HAP house inspection - report findings

aquinn

Hi,

Looking for advice for those who have had a House inspection and how you dealt with the report findings in relation to the potential breaches they have pointed out from the respective legislations?

Thanks,

Gumbo

aquinn wrote: »

Hi,

Looking for advice for those who have had a House inspection and how you dealt with the report findings in relation to the potential breaches they have pointed out from the respective legislations?

Thanks,

What are the breaches?
Just remedy them and you are now in compliance.

aquinn

kceire wrote: »

What are the breaches?
Just remedy them and you are now in compliance.

One of their 'finding's' was that they reported that the windows were in breach of requlations and child access, which isn't the case. Windows are new.

Also there is no carbon monixide alarm, which there is.

Do you gather proof and send back photographs or dispute the findings?

Thanks.

davo10

aquinn wrote: »

One of their 'finding's' was that they reported that the windows were in breach of requlations and child access, which isn't the case. Windows are new.

Also there is no carbon monixide alarm, which there is.

Do you gather proof and send back photographs or dispute the findings?

Thanks.

Of course, if you are not in a position to remedy the "breaches", then your tenants may not be a able to avail of HAP payments, tenancy would have to end if they can't pay.

Gumbo

aquinn wrote: »

One of their 'finding's' was that they reported that the windows were in breach of requlations and child access, which isn't the case. Windows are new.

Also there is no carbon monixide alarm, which there is.

Do you gather proof and send back photographs or dispute the findings?

Thanks.

Do the windows have restrictors to restrict the initial opening to 100mm?
On my inspections of new builds, this is one of the most common problems.

CO alarm if present, just photo and send back with a letter showing where it is located. I’m assuming it’s located where it should be? You may require more than one depending on where the flue or chimney breast travels.

Baby01032012

I had hap inspection and all findings were false.

No fire extinguisher - there definitely was

No carbon monoxide alarm - it’s in apartment with only electric heating

Etc etc..it sounded like the person didn’t go to the apartment at all.

I sent them email to tell them as much and never heard back.

antoinolachtnai

I have had this too. We remedied a number of things, all minor issues. But now they are down to small things and have issued an improvement notice.

They want me to fit restrictors to windows which open onto a balcony. I don’t think it is a good idea to fit a restrictor in this situation because there is no risk of a dangerous fall from the window and the design of the window is the subject of a fire certificate.

We have written back to them and we’ll see where it goes.

There are good reasons for inspections but this now seems like a lot of jobsworthery.

Gumbo

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I have had this too. We remedied a number of things, all minor issues. But now they are down to small things and have issued an improvement notice.

They want me to fit restrictors to windows which open onto a balcony. I don’t think it is a good idea to fit a restrictor in this situation because there is no risk of a dangerous fall from the window and the design of the window is the subject of a fire certificate.

We have written back to them and we’ll see where it goes.

There are good reasons for inspections but this now seems like a lot of jobsworthery.

What is the height of the window to the balcony?
The fire safety cert has no bearing on the restrictive on the window as in an apartment building, the fire escape is out the front door and down through the protected shafts.

The restrictive is a fall risk really.

antoinolachtnai

kceire wrote: »

What is the height of the window to the balcony?
The fire safety cert has no bearing on the restrictive on the window as in an apartment building, the fire escape is out the front door and down through the protected shafts.

The restrictive is a fall risk really.

The distance from bottom of window to balcony deck is 1 meter exactly.

I don’t know what the escape design is really. The front door and shafts are clearly the primary escape. It seems to me that the balcony might be a secondary escape.

(The issue of the plan showing fire escape also came up separately. This is a very fair point and I am waiting for the management company to provide this. )

GGTrek

Council inspection (either HAP or not) is designed to fail: - the inspectors usualy do as they please, do not warn the landlord about the date, they come out with the most ridicolous requests (like repainting when the tenant himself stained the walls or new carpets stained by the same tenant) or the windows BS or the carbon monoxide in an electric heated apartment or the worst: a full electrical report from a certified electrician even if there are no electrical faults found (have you got any idea how much such inspections cost?). Their interepretation of the Housing Standard Regulations is way beyond what is acceptable and I had a field trip with the DCC inspector who came because an anti-social lying tenant was trying to blackmail me (that did not end well for the tenant who is long evicted). You check all the requirements in the law and you send a written letter or email to the inspector raising all the faults in their report according to law (at the time I had a good solicitor helping me to kick out the above mentioned tenant and it helped a lot), all their stupid requests will quietly die down when threatened to be taken to court (as every civil servant they are scared to loose their comfy job), the inspection is often a blackmail to the landlord and often the only (cheap) solution is to legally blackmail the inspector on a power trip.

