How to convince landlords to take rent allowance?

hagoonabear

Hello myself and my partner are looking for a place to rent both unemployed for now, but any houses we ring say r.a not accepted . I can understand why and everything but could us applying for a 2bed for €650 convince the ll by maybe giving references, deposit and maybe 6months rent upfront would help?thanks

drumswan

hagoonabear wrote: »

Hello myself and my partner are looking for a place to rent both unemployed for now, but any houses we ring say r.a not accepted . I can understand why and everything but could us applying for a 2bed for €650 convince the ll by maybe giving references, deposit and maybe 6months rent upfront would help?thanks

If you've money for a deposit and six months rent up front you don't need rent allowance?

Gatling

Not a lot anyone can say really rents increasing all the time your been priced out of the markets by couples willling to pay double your maximum rent allowence,
And all that before you get to the horror stories involving RA tenants

youandme13

I also don't know where you are going to get a 2 bed apartment for 650euros, when one bed apartments are going from 750-950 per month!!!

whippet

hagoonabear wrote: »

Hello myself and my partner are looking for a place to rent both unemployed for now, but any houses we ring say r.a not accepted . I can understand why and everything but could us applying for a 2bed for €650 convince the ll by maybe giving references, deposit and maybe 6months rent upfront would help?thanks

Rent allowance is one thing ... But a couple who are both unemployed would be even harder for a LL to accept.

Eric Cartman

hagoonabear wrote: »

Hello myself and my partner are looking for a place to rent both unemployed for now, but any houses we ring say r.a not accepted . I can understand why and everything but could us applying for a 2bed for €650 convince the ll by maybe giving references, deposit and maybe 6months rent upfront would help?thanks

RA landlords have bad experiences all the time with RA tenants, youd need some very strong references from previous landlords. perhaps if the two of you work on becoming employed first then you can rent privately and the world is your oyster.

youandme13 wrote: »

I also don't know where you are going to get a 2 bed apartment for 650euros, when one bed apartments are going from 750-950 per month!!!

outside dublin. Tonnes of them.

markfinn

youandme13 wrote: »

I also don't know where you are going to get a 2 bed apartment for 650euros, when one bed apartments are going from 750-950 per month!!!

Man, what I wouldn't give for a €650 a month apartment...
Apart from €700 obviously.

iamtony

A friend of mine couldn't get a rental property recently and he gave a letting agent a back hander of €500 and he had a place the next day. It wasn't rent allowance but worth a punt.

True story by the way!

doolox

It is difficult to see what the issue is with Landlords not accepting rent allowance because if proper precautions are put in place the money is often a safer bet than relying on the precarious security of many tenants jobs.

There is in my experience, a stigma attached to having tenants with rent allowance as their ability to maintain and protect a house is seen as less than a professional tenant.

Unfortunately, in the current market, landlords have the pick of the most suitable tenants and will select those in permanent, pensionable full time employment with good work and previous tenancy references and credentials over more casually employed or self employed people or unemployed people.

People in manual trades are seen as more "dirty" than administrative jobholders and "harder" on houses and more likely to damage them.
Younger people are more likely to have parties and anti-social behaviour and are also avoided

Unfortunately jobless people are seen as the least desireable tenants of all. It may be as simple as lack of class based sympathy, house owners, especially 2 or more house owners tend to have better jobs and more secure jobs than most people and tend to view jobless people as shiftless and lazy and that joblessness is somehow their fault and this will reflect on their bahaviour regarding care for the house and for keeping good order regarding noise etc.
This has not been my experience with the 2 times I had rent allowance people as tenants and they were fine. Both had good references and were family people with small kids who tend to be better behaved and settled than most.

There is a very real antipathy from some landlords who perceive rent allowance as an "unfair giveaway" to an undeserving subset of society. The fact is that the government need to make rent allowance "invisible" to the landlords so that the question of the existance of rent allowance does not arise in the tenancy relationship....all a landlord should need to know is that a sum of money is paid over each month. The source of that money should be confidential just as it is in the case of a dole recipient buying goods from a shop.

