Renting to Fingal County Council

Paddy3

Hi,
We are looking at renting a property we have to Fingal County Council.
Does anybody have any experience on the lead time it will take to the point of receiving rent?
They won't start the process till after our current tenant moves out(which as they are buying)
Also does anybody have any good/bad experience in renting to local authorities?

Baby01032012

Why would you do that in a landlords market?

You’ve no control over what tenants they put in your property yet they won’t take responsibility for any repairs from damage caused by the tenants.

I guess its a 5/10/15 year lease? However you have to deal with whatever tenants they put in. If tenant does a runner they can cut off payment and walk away.

Samuel T. Cogley

They will place the most difficult cases in that sort of rental. We've a couple in an apartment complex I'm involved in and they are a bloody nightmare.

Paddy3

First of all it is not a small landlords market!
Secondly, I would have no dealing with the tenants. The deal would be between me and the Fingal and not the tenant
Thirdly while no contract has been signed the info I have got so far says the Fingal County Council will "Maintain the property internally for the term of the lease, the property will be returned to the owner in good condition at the end of the lease term, subject to fair wear and tear"
and last thing is this is not the HAP, Fingal County Council will have a contractual obligation to pay the rent whether there are any tenants in there or not

Baby01032012

I presume this is a RAS letting.

I had a contract with a county council as well.

When the tenants destroyed the place and walked away so did the council and so did the councils rent once they found out the tenants had legged it.

Put in decent tenants yourself or i can do it for you, tenants you choose and vet and secure references from...none of which you can do with the council because you have no say.

Paddy3

RAS has been/or will be replaced by HAP, this is not a RAS or HAP
https://www.fingal.ie/council/service/long-term-leasing

cruizer101

My parents did it and find it good, there was a bit of work initially to meet some councils requirements regarding insulation and maybe few other bits. If the house is new enough these shouldn't be an issue.
Other than that it is completely hands off, I think other posters are confused about what it is.
The rent is guaranteed for the term at 85% or 80% of market rent, reviewed a few times during the 10 years.
Yes you could make more by renting on the open market but you could also make a lot less if you had any issues with a tenant, the council pay this rent no matter what and deal with any tenant issues. I don't know if my parents even know who the current tenant is.
There is little to no work involved from your point once it is handed over.
Personally I think it is a good option if you know you can just forget about the equity in house for 10 years, they are retired so suits them well.

Xterminator

theres a few people putting mis-information into this thread.

they won’t take responsibility for any repairs from damage caused by the tenants.

If tenant does a runner they can cut off payment and walk away.

I presume this is a RAS letting.

none of this is accurate. Paddy3 has posted a link above to what is in the contract. Its a very good long term idea, where you sacrifice market rent to 80-85% of market rate, and they take over the management of the property for a specified term, (10-25 years) supply and manage the tenants & commit to returning it in good condition, by legal contract.

In other words it removes the risks of being a landlord, offers a guaranteed return, and in my opinion the OP is doing a public service too by helping reduce the council housing lists.

the one negative i have heard is that the council can be quite slow in getting the paperwork over the line. but as its a long term project a couple of months in the scheme of things is small change.