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Current landlord refusing HAP

Enbee92

Hi all,

I've been living at this address for 7 years, on rent supplement for 5. I've been asked by the council to apply for HAP (as they are phasing out RS). I filled in my part of the application, sent the landlord his part to fill in, and last night received a text in reply saying:

"If you wish to take on another fixed term lease we would expect the same payment terms and conditions as per the previous lease. Can you please let me know as soon as possible if you wish to proceed"

Which I have interpreted as no hap or pack your bags. I've done my research, and as far as I can tell, he cannot refuse HAP. I have contacted the council, Threshold and the PRTB and am awaiting response, but after an entirely sleepless night worrying about the possibility of having to house hunt in this current climate, I would appreciate hugely if anyone could give me some peace of mind.

TIA

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10pennymixup

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Go bark up another tree, I’ve no interest and your not being any help

I'll take whatever you're saying with a very large pinch of salt. And help is only helpful if it's correct.

You said rent under HAP is guaranteed but then back tracked when it was shown it wasn't.

Your help in suggesting to claim the costs of upgrading to satisfy a HAP inspection report could be claimed as simple rental expenses, would only get you in a heap of trouble with the taxman.

Now you're going three for three with a HAP inspection being a simple matter and only dodgy LL's need fear it. Glad it worked out for you but it isn't. It is an arbitrary inspection that far exceeds that which is legally needed to rent to anyone else in this country that is not on HAP.

10pennymixup

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Why don’t people just stick to the point of this thread??? How hard can it actually be.

What, and not contradict you?

Enbee92

Thanks a mil for your help lawrencesummers. I think I'm going to ask to meet with LL in person and just have a calm conversation about it and see can we get to the bottom of it. Going to go to LA during the week and arm myself with as much info as possible to reassure him (and myself) and hopefully resolve this with as little conflict as possible. After all, we've had a good relationship this far and if I can avoid having to leave here I will, its in both our interest to resolve it peacefully, and maybe in person he'll be more open about his concerns (as opposed to on paper). Appreciate you and everyone else taking the time and energy to provide me with as much info as possible. It's been really helpful on both sides. I've also got a bit more info from the relevant bodies so I feel a bit better about the situation, albeit still a bit uncertain.

beauf

I think being already a tenant for so long in the same property, is all in your favor.

You did say it hasn't always trouble free with delays on repairs etc. So maybe the LL has some other plans for the property, or is simply disinterested in doing anything for the HAP or even being a LL anymore. Who knows. You won't know till you talk to him.

If you prepared will all the solutions to any issues he has with it, it might get sorted.

lawrencesummers

10pennymixup wrote: »

I'll take whatever you're saying with a very large pinch of salt. And help is only helpful if it's correct.

You said rent under HAP is guaranteed but then back tracked when it was shown it wasn't.

Your help in suggesting to claim the costs of upgrading to satisfy a HAP inspection report could be claimed as simple rental expenses, would only get you in a heap of trouble with the taxman.

Now you're going three for three with a HAP inspection being a simple matter and only dodgy LL's need fear it. Glad it worked out for you but it isn't. It is an arbitrary inspection that far exceeds that which is legally needed to rent to anyone else in this country that is not on HAP.

Have you nothing better to do?

10pennymixup

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Have you nothing better to do?

It's been put to you that you are incorrect by several posters and proven so. And this reply is the best that you can come back with. No argument nor debate. You're not worth the parry.

You're in the hole, stop digging and throw away the shovel.

karenalot

The_Conductor wrote: »

In theory.
In practice- the tenant reduces, or stops the payment to the local authority- and the landlord suddenly, without any notice, has the entirety of the rent stopped- and no-one in the local authority will talk to him/her on GDPR grounds.
While you may imagine its rare- unfortunately, the stats at the RTB speak otherwise.

This is untrue. The procedure is that local authorities contact tenants by letter after 3 weeks of non payment and landlords (called the pink letter by some) after 5 weeks of non payment. GDPR has zero bearing on this.

After 8 weeks of non payment and complete non communication by tenants payments are then considered to be stopped. Landlords are also informed of this.

In the old days they would not speak about RAS or rent allowance however that has changed with HAP.

karenalot

There is a huge amount of misinformation floating around on this forum about HAP. Mostly coming from people who are not HAP landlords and are relaying anecdotes rather than personal experience.

The_Conductor

Enbee92 wrote: »

I think I'm going to ask to meet with LL in person and just have a calm conversation about it and see can we get to the bottom of it. Going to go to LA during the week and arm myself with as much info as possible to reassure him (and myself) and hopefully resolve this with as little conflict as possible. After all, we've had a good relationship this far and if I can avoid having to leave here I will, its in both our interest to resolve it peacefully, and maybe in person he'll be more open about his concerns (as opposed to on paper). Appreciate you and everyone else taking the time and energy to provide me with as much info as possible. It's been really helpful on both sides. I've also got a bit more info from the relevant bodies so I feel a bit better about the situation, albeit still a bit uncertain.

When you're talking to Threshold etc- are you making them aware that you're part renting a building that is only partially residential in nature, partly commercial? I don't see how sharing a kitchen with a commercial outfit could possibly qualify under HAP standards (though oddly enough it just might- as the nature of your co-tenants is such that the premises is supposed to be assessed and examined on a regular basis by local authority and Tusla officials.