The fact is that at the moment, rent allowance is paid IN ARREARS but most private rents are paid in Advance. The landlords revenue is visible and traceable and therefore taxable, Many private rents are done in cash and are not traceable. At the moment rent allowance is much lower than many private rents and tenants are not allowed to top up rents to private levels and lose out in competition fro scarce housing.

hagoonabear

drumswan wrote: »

If you've money for a deposit and six months rent up front you don't need rent allowance?

Savings?

hagoonabear

Eric Cartman wrote: »

RA landlords have bad experiences all the time with RA tenants, youd need some very strong references from previous landlords. perhaps if the two of you work on becoming employed first then you can rent privately and the world is your oyster.



outside dublin. Tonnes of them.

Have been both handing out c.v's , applying in person even in the process of starting a little business together just to get off the dole.

Gatling

Your best bet is probably renting without the RA first

PeterBrown1415

It is difficult to see what the issue is with Landlords not accepting rent allowance because if proper precautions are put in place the money is often a safer bet than relying on the precarious security of many tenants jobs.

There is in my experience, a stigma attached to having tenants with rent allowance as their ability to maintain and protect a house is seen as less than a professional tenant.

As an ex-landlord, I would refuse rent allowance purely because of the hassle it generates.

There is constant form-filling, rent reviews, unilateral rent reductions and government inspections. I never had any bother from the tenants themselves.

In the end I gave up, choosing to leave the house empty. The compliance and taxes were crazy.

drumswan

hagoonabear wrote: »

Savings?

Yes savings. Use that money as rent...

Eric Cartman

doolox wrote: »

There is in my experience, a stigma attached to having tenants with rent allowance as their ability to maintain and protect a house is seen as less than a professional tenant.

I wouldnt say its an unfair stigma tbh , we'll just take a recent case Ive had as an example.

about a month ago , an acquaintance on rent allowance had and issue with a tap leaking in the bathroom, they brought it up with the landlord who lives in galway (house is in dublin) , the landlord wasnt going to be back in dublin for 2 weeks , so when the tenant called to ask for a plumber the landlord wasnt in a position to pay anybody who would come up , the tenant had no money to pay a plumber and recoup it from the rent , so the tap stayed leaking for 2 weeks and now the bathroom is a bit mouldy, carpet outside the bathroom is ruined and theres water damage to the plaster on the walls.

This week the water heater in the house I rent broke, now Ive gone and shut off the supply to the heater, bought a new water heater and its all sorted in 24 hours with no damage , and ill recoup the cost when I go to pay rent next month.

Its not just the ability to pay rent that landlords look for, Why would anyone want a tennant who you have to attend to at a moments notice because they cant even afford basic emergency repairs when something happens.

Gatling

Arent landlords supposed to be able to afford to pay for repairs the last post the landlord was informed of an issue and didnt do anything to rectify it

drumswan

Eric Cartman wrote: »

about a month ago , an acquaintance on rent allowance had and issue with a tap leaking in the bathroom, they brought it up with the landlord who lives in galway (house is in dublin) , the landlord wasnt going to be back in dublin for 2 weeks , so when the tenant called to ask for a plumber the landlord wasnt in a position to pay anybody who would come up

Are you joking? Its not a tenants responsibility to fund emergency repairs for a landlord.

MouseTail

drumswan wrote: »

Are you joking? Its not a tenants responsibility to fund emergency repairs for a landlord.

Of course its not, but it is a joy to have a tenant who has the wherewithal to resolve issues with agreement and deduct the cost from the rent.

drumswan

MouseTail wrote: »

Of course its not, but it is a joy to have a tenant who has the wherewithal to resolve issues with agreement and deduct the cost from the rent.

Id rather rent from a professional landlord who doesnt expect a line of interest free credit and property management from his customer.

