Information on Ras.

Egan2012

Hi,
We are currently on the Ras Scheme. There is me my partner and we have 5 kids and 1 on the way. We are currently trying to organise bed space for the new baby. The house is a 4 bedroom house, with 1 single room down stairs and supposeed to be 3 doubles upstairs but in 1 of the rooms there is no way you can squeeze in a second bed. We have been looking at our lease and on the description for the house it says there is 6 bed spaces in the house but as you can tell there is 7 of us and 1 on the way in the house. Clearly this house is to small for us. At the minute we have a 10, 5, and a 1 year old sharing 1 room, { all boys} and we have a 8 year old girl in a single room and a 12 year old girl in another single room.
The information I'm looking for is it possible to put in for a transfer to a bigger house on the RAS scheme? If they dont except the house is to small where do I stand on getting out of the lease? if they did release us from the RAS Scheme would it be possible for us to go back on rent allowance.
Hope some one can give us some tips.

Thanks.

edellc

i've googled the ras scheme and it seems to be different for each county council so i think your best bet is to google for where you are and see what it says if that doesnt answer your question then head down to the local council office and ask, its the only way your going to get the answers your looking for

yellowtrout

Firstly, I'm sure you have a fixed lease with your landlord/council on the scheme, so I'm not sure how it works if you want to break the lease.
I'm sure, like all tenants, you'd still be entitled to leave, provided you give a month's notice.

If you can leave, giving notice, you should just be able to find yourself a bigger property with a landlord who wants to do the RAS scheme with you and that should be OK.

As far as rent allowance goes, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be entitled to go back on the rent allowance system as the RAS was created for people with long term housing needs and one of the "snags" with it is that you are removed from the housing list/rent allowance.

I think someone said you have to wait a year before you can claim rent allowance again, but I would need some clarification on this.

Best to speak to the council and tell them your predicament as this is an unusual matter.

Good luck.

StillWaters

It doesn't answer your question, I'm sorry. But would it be possible to put bunkbeds in one of the single rooms, so in time either the youngest girl or youngest boy could share with the new arrival (congrats by the way)?

If you are in Dublin, it might be hard to get a larger house than will accept RAS. It will be easier in the country.

Its an unusual case, so really only the Housing Officer can answer I suspect.

Egan2012

Hi Edelic,
You are right, Each county seems to be different. I'm going to try and organise a meeting in the council. Thanks for your reply.

Egan2012

yellowtrout wrote: »

Firstly, I'm sure you have a fixed lease with your landlord/council on the scheme, so I'm not sure how it works if you want to break the lease.
I'm sure, like all tenants, you'd still be entitled to leave, provided you give a month's notice.

If you can leave, giving notice, you should just be able to find yourself a bigger property with a landlord who wants to do the RAS scheme with you and that should be OK.

As far as rent allowance goes, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be entitled to go back on the rent allowance system as the RAS was created for people with long term housing needs and one of the "snags" with it is that you are removed from the housing list/rent allowance.

I think someone said you have to wait a year before you can claim rent allowance again, but I would need some clarification on this.

Best to speak to the council and tell them your predicament as this is an unusual matter.

Good luck.

Hi yellowtrout,
Thanks for the reply. I would be very happy if it turned out that all we had to do was to look for another house that would except the RAS. I know it is hard to get a landlord to except it but it would be worth a try. Back to the rent allowance, I would do anything to avoid dealing with them again as I had nothing but trouble with them before. I had worked for years and this was my first time unemployed and they basically made me beg for the rent allowance. It went on for weeks before it was approved.

Egan2012

StillWaters wrote: »

It doesn't answer your question, I'm sorry. But would it be possible to put bunkbeds in one of the single rooms, so in time either the youngest girl or youngest boy could share with the new arrival (congrats by the way)?

If you are in Dublin, it might be hard to get a larger house than will accept RAS. It will be easier in the country.

Its an unusual case, so really only the Housing Officer can answer I suspect.

Hi Stillwaters,
I'm grateful for any advice I can get. We have maesured up the room upstairs and it turns out not even bunks fit into it. It's the way the room is built. It has a window that is half built into the roof so there is a slanted ceiling. Also there is built in Wardrobes in it. I would say origanlly it was built for an office.
I'm hoping the council will come up with some sort of soulution for us. It is just a very small house that was squeezed into the corner of an housing estate. We are in Offaly so maybe it might be easier to find a house here than in the city.