Renting a property to the council?

lightspeed

Hi

I have a property in Dublin that I had rented out through a property management company for about 6 months. It is now vacant while I'm looking for a new tenant. I currently live in my family home with a parent and anticipate I may move back to this property some day.

So It possibly doesn't suit to sign a lease with the county council. It got me thinking if I got a buy to let property, it would be least hassle to sign a longterm lease to rent it to the county council.

I understand the council only give up to 90% market value of the rent. How is this calculated? Do they just look at the lowest similar property in the same area renting on daft and multiply this by 90%

Am I correct that the county council look after all maintenance?

If a bad tenant trashes the house, am I correct that there is no real risk as council would repair all damage in full?

GreenPanda99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365347/renting-a-property-to-the-council

I lived in an apartment for 3 years and the apartment next door was rented by the council. There was some psycho woman in it and she ruined the lives of all the other tenants in the block. everyone, including the management company sent numerous complaints to the owner of the property and to the council. Council just said "GDRP - f off". Landlord was sympathetic and copied us on all letter to the council that he sent. He got nowhere with them. They always said they were dealing with it but they had a 10 year lease with them so he had no say in the matter. He was begging them at one point to not ruin the lives of all the people living around this maniac, but they didnt care.

Things she would do. Ring all the bells in the block at all hours herself asking people for money. Banging on all the doors asking for money or if anyone wanted a ride for money. All sorts of junkies coming up to visit her. Music blaring from midnight til 10 am. Gardai did nothing wither. There would be junkies passed out in the halls and lobby. Hard men knocking on people doors then demanding money or else. She even sold the parking permits that came with her apartment. She got a new key to the bin store and the main building after saying she lost hers. Ended up giving it to junkies who had gangs of them sleeping in the bin store, pulling out and going through the rubbish and leaving the lobby open for anyone who wanted to come in to either shoot up or rob the building.

Council didnt care, gardai didnt care. She is still there. I moved out a year ago. One too many days when the lift door opened for me to be greeted with sh!t and piss in the lift.

So if you think the council will help if something goes wrong, they wont. If you thin the owner will help, they cant. If you think the management company can help, they cant. The management company started sending threatening letters to the landlord, but it became clear he was trying his best to help all the time, but couldnt. The council just but a scumbag in and then everyone else involved could suffer instead of the council.

I should say that the place was lovely and all the neighbors were lovely and it was an idyllic place to live until she moved in.

Now maybe the council will put a nice person in there and im sure they do, but you wont get a choice no matter what demands you make and if you get a bad one the council dont care. In the letters that the owner copied us on he was saying to the council that they agreed when he leased it to them at the start that they would only house nice people who would get on with the neighbours and if anyone gave trouble that they would be replaced with a good tenant. Never happened thou

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122534634#Comment_122534634

Nothing about this surprises me. People like that should be committed to an asylum, and at one point in time, they would have been. It sickens me that I work my backside off to pay for a house when the state is using my taxes to house yahoos (home grown and imported) in apartments and houses that could be homes to working men and women.

OP, if you care about your neighbours, please do not give the state your property to use.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122534634#Comment_122534634

The consequences of Housing First.

PSFarrell

Similar story to the above when I lived in a buildings . Owner thought it was easy money renting to the council. Supposed to be a family with just 2 kids living in the place but instead a load of random relatives moved in as well. Lots of anti social behavior occured and damage to common areas and the council were no help. Eventually they were removed after several years of this. I know the apartment was trashed and not sure who picked up the tab.

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122535076#Comment_122535076

I believe that the council is responsible for returning the property to the owner in good condition, but I wouldn't want to put that to the test.