Eric Cartman

Gatling wrote: »

Arent landlords supposed to be able to afford to pay for repairs the last post the landlord was informed of an issue and didnt do anything to rectify it

the landlords only issue was being in galway and thus unable to pay a plumber in dublin until they came down, landlords should always pay for any repairs, emergency or not, but even as a tenant I wouldnt expect a landlord to drive all the way from galway to hand a plumber a 90 euro callout charge when I could just deduct it from the rent I have to pay without anyone being put out.

drumswan

Eric Cartman wrote: »

the landlords only issue was being in galway and thus unable to pay a plumber in dublin until they came down, landlords should always pay for any repairs, emergency or not, but even as a tenant I wouldnt expect a landlord to drive all the way from galway to hand a plumber a 90 euro callout charge when I could just deduct it from the rent I have to pay without anyone being put out.

Do they not have telephones in Galway? A landlord should have a business relationship with a plumber on whom he can call to do emergency repairs. This is what you pay a landlord FOR.

Anyway we are way offtopic

hagoonabear

Am thanks for the advice, but just worried incase after 6months we still didn't find employment or such.

Mrs OBumble

Where are you living now, and is there any chance you can stay there until you find work? Seems to me it's very foolish to be committing yourself to a lease anywhere when you could get offered a job on the other side of the city tomorrow.

Arbiter of Good Taste

Eric Cartman wrote: »

the landlords only issue was being in galway and thus unable to pay a plumber in dublin until they came down, landlords should always pay for any repairs, emergency or not, but even as a tenant I wouldnt expect a landlord to drive all the way from galway to hand a plumber a 90 euro callout charge when I could just deduct it from the rent I have to pay without anyone being put out.

No. The landlord should have a reputable "guy" that he can ring and who is available to go over at reasonable notice and doesn't expect cash immediately. I have a "guy" who we use for our rentals as well as our own house. He goes over to the apartments, does what is needed to be done and we sort out payment at a later stage.

handlemaster

People who are on rent allowance need to stop using landlords for short terme loans i.e
Not paying on tome. This would be a start

Gatling

handlemaster wrote: »

People who are on rent allowance need to stop using landlords for short terme loans i.e
Not paying on tome. This would be a start

I get the feeling tenants across the spectrum are regularly late with rents .
It's not only those on rent allowance that can be late for a start

the_syco

drumswan wrote: »

Are you joking? Its not a tenants responsibility to fund emergency repairs for a landlord.

A landlord can fix it in due time. Due time can a few weeks, though.

IMO, it's the fault of the system that many landlords don't accept RA. If something goes wrong in the system, and the RA is not paid, it's the landlord that loses out, and thus some don't think it's worth the hassle.

OP; look at an area that has lots of empty properties. Such an area may have landlords more eager to get anyone in.

SteelyDanJalapeno

If a tenant has a good reference, paying with R.A. shouldn't make a difference.

drumswan

the_syco wrote: »

A landlord can fix it in due time. Due time can a few weeks, though.

Due time for a water leak is not weeks.

TiltedBrain wrote:

If a tenant has a good reference, paying with R.A. shouldn't make a difference.

But it does. RA doesnt cover market rate. Its paid in arrears. Its more administration work for the landlord or agent. No landlord in their right mind would take RA where he has a choice.

beauf

hagoonabear wrote: »

Hello myself and my partner are looking for a place to rent both unemployed for now, but any houses we ring say r.a not accepted . I can understand why and everything but could us applying for a 2bed for €650 convince the ll by maybe giving references, deposit and maybe 6months rent upfront would help?thanks

Your thread title asks a different question than your post does. I assume you are not asking how to solve the whole system but advice on how to get a place for yourself.

Good References will help. If they are credible as they can be faked easily. Some authority used to pay LL directly, you might ask your local authority will they do that? Larger deposit would also help, but I would worry if you get the wrong LL this might be abused.