually I had spoken to Officers in Citizen's Information and Threshold, but for specific Fields of work they din't help me in any way.

So that's my input for ya! Make sure you find out before you start paying rent just in case you ever need the Landlord to help you out with the rent!

If there is anyone out there that can advise me on retrieving back some/part/any rent which I paid myself, as the Landlady wouldn't give me rent allowance, and I was un-employed any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated ......

PurpleBerry

You could possibly claim Rent Relief on the rent you have paid. You will need information from the landlady for this, her PPS number and address. This is the form you will need to fill in to claim Rent Relief.

Unfortunately there is no way to backdate Rent Supplement for what you have been paying as you can only qualify for the payment to be backdated from the date that the completed forms were returned.

Ultimately your landlady should be registered with the Private Residential Tenancies Board and it's not fair that you are paying the price for her negligence. Unless the landlady also lives at the property, in that case they are exempt.

You can look up the PRTB register to see if your address (or intended address) is registered.

Mrs OBumble

confuseddotcom wrote: »

Not all Landlords will sign Forms for you as I discovered when it was too late! I think this may be because not all Landlords are registered with the Tenacies Board. I'm not sure if this is a requirement by law

Being registered with the Tenancies Board is a legal requirement.

However accepting rent allowance/supplement is not. There is a disincentive for landlords to accept this, because the supplement amount is paid to them by (I think) the HSE rather than you. This means it can be late, sometimes by several months. Also, it means that they cannot, in the future, raise the rent any higher than the rent-allowance level, which is relatively low in some areas.

Therefore some totally legitimate landlords refuse to accept rent-allowance claimants as tenants.

PurpleBerry

JustMary wrote: »

Being registered with the Tenancies Board is a legal requirement.

Unless he landlord/landylady is an owner-occupier.

JustMary wrote: »

the supplement amount is paid to them by (I think) the HSE rather than you.

I'd love to know where people get their misinformation from.