The other thing that surprise me is: why with the current availability of working tenants some landlord still goes the HAP route, that as the OP case can show produces only problems for the landlord (dealing with any public body in Ireland is a massive issue). I can see a really masochistic tendency in Irish landlords accepting HAP tenants

Look at the latest WRC arbitration: http://www.thejournal.ie/landlord-discrimination-hap-allowance-4111614-Jul2018/
6k penalty, discrimination my ....! Couple with university degrees having 4 children, paying just 750pcm for an entire house and not wanting to work hard to put a roof over their family head, paying well below market rent and "suffering" because they cannot get money from the state to pay for their rent! With the great availability of jobs in Ireland for graduates at the moment, such couple should have no problems at all in paying 750 eur pcm of rent! It is scandalous! You can look for the arbitrator name online, so you get an idea of the kind of people who are coming out with the stupid sums. If I were the landlord I would appeal and attack the smearing campaign of the tenants and the arbitrator together with the discrimination BS argument.The comment section is always more interesting than the biased Indo article and this comment really nailed the issue: "The only message it sends is to tell landlords to stay the heck away from HAP but be more subtle about it."

Gumbo

GGTrek wrote: »

Council inspection (either HAP or not) is designed to fail: - the inspectors usualy do as they please, do not warn the landlord about the date, they come out with the most ridicolous requests (like repainting when the tenant himself stained the walls or new carpets stained by the same tenant) or the windows BS or the carbon monoxide in an electric heated apartment or the worst: a full electrical report from a certified electrician even if there are no electrical faults found (have you got any idea how much such inspections cost?). Their interepretation of the Housing Standard Regulations is way beyond what is acceptable and I had a field trip with the DCC inspector who came because an anti-social lying tenant was trying to blackmail me (that did not end well for the tenant who is long evicted). You check all the requirements in the law and you send a written letter or email to the inspector raising all the faults in their report according to law (at the time I had a good solicitor helping me to kick out the above mentioned tenant and it helped a lot), all their stupid requests will quietly die down when threatened to be taken to court (as every civil servant they are scared to loose their comfy job), the inspection is often a blackmail to the landlord and often the only (cheap) solution is to legally blackmail the inspector on a power trip.

The other thing that surprise me is: why with the current availability of working tenants some landlord still goes the HAP route, that as the OP case can show produces only problems for the landlord (dealing with any public body in Ireland is a massive issue). I can see a really masochistic tendency in Irish landlords accepting HAP tenants

Look at the latest WRC arbitration: http://www.thejournal.ie/landlord-discrimination-hap-allowance-4111614-Jul2018/
6k penalty, discrimination my ....! Couple with university degrees having 4 children, paying just 750pcm for an entire house and not wanting to work hard to put a roof over their family head, paying well below market rent and "suffering" because they cannot get money from the state to pay for their rent! With the great availability of jobs in Ireland for graduates at the moment, such couple should have no problems at all in paying 750 eur pcm of rent! It is scandalous! You can look for the arbitrator name online, so you get an idea of the kind of people who are coming out with the stupid sums. If I were the landlord I would appeal and attack the smearing campaign of the tenants and the arbitrator together with the discrimination BS argument.The comment section is always more interesting than the biased Indo article and this comment really nailed the issue: "The only message it sends is to tell landlords to stay the heck away from HAP but be more subtle about it."

DCC inspector will be a public servant, not a civil servant, to clarify.
His/her job to inspect has to be done whether the tenant is telling porkies or not. They have to take the complaint on its merit and inspect. You and others would be the first ranting about an inspection that didn’t take place following a complaint so the local authority cannot win here with the general public and their ill advised opinions of cushy jobs etc

The Environment Health section (who govern the housing standards) recently ran a campaign to employ inspectors so people were free to apply subject to their qualifications etc.

HAP is another matter, it can be a benefit tax wise as the interest portion allowable as a deduction increases from 80% to 100% so there’s significant tax savings there. It does weigh on having a good tenant though but you can just as easily get a bad private tenant as a social tenant.

murphaph

In Fingal these inspections are carried out by private companies on behalf of the council. I've had 2 by 2 different companies.