Living in rented accommodation

Egan2012

Hi guys,
Myself and partner and kids have moved into rented accommodation. It is a grand little house but now that the cold weather has hit we have realised it must be one of the coldest houses in Ireland.
There is some insulation in the attic but wouldn't be the best stuff. I don't think there is a whole lot in the walls. I know this because I have been chatting my neighbours and they have all got their walls pumped with insulation.
We have the open fire that is been lit all day and we have central heating but the second we turn off the heat the house is cold again. At the minute I am burning 50 euro a week in solid fuel and 500 a month in central heating. I was considering asking my landlord about getting the walls insulated and I even considered offering him half the money for the insulation but he isnt the easiest guy to deal with never mind trying to get him to part with cash.
I am not so bothered myself about the cold but we have young kids [ 7 months, 2 years old ] and the are sleeping in freezing cold rooms.
I am just wondering if anyone is in the similar situation or where do I stand with my landlord.
Thanks guys,

quietsailor

all you can do is move out. 99.9999999% of landlords won't want to spend the money to make you more comfortable - why would they, they have your rent coming in.

secondly this isn't a small job, some tenants will demand that the LL has to get you put up in a hotel during the work and no LL is going to risk extra costs.

Did the house not have a BER rating advertised when you went to look at it? The idea of these is to warn you that the house will take a lot of energy to run

Egan2012

Hi quietsailor,
Thanks for the reply, This is what I dont get, The house that we are living in is on the RAS scheme through the county council it is where I pay the council and they pay the lanlord. For him to get onto that ras scheme he had to get the house ber certified and the council had to pass it. So I dont know if someone is over lookng something or they are just taking on every house because me personally I dont think its up to ber standards.
About moving house I would do that. The problem is we have quite a large family, them 2 kids I mentioned are just my youngest. All the places we have looked at wont except us in the house because we have a big family.

ameee

Maybe get onto the council perhaps the ber cert was overlooked no harm in seeing what they say about it .

Egan2012

Hi ameee,
I have contacted the council about this and they have told me it is between me and the Landlord. All the council want to do is pay the rent. They gave me the option of moving back pnto rent allowance and they said they would sort it with the welfare officer but we have to find a house. I have looked the last couple of months but once again it boils down to how many kids we have. The exact words from the auctioneer was its to much traffic for the house.

ameee

That's terrible unfortunately there is a fair bit of demand for rentals right now which doesn't help people on rent allowance. You could get onto the landlord and they might help but if not you could try to keep the heat in with draft excluders on windows and doors and put an electric heater in the youngest children's rooms its not ideal but it sounds like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Can the council not house you in another ras house or even a council house ?

ladysarah

well gpod news for puming rhe walls your landlord is entitled to a grant of 450 from the SEAI. a 3 bed semi would cost rougly 900 to 1000 and a ber cert costs aroubd 100 to 150. It is a great job. call your landlord over and discuss with him. good luck

Gloomtastic!

Just out of interest, how many kids have you?

Egan2012

ameee wrote: »

That's terrible unfortunately there is a fair bit of demand for rentals right now which doesn't help people on rent allowance. You could get onto the landlord and they might help but if not you could try to keep the heat in with draft excluders on windows and doors and put an electric heater in the youngest children's rooms its not ideal but it sounds like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Can the council not house you in another ras house or even a council house ?

Things are gone mad with the rentals lately. I have been talking to the council and they are just telling me they have no houses.

Egan2012

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Just out of interest, how many kids have you?

Hi gloomtastic,
I have 2 kids of my own and my partner has 4 kids from a previous marraige. I know it is a big family but I dont think that should be taken into consideration unless the house is to small

Egan2012

ladysarah wrote: »

well gpod news for puming rhe walls your landlord is entitled to a grant of 450 from the SEAI. a 3 bed semi would cost rougly 900 to 1000 and a ber cert costs aroubd 100 to 150. It is a great job. call your landlord over and discuss with him. good luck

Hi ladysarah,
I might try and have a chat to him about this. As I said he is not the easiest guy to talk to but it might be worth a try. All my neigbours have their walls pumped and they said its brilliant. It only takes a few hours to get done.

ameee

I would keep on at them surely with six kids you should have priority for a council house? Are you long on the waiting list? You shouldn't have two young children in freezing cold rooms, have you tried voluntary housing bodies where you are living?

