HAP Arrears

ChippingSodbury

Hi, I recently received a letter from HAP stating that my Tenant is in arrears on HAP payment and that I "may" not get paid. It also states that my Tenant should engage with the Debt Management section of the HAP.

What should I do now? The Tenant is not in rent arrears as I have been paid in full by HAP up to now.

mondeoman72

Tenant pays a bit to the council. Council pays the entire rent to landlord. Tenant stops paying the little bit - their contribution to council. Council tells landlord that tenant is in arrears and you now get nothing.

This is why HAP is avoided by so many. It is not a problem until it is a problem. And it is the Landlords problem, council don't want to know.

Hontou

Contact the tenant straight away and tell them to engage with "the Debt Management section of the HAP". Look like you are engaging. I had this with a tenant a couple of years ago but when they realised they could be refused HAP in future they started paying again. They rang Threshold to say I was annoying them but Threshold told them they had to pay their rent.

Threshold have a bad name with some landlords but their advice (to the tenant) helped me deal with these difficult tenants twice - including getting rid of them. Property now sold. TG.

Gmaximum

Get on top of it immediately, for what it’s worth write to the council and enclose a copy of the letter you received from rhe council. Advise them that they may refused HAP in the future

it may do nothing to push them along but at least it’s a warning shot.

As soon as they do fall into arrears follow the RTB procedures and issue notices. Again possibly a waste of time but you have follow the letter of law

Hope it works out for you, I’ve been through the ringer with HAP tenant in the past and will never do it again. Your left high and dry when the state could simply legislate for deductions at source for payments

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118464229#Comment_118464229

you can't refuse HAP by law so not a good idea to say you are going to break the law.

2ndcoming

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118464229#Comment_118464229

Only wanted to quote the last sentence. HAP is a bad idea all round but your one is straight from the depths of hell. Also, it's *you're.

Obviously they’re ignoring the correspondence that HAP would have sent them directly about this so I would.

1. Give them a call and if they answer explain what the letter says and ask them to give it their immediate attention.
2. Follow up the call with a message/email starting it with “Further to our telephone call on <insert date> at <insert time> this message/email is to confirm you have agreed to engage with the debt management section.
3. Send a copy of above to debt management dept.
4. If HAP payment does not arrive on Wednesday 26th, On Thursday 27th issue notice of arrears exactly as laid out on RTB website.

Be prepared now for what may happen and start sending arrears and or/eviction letters on the first day you are legally allowed to do so. Don’t be afraid to ring RTB and have them email you the templates directly.

If the tenant doesn’t answer your call, go straight to messaging/emailing them and make reference to date and time you tried to contact them. Send this to HAP too.

Gmaximum

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118465960#Comment_118465960

True but you don't have to expressly state this in your ad or tell a tenant it's the reason you're rejecting them

Gmaximum

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118466007#Comment_118466007

Maybe I should add "sent from a mobile device, please excuse typos" 🙄

Viscount Aggro

I have learned myself the hard way. I always get the letting agent to check employment details, bank statement, references.

This is the risk of dealing with deadbeat tenants.

Sheep Shagger

Good luck OP.

Got screwed over in this situation, wrote to 4 TDs asking why rules can't be changed and why the PRTB determination order i got cant be deducted from tenants wages...."this is not possible"

So a few bad people give HAP tenants a bad name which is why so many landlords won't accept them (and there are ways to do that legally).

Sold my apartment after getting burnt. Never again.

ChippingSodbury

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully I can get it worked out.

2ndcoming

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118466534#Comment_118466534

The typo was the least of its problems, Trevelyan.

ChippingSodbury

Well, so far so good. Received notice from HAP Arrears Office that all arrears have been cleared...

bakerbhoy

My current and last tenant is a HAP tenant. Arrears came about during first Covid-lockdown, pre -HAP Tenancy. Undisrupted payments since , but no inroads on arrears of over 2.3k. We know we are being played but such is the lot of a small time landlord. Prioritising new cars/van over arrears says enough.Tenant is a trades person and has offered to do work in lieu etc.

We have decided to sell up and in all likely hood be forfeiting arrears. I just want to wash my soul of the whole thing. I will clear my own mortgage in the next year or so and give my family much needed time and attention.

Prtb are not all the problem , its the failed junior councils/ solicitors ,Quantity Surveyors types high on power trips they engage onto their adjudication and tribunal panels. If you are unfortunate enough to have to suffer them , it will be come apparent why they are, where they are ..

We have had the house trashed by a RAS council tenant 25k in the hole ... 4k awarded through prtb. Council didn't don't want to know even though they sourced ,vetted, championed same tenant and was the only tenant put forward. Next young couple perfect tenants two years. Next up another young couple ..nasty little **** .. decided to leave after 6 months everything was wrong all the way through, Prtb again lies taken as fact ..we were the liars according to the jobsworths on the panels and finally the Hap tenant.

Looking forward to the tranquillity.

Sheep Shagger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118520266#Comment_118520266

And people wonder why small mum/dad type landlords are leaving the market. The likes of Hibernia and IRES can whether thus **** being institutional landlords.

Don't blame you, I was in similar boat but not as bad thank ****. Never again.

No accountability everywhere you turn room councils, PRTB, Welfare etc and these people elbow it. Sadly they ruin it for all HAP tenants.

Timfy

Disclosure- I am a long term, non HAP tenant.

Before bringing to bear the big guns and taking the opportunity to tar all HAP tenants with the same brush, do consider the following;

The tenant may have only missed a part of one payment or more likely missed a whole payment by mistake. I personally set up payment via standing order with a one year term and have, on occasion forgotten to renew it. Fortunately I noticed before the LL and payment was made, albeit a day or two late.

If something similar happened to your tenant, then the council paperwork would automatically be triggered and the warning posted to yourself.

Instead of thinking the worst, consider that the tenant may be mortified at making a late payment and is now worried that their rental agreement may be at risk.

Going from a request for help on the automatic issue of a letter to the standard "HAP tenants burnt down my house and ate my grandma" crap isn't really assisting anyone.

Sheep Shagger

Obviously not all HAP tenants are bad but its not up to a landlord to carry the circumstances of someone not being able to pay. Often mum and dad have very little Lee way and its their credit rating on the line if the mortgage payment bounces when a tenant doesn't keep up their end of the bargain.

A late payment can happen to anyone but when it builds up and you see money being spent elsewhere instead of rent clearly that's not the same thing but sadly a landlord has no where to turn.

MakersMark

If the government is going to force landlords to take tenants in, then the government must guarantee the rent.

No other businesses have to suffer these imbalances.

Imagine a hotel getting fined up to 20k if they're guests stop paying??

OP...best thing for you to do is sell up.

bakerbhoy

Unfortunately ''Some '' not all tenants have become institutionalised by the state supports package. These have become totally dependent on the state for all their needs. In my case , the RAS tenant deemed our property in the same disposable way as the white goods and furniture dumped in the skip on the way to the next refurbed (council)property and a new set of white goods and furniture, courtesy of the department.

On handing back the keys , i was told i was lucky that they showed up at all. Most wouldn't have bothered.

PalLimerick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118520266#Comment_118520266

The jobsworth on the panels. What an attitude.

PalLimerick

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