Renting property standards

Azureus

Im just wondering what people (specifically tenants/landlords) make of the standard of rental accomodation in Ireland? Im mainly talking about Dublin myself because I'm not familiar with outside of that.

I've started the hunt for a new apartment, and I can't get over the amount of dodgy places on daft! Compared to the sheer volume of places, it seems near impossible to find somewhere thats modern, clean and fresh looking. The majority is old shabby furniture, run down ancient kitchens and empty bedrooms. Even places that have massive piled up dishes in the sinks in their pictures! Now I know that doesnt reflect on the proprety itself, but surely if you're getting photos taken to put on a property website, you would clean up a bit!

Anyone else think this and advocate my prolonged apartment-search, or should I just put up and shut up and pay my €xxx a month to rent somewhere substandard until I get my own home one day!

tesslab

Am looking at houses myself and have to agree the standards are pretty bad. Nursing home furniture and really run down looking. Anywhere I've ever lived I have treated as my home and kept spotless. But because I'm renting I'm expected to take any cr*p thats out there and be grateful for it. Very frustrating! :mad:

dan1895

Pretty much how I feel at the moment. Been looking for a house the last month or so and the standards are awful. The furniture is usuallt gaudy and some of the paintjobs are just ridiculous. Saw one place that had the living room painted royal blue.

tesslab

Bad colour paint I can deal with but some of them have wallpaper that is walking off the walls and filthy sofas and beds. As I've said the nursing home furniture in these places is older than the properties themselves. You wouldn't expect an animal to live in 50% of rental properties in Dublin yet landlords are asking crazy prices for them.
I'm looking 6 months and have yet to find somewhere. Time running out fast and I'm getting worried. Most places I've looked at I've wiped my feet on the way out!!:D

SteoL

tesslab wrote: »

Bad colour paint I can deal with but some of them have wallpaper that is walking off the walls and filthy sofas and beds. As I've said the nursing home furniture in these places is older than the properties themselves. You wouldn't expect an animal to live in 50% of rental properties in Dublin yet landlords are asking crazy prices for them.
I'm looking 6 months and have yet to find somewhere. Time running out fast and I'm getting worried. Most places I've looked at I've wiped my feet on the way out!!:D

I feel your pain. Thankfully I managed to find a lovely apartment which I moved into a few weeks ago. Never been happier. So it is possible.

tesslab

Ah thats good to hear. Fingers toes (and paws!!) crossed here hoping for somewhere decent to come up!

BostonB

The reason you get dire furniture is because it gets wrecked so often its dead money for a LL. We should move to a unfurnished model like Europe. End of problem.

We should also move to standard where you get the house painted white and you give it back with a fresh coat of white paint. No arguments about holes in walls, repainting costs from deposit etc.

Ultimately if LL couldn't rent them, and tenants didn't move into these places, they wouldn't exist as much as they do.

sealgaire

dan1895 wrote: »

Pretty much how I feel at the moment. Been looking for a house the last month or so and the standards are awful. The furniture is usuallt gaudy and some of the paintjobs are just ridiculous. Saw one place that had the living room painted royal blue.

OMG! Seriously, would the colour of the walls really put you off a house?

professore

Yet you will find plenty of threads on here of LL's wanting to withhold deposits because the apartment was not cleaned to cleanroom standards on departure.

Funny that ... thankfully I have not had to rent for several years but when I did the standard was quite poor and not reflected in the prices being asked.

dan1895

sealgaire wrote: »

OMG! Seriously, would the colour of the walls really put you off a house?

Its usually the furniture as someone said but headache inducing paint choices would put me off yes. Why settle with it if you don't like it?

brianthebard

BostonB wrote: »

The reason you get dire furniture is because it gets wrecked so often its dead money for a LL. We should move to a unfurnished model like Europe. End of problem.

afaik landlords can get tax back on that sort of stuff, its not dead money its laziness and the knowledge that they will get tenants regardless. Quality of rental properties in this country is dire and is probably the main reason why people felt they needed to buy a house in the last decade or so imo.

who_ru

to be honest i wish to hell most LL's would offer the option of letting their properties unfurnished. the furniture in many is simply depressing. when the lease is up the tenant returns the property to its unfurnished state. no more keeping deposits for 'wear n tear' of piles of junk!

Blizzard

As a landlord who does look after our tenants and property I have to agree with the last poster. It would be so much easier on everyone if houses/apts were unfurnished as they are in the UK and US. How or when did it become the norm for properties here to come furnished?

BostonB

brianthebard wrote: »

afaik landlords can get tax back on that sort of stuff, its not dead money its laziness and the knowledge that they will get tenants regardless. Quality of rental properties in this country is dire and is probably the main reason why people felt they needed to buy a house in the last decade or so imo.

Tax back, still doesn't cover the full cost of getting furniture, repairing, it replacing, dumping it when its broken, the time taken to do all this. A friend of mind has had to replace the furniture almost every year its get damaged that often.

While a rented place gets more use, more wear and tear. I completely fail to understand how tenants go through so much furniture. My friends last tenant broke every bedside locker, drawers missing knobs gone, well at least on the ones they didn't take with them. They took the lawn mower, the curtains, the light bulbs, etc. Everything out of the kitchen, the list was endless.

How the LL causes that through laziness I don't understand.