Egan2012

ameee wrote: »

I would keep on at them surely with six kids you should have priority for a council house? Are you long on the waiting list? You shouldn't have two young children in freezing cold rooms, have you tried voluntary housing bodies where you are living?

o

We are 3 years on the list now, I have tried different social housing groups like Respond housing and a few of them. They have all told me they havnt the right houses to suite us.
It is the same with the council they are saying they have no houses vacant and they are going to find it hard to accomadate a family of our size. I even had councillers on at them and still made no difference.

ameee

Sounds like you have tried everything councils mainly have three beds and that wouldn't be big enough for your needs really seems your only option is to try the landlord and see what he says

StillWaters

quietsailor wrote: »

secondly this isn't a small job, some tenants will demand that the LL has to get you put up in a hotel during the work and no LL is going to risk extra costs.

Cavity wall insulation takes a day, and causes minimum disruption. Its done from the exterior of the house. Having said that, the Council accepted this house on their RAS books as is, and the LL has no obligation to provide extra insulation.

Egan2012

StillWaters wrote: »

Cavity wall insulation takes a day, and causes minimum disruption. Its done from the exterior of the house. Having said that, the Council accepted this house on their RAS books as is, and the LL has no obligation to provide extra insulation.

Thats what i was thinking i saw my neighbours been done and all they done was drill a few holes fill the cavity and fill the holes. They went in at 8 am and were gone by 4. But as you said if the council took on the house as is the landlord will certainly not do it. Especially not my landlord anyway.

highly1111

we're in the same boat but renting privately. we won't be renewing our lease for the fact that the house is freezing. what we did is we went to argos and got 5 electric (oil filled) radiators - one for living room, kitchen and each of the bedrooms - we've 2 young kids too. they have already paid for themselves multiple times over. we set them to timer and it works perfectly. they then have a temperature control. we would rarely rarely have the oil heating on now and when we're showering we let the hot water run for a few minutes and it warms the bathroom. the hall is freezing so we got some draught excluders for the doors. to be honest, gas would be cheaper than the radiators but if you're stuck they would definitely help. there really is nothing worse. we can't even light the fire in our place as despite asking the LL 5 times about the fireplace he's away travelling (by all accounts) and can't be contacted. We don't know if the fireplace has been flued (is that the right term?) and so we can't risk it - there's just an insert in the fireplace surround. 3 months and counting till we're out of here. we'd be gone sooner other than circumstance.

MelSA

Egan2012 wrote: »

Hi guys,
Myself and partner and kids have moved into rented accommodation. It is a grand little house but now that the cold weather has hit we have realised it must be one of the coldest houses in Ireland.
There is some insulation in the attic but wouldn't be the best stuff. I don't think there is a whole lot in the walls. I know this because I have been chatting my neighbours and they have all got their walls pumped with insulation.
We have the open fire that is been lit all day and we have central heating but the second we turn off the heat the house is cold again. At the minute I am burning 50 euro a week in solid fuel and 500 a month in central heating. I was considering asking my landlord about getting the walls insulated and I even considered offering him half the money for the insulation but he isnt the easiest guy to deal with never mind trying to get him to part with cash.
I am not so bothered myself about the cold but we have young kids [ 7 months, 2 years old ] and the are sleeping in freezing cold rooms.
I am just wondering if anyone is in the similar situation or where do I stand with my landlord.
Thanks guys,

I had same problem with my flat. I got myself draft insulation for the doors and draft film for the windows. It worked and its not expensive. Visit Woodies, I bought my insulation gear there.

Hope it works out.

Egan2012

highly1111 wrote: »

we're in the same boat but renting privately. we won't be renewing our lease for the fact that the house is freezing. what we did is we went to argos and got 5 electric (oil filled) radiators - one for living room, kitchen and each of the bedrooms - we've 2 young kids too. they have already paid for themselves multiple times over. we set them to timer and it works perfectly. they then have a temperature control. we would rarely rarely have the oil heating on now and when we're showering we let the hot water run for a few minutes and it warms the bathroom. the hall is freezing so we got some draught excluders for the doors. to be honest, gas would be cheaper than the radiators but if you're stuck they would definitely help. there really is nothing worse. we can't even light the fire in our place as despite asking the LL 5 times about the fireplace he's away travelling (by all accounts) and can't be contacted. We don't know if the fireplace has been flued (is that the right term?) and so we can't risk it - there's just an insert in the fireplace surround. 3 months and counting till we're out of here. we'd be gone sooner other than circumstance.

How do you find the oil filled heaters on esb?

Egan2012

MelSA wrote: »

I had same problem with my flat. I got myself draft insulation for the doors and draft film for the windows. It worked and its not expensive. Visit Woodies, I bought my insulation gear there.

Hope it works out.