Your situation is so far out of the realms of what anyone would normally encounter- that its pretty much pointless any of us trying to offer an opinion or suggestion to you.

Personally I don't understand how the landlord was allowed to subdivide the building in the manner in which he has done- and I don't understand how you expect to pass a HAP inspection when you don't even have your own kitchen.

By rights the landlord should cop the hell on, officially split the building in 2- and seeing as you have 3 bedrooms- turn one of them into a formal, modern, compliant kitchen- which would assauge some of the concerns that many local authority, Tusla, Gardai and other bodies might have about the arrangements you have signed up to.

You need to talk to the landlord- but you also need to talk to the local authority to see if the property would ever even be considered for HAP purposes- there are just so many alarm bells ringing loudly here for comfort.

Conflict with your landlord could very well be the tip of the iceberg in this situation.

Gumbo

Stop moaning ffs wrote: »

I’d happily sort out all the problems myself if I knew what the inspectors would be looking for/ what criteria have to be met.

Smoke and heat detectors.
Safety restrictions on all accessible windows over 1.4m.
Has boiler had a safety test and service carried out to IS813 Annex E within the last 12 months.
Cooking facilities.
Ventilation.
Refuge storage or access to bin store.
Wash facilities.
Minimum rental standards for private accommodation.

sk8board

HAP LL here, most recently went through another application on April 10th, for a sitting tenant - and should be finally finished with the process of the house re-inspection in the next few weeks. (Yes, 6 months and counting).

Here’s the timeline breakdown:
- HAP applications are takings about 6-7 weeks just to review. We applied Apr 10th with May 1st as the start date.
- most LLs balk at HAP as they need to be fully tax complaint, provide a lot of ‘proofs’, such as LPT, RTB, bank accounts etc. If you are a HAP LL, your nose is very clean!
- The application was approved at the end of June (two months with tenant fretting and me without rent - tenant eventually paid one month) and missed the pay day (final Wednesday or each month) so I didn’t see any money from Limerick until end July.
- they paid the 3 months and I refunded the tenant
- a week or two later we did the inspection - it’s exactly as the poster above said. I only needed the (RTB compliant) window restrictors.
- had 6 weeks to sort that and applied for the re-inspection last week.

Honestly, overall the process it’s a total PITA, and the rent payments in arrears is utter BS. The HAP info leaflet is a far cry from reality for the LL, bordering on misinformation.

The most frustrating part was waiting for the application to be reviewed, without any contact from anyone, or any idea where my mortgage was going to come from, for over 3 whole months.

If it wasn’t a sitting tenant, I simply would do it again.

Stop moaning ffs

kceire wrote: »

Smoke and heat detectors.
Safety restrictions on all accessible windows over 1.4m.
Has boiler had a safety test and service carried out to IS813 Annex E within the last 12 months.
Cooking facilities.
Ventilation.
Refuge storage or access to bin store.
Wash facilities.
Minimum rental standards for private accommodation.

All doable. Thanks a million!

lawrencesummers

sk8board wrote: »

HAP LL here, most recently went through another application on April 10th, for a sitting tenant - and should be finally finished with the process of the house re-inspection in the next few weeks. (Yes, 6 months and counting).

Here’s the timeline breakdown:
- HAP applications are takings about 6-7 weeks just to review. We applied Apr 10th with May 1st as the start date.
- most LLs balk at HAP as they need to be fully tax complaint, provide a lot of ‘proofs’, such as LPT, RTB, bank accounts etc. If you are a HAP LL, your nose is very clean!
- The application was approved at the end of June (two months with tenant fretting and me without rent - tenant eventually paid one month) and missed the pay day (final Wednesday or each month) so I didn’t see any money from Limerick until end July.
- they paid the 3 months and I refunded the tenant
- a week or two later we did the inspection - it’s exactly as the poster above said. I only needed the (RTB compliant) window restrictors.
- had 6 weeks to sort that and applied for the re-inspection last week.

Honestly, overall the process it’s a total PITA, and the rent payments in arrears is utter BS. The HAP info leaflet is a far cry from reality for the LL, bordering on misinformation.

The most frustrating part was waiting for the application to be reviewed, without any contact from anyone, or any idea where my mortgage was going to come from, for over 3 whole months.

If it wasn’t a sitting tenant, I simply would do it again.

Typo?
Presumably HAP offices are under resourced to differing degrees in some areas, can you say what office you were dealing with?

Gumbo

Stop moaning ffs wrote: »

All doable. Thanks a million!

Except the gas boiler work.
Has to be RGI Registered.

Gumbo

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Typo?
Presumably HAP offices are under resourced to differing degrees in some areas, can you say what office you were dealing with?

HAP is centralised from limerick for the whole country I thought.

The_Conductor

kceire wrote: »

Except the gas boiler work.
Has to be RGI Registered.

In the OP's case- the kitchen is going to be a massive issue.

beauf

karenalot wrote: »

There is a huge amount of misinformation floating around on this forum about HAP. Mostly coming from people who are not HAP landlords and are relaying anecdotes rather than personal experience.

It's worth correcting it so. Personally I find these threads very informative. You just have to filter out the noise and read between the lines.

lawrencesummers

kceire wrote: »

HAP is centralised from limerick for the whole country I thought.

My understanding is that the payments are done through limerick but the local authorities have an office that handles the approvals and house certifications.