Rent paid in arrears, etc.

seanie27

Hi all and apologies if this has been answered before. A welfare tenant paying their rent in arrears is leaving their tenancy. The SW pays their rent allowance in arrears on the last tues of the month and they pay the balance on the following first of the month.
My question is which month are they paying for and what do they owe when they leave? I'm probably not being very clear here but any help appreciated.

handlemaster

seanie27 wrote: »

Hi all and apologies if this has been answered before. A welfare tenant paying their rent in arrears is leaving their tenancy. The SW pays their rent allowance in arrears on the last tues of the month and they pay the balance on the following first of the month.
My question is which month are they paying for and what do they owe when they leave? I'm probably not being very clear here but any help appreciated.

does sw not pay in advance ?? on the last tuesday its for the following month

seanie27

My understanding is it is in arrears at least that's what they say.

Cushie Butterfield

It really doesn't matter whether their social welfare payment is paid in arrears or not. What matters is what rent is owed to the landlord.

If the rent is paid to the landlord monthly in arrears & the tenant leaves at the end of any month they will always owe for that month as they are always one month 'behind'.

Depending what (if any) security deposit was paid to the landlord that could possibly be offset against the one month arrears.

seanie27

That's great thanks.

handlemaster

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

It really doesn't matter whether their social welfare payment is paid in arrears or not. What matters is what rent is owed to the landlord.

If the rent is paid to the landlord monthly in arrears & the tenant leaves at the end of any month they will always owe for that month as they are always one month 'behind'.

Depending what (if any) security deposit was paid to the landlord that could possibly be offset against the one month arrears.

Deposit is not for rent

Cushie Butterfield

handlemaster wrote: »

Deposit is not for rent

I didn't say it was. I said it could possibly be used to offset against the final months arrears.

That could be done either by physically handing it back to the tenant & them handing it straight back to landlord or by landlord keeping the deposit in lieu. That's up to the pair of them to decide how the arrears are satisfied.

handlemaster

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

I didn't say it was. I said it could possibly be used to offset against the final months arrears.

That could be done either by physically handing it back to the tenant & them handing it straight back to landlord or by landlord keeping the deposit in lieu. That's up to the pair of them to decide how the arrears are satisfied.

Y ou are still saying the deposit can be used for rent. Its for damages.once LL gives deposit its bye bye tenant. DEPOSIT IS NEVER TO BE USED AS FINAL MONTHS RENT.

NinjaTruncs

handlemaster wrote: »

Y ou are still saying the deposit can be used for rent. Its for damages.once LL gives deposit its bye bye tenant. DEPOSIT IS NEVER TO BE USED AS FINAL MONTHS RENT.

But if there is a months rent outstanding the landlord is hardly going to hand over the deposit.

handlemaster

NinjaTruncs wrote: »

But if there is a months rent outstanding the landlord is hardly going to hand over the deposit.

Of course not. The problem is tenants use this as last months rent as normal. The tenant needs to pay the rent. Landlord should sa y hé/she will not give reference if deposit is used in this manner.

Cushie Butterfield

handlemaster wrote: »

Y ou are still saying the deposit can be used for rent. Its for damages.once LL gives deposit its bye bye tenant. DEPOSIT IS NEVER TO BE USED AS FINAL MONTHS RENT.

What on earth are you talking about?

Let's say I owe you €20 for whatever reason & you owe me €20 for whatever reason. We can either call it quits or I can go through the motions of giving you €20 which you then give back to me.

The tenant is a social welfare recipient, so I'd say it would be safe to assume that they don't have the funds to be doing anything different than I suggest.

Doing it that way means rent is fully paid up, no matter what you think should or should not be done.

handlemaster

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

What on earth are you talking about?

Let's say I owe you €20 for whatever reason & you owe me €20 for whatever reason. We can either call it quits or I can go through the motions of giving you €20 which you then give back to me.

The tenant is a social welfare recipient, so I'd say it would be safe to assume that they don't have the funds to be doing anything different than I suggest.

Doing it that way means rent is fully paid up, no matter what you think should or should not be done.

any potential damages are covered where exactly ?

Cushie Butterfield

handlemaster wrote: »

any potential damages are covered where exactly ?

OP didn't mention damages, unless I've misread his post.

handlemaster

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

OP didn't mention damages, unless I've misread his post.

Wont know until tenant is moving out hence the need to demand rent.

Cushie Butterfield

handlemaster wrote: »

Wont know until tenant is moving out hence the need to demand rent.

You can demand anything you want, but it's usually impossible to draw blood from a stone. Common sense should prevail.

You're looking at one isolated situation & applying a broad best practice approach. In the cold light of day the reality is that a 'common sense should prevail' approach usually works wonders especially in individual cases.

The_Morrigan

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

You can demand anything you want, but it's usually impossible to draw blood from a stone. Common sense should prevail.

You're looking at one isolated situation & applying a broad best practice approach. In the cold light of day the reality is that a 'common sense should prevail' approach usually works wonders especially in individual cases.

Mod Note Cushie we have a charter here that forbids giving advice that breaks the law, advising people to use the deposit as the last months rent falls under that rule.
Common sense or not, the only advice that will be tolerated here is that which falls within the remit of Irish law.

Cushie Butterfield

The_Morrigan wrote: »

Mod Note Cushie we have a charter here that forbids giving advice that breaks the law, advising people to use the deposit as the last months rent falls under that rule.
Common sense or not, the only advice that will be tolerated here is that which falls within the remit of Irish law.

Thanks The Morrigan.

My intention was not to give advice that is against the law or to break the forum charter.

I originally stated that the final months rent would be due to be paid. Once returned the security deposit can be used for anything the tenant wants, which includes payment of arrears. I merely suggested that instead of returning the deposit only to get it back straight away could be a possible solution if the tenant didn't have the available funds to do so. If that's against the law or forum charter I apologise.

ffactj

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

You can demand anything you want, but it's usually impossible to draw blood from a stone. Common sense should prevail.

You're looking at one isolated situation & applying a broad best practice approach. In the cold light of day the reality is that a 'common sense should prevail' approach usually works wonders especially in individual cases.

Thats the reason its going to become standard now for two or even three months rent to be paid in adv ance, or for the deposit to be two or three months rent

Gatling

ffactj wrote: »

Thats the reason its going to become standard now for two or even three months rent to be paid in adv ance, or for the deposit to be two or three months rent

Highly doubt that's going to happen

ffactj

Gatling wrote: »

Highly doubt that's going to happen

I dont see why not. Standard practice almost everywhere else.

Things are changing.

Already you can even get a special leases now that state that the tenant pays rent and after that any minor repairs etc are up to the tenant.
They just return a working version of whatever was in the apartment when they got it, when they leave.

eg the hoover supplied stops working, tenant replaces it and leaves the replacement there after they leave. Or they can just buy their own hoover at the start and use that and save the original.

Its kind of a halfway house between renting furnished and unfurnished. I would prefer unfurnished myself, but there isnt the market here. People want everything there for them and then want to complain when its sh1t quality.