Thats great thanks,

I am thinking about buying the rolls of insulation in woodies to give the attic extra layers. What are the draught excluders for the windows ?

highly1111

Egan2012 wrote: »

How do you find the oil filled heaters on esb?

to keep a room warm we have a 2 KW heater which is about 20cent an hour with the thermostat turned to about 3.5/4 out of 6 which keeps the room at about 22 degrees.

MelSA

Egan2012 wrote: »

Thats great thanks,

I am thinking about buying the rolls of insulation in woodies to give the attic extra layers. What are the draught excluders for the windows ?

Here is link to woodies website.

http://www.woodiesdiy.com/category/Draught-Excluders/6.3.1

Staff can advice more.

highly1111

hubby just told me it costs about €4 a day to keep the house warm. we would rarely use the oil now. (so that's €4 a day extra on our ESB a day and the house is about 1000 sq ft - except the hall which is freezing!)

Egan2012

highly1111 wrote: »

hubby just told me it costs about €4 a day to keep the house warm. we would rarely use the oil now. (so that's €4 a day extra on our ESB a day and the house is about 1000 sq ft - except the hall which is freezing!)

That doesnt sound so bad. Might be the way to go along with the draught excluders

MMAGirl

ladysarah wrote: »

well gpod news for pumping the walls your landlord is entitled to a grant of 450 from the SEAI. a 3 bed semi would cost rougly 900 to 1000 and a ber cert costs aroubd 100 to 150. It is a great job. call your landlord over and discuss with him. good luck

We got our walls pumped three years ago. It cost €750 and took few hours. Its a quick job and is done even when you inside the house. You notice the difference that night.

It cut heating bills straight away.
Then a while ago we got electric storage heaters to use instead of oil. They cut the heating cost hugely.
Oil and gas have just got sooooo expensive. Never would have believed electricity would be so much cheaper.. And we havent even changed to night rate yet.

djimi

I never thought Id hear someone say that electic storage heaters actually cut their bills

MMAGirl

djimi wrote: »

I never thought Id hear someone say that electic storage heaters actually cut their bills

Neither did I
But my wallet and our monitoring of units tells me it is.

Egan2012

MMAGirl wrote: »

We got our walls pumped three years ago. It cost €750 and took few hours. Its a quick job and is done even when you inside the house. You notice the difference that night.

It cut heating bills straight away.
Then a while ago we got electric storage heaters to use instead of oil. They cut the heating cost hugely.
Oil and gas have just got sooooo expensive. Never would have believed electricity would be so much cheaper.. And we havent even changed to night rate yet.

Where did you get the storage heaters. Are they experience to buy.

MMAGirl

We bought ours somewhere else, but here is a link with a rough idea of prices.
They can be got cheaper if you shop around.
http://www.smartelectrics.ie/storage-heaters-buy-online

I wouldnt depend on this websites cost calculations though. They are completely off. Find somewhere else to work out costs from.
They are clearly not beyond lying if you look at their rubbish on their calculations for the savings from the lucht heaters.

An Ri rua

Egan2012 wrote: »

Hi quietsailor,
Thanks for the reply, This is what I dont get, The house that we are living in is on the RAS scheme through the county council it is where I pay the council and they pay the lanlord. For him to get onto that ras scheme he had to get the house ber certified and the council had to pass it. So I dont know if someone is over lookng something or they are just taking on every house because me personally I dont think its up to ber standards.
About moving house I would do that. The problem is we have quite a large family, them 2 kids I mentioned are just my youngest. All the places we have looked at wont except us in the house because we have a big family.

A BER Cert only tells you how costly a house is to heat. I don't believe there's a pass rate, as you call it. The Council might have a cut-off threshold for places they offer under that scheme but there's no 'passing' a BER. Its a rating. And Daft have addressed this. Though its law since early January, its being phased in apparently. You'll see it on some ads and not on others. Poor form that the Council have not implemented it immediately though.

Victor

MMAGirl wrote: »

We bought ours somewhere else, but here is a link with a rough idea of prices.
They can be got cheaper if you shop around.
http://www.smartelectrics.ie/storage-heaters-buy-online

I wouldnt depend on this websites cost calculations though. They are completely off. Find somewhere else to work out costs from.
They are clearly not beyond lying if you look at their rubbish on their rubbish about the savings from the lucht heaters.

Can you explain your self here?

Moderator

MMAGirl

Victor wrote: »

Can you explain your self here?

Moderator

their figures don't add up on some of their products. Have a look at them and work them out for yourself, rather than believing what they say on the website, or believing me even. Always better to learn how to work it out yourself.

Ive a degree in physics and electronics, so it's second nature to work these things out for me. But I wouldn't ask people to take my word for it. I'll just say to work it out. A thread on storage heating got closed the last time I challenged a bull****ter on their figures on energy consumption.