GreenPanda99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122535117#Comment_122535117

Im sure they do at the end of the lease. But they dont put all of the neighbours lives back the way they got them. The council are happy to house a problem and let it become someone else problem and wash their hands of it.

mrslancaster

where is the property OP? Afaik, the long term leasing scheme in Dublin is finished but might be available in other locations. Renting with council involvement would be through HAP or RAS scheme. HAP tenants source accommodation themselves and council pays landlord. No up-front property inspections but it will happen at some stage.
RAS contracts run for 6 years and tenants are selected by the council, rent is guaranteed. Councils will want certs for tax clearance, insurance, ber, gas & electric; external kitchen and bathroom extractors, attic insulation, specific furniture, white goods less than 6 months old with guarantee, mains smoke and CM alarms, window restrictors etc. I know a landlord who did a long term 10 year lease and he was told there was no guarantee on furniture and fixtures. Tbf, after ten years, everything would be well used and nobody could expect to get it back in the same condition. His 10 year contract included maintenance and no Rtb registration but the occupants were not his tenants, they were council tenants.

Both HAP and RAS occupants are your tenants and tenancy must be registered and comply with all RTB regulations.

GreenPanda99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122539657#Comment_122539657

That place was in Santry.

lightspeed

Christ, thanks for the input. That sounds like a real horror story.

As elitist as it may sound my thinking was to buy a house in county council estate and lease it to the council. From reading up on it since though I see the option to lease long term is no longer an option.

lightspeed

The current property I have available to rent is in balbriggan but im not looking to rent it to the council as I won't inflict the type of tenants the council will place on my the property or my neighbours.

I'm getting frustrated with the property management company as they claim ro be struggling to find suitable interested tenants even though I have see other similar properties albeit newer builds priced at €500 a month more since been removed from daft.ie presumably now rented.

I noticed just yesterday the property is no longer listed on daft to rent so it feels like they got the first month rent 6 months ago when placing a tenant and are now happy to wash their hands of placing another.

GreenPanda99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122571937#Comment_122571937

I did some work in an estate agents (not EA work, but i had to spend a few weeks in their office) many years ago. The things I saw and heard from the staff I got to know.

One of them was a girl on the phone to her sister "You'll have to pay that deposit quick, because the vendor is asking why there arent more people viewing his house and i'll have to start showing other people soon." The gist of the rest of the conversation was that she wasnt showing this house to anyone else and telling them all it was sold, while the sister raised the booking deposit to buy it at a price (without competition bidding).

Another was the way they all talked about tenants when they called up to complain about something. And how they used to tell landlords that their tenant was asking for a new lease, but it was them organizing a new lease every year to charge the landlord.

They were told by their boss too to favour tenants who seemed like they would only stay for a year or less (students, contractors from other countries, etc) over longer term ones because there was more money in it for the EA in replacing tenants.

It was a real eye opener.

lightspeed

Thanks I'm now living just down the road in my father's house with my partner and child. I'm weary of tenants popping down to the house if there any issues. Hence I figured best to use a property management company. I rang them today and they just said they don't get notifications when the advert expires. They said they can organise putting it back up on daft if I wanted. I said obviously as how will it get rented if it not even up for rent.

I'm strongly thinking of renting the rooms but not sure if that will be more headache or manageable?

mrslancaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122576484#Comment_122576484

Is there a different estate agent you could use - the current one doesn't sound great. The larger established agencies might have higher fees for property management services, but if you want to be hands-off, that's an option. Or you find tenants, have solicitor draw up the lease and pay them to collect the rent. You would have to manage inspections and r&m yourself.

I know an owner who only lets for I80 days or less because he doesn't want indefinite tenants. It doesn't suit everyone and means extra EA fees, but is working for him so far. Renting individual rooms can be a lot of hassle.

herbalplants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122573084#Comment_122573084

It validates exactly what I said about EA all along while other people here say they are regulated!

100% this is what happened to myself about a house, EA promised the house to his cronies maybe got a brown envelope so he was set on selling to one person ignoring other buyers.

SupaCat95

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122597228#Comment_122597228

Sure estate Agents are a regulated bunch. They are all regulated by their retired uncles and cousins. They are all of the same class and school system. They are as effective as complaining to a Garda about his wayward nephew. Property is not about what you know as who you know.