Can we renovate a rented house?

WonkyGlasses · 09-02-2021 9:32pm #1

Hi, so myself and my OH are in the talks about moving in together as we would like to start a family and living at home with our parents isn’t feasible. We have started looking at rented houses in our price range online and have noticed that while spacious and a good price, the interiors are a bit of an eyesore, things like dingy red old fashioned carpet and old fashioned furniture. I was wondering if anyone who’s renting would know if it’s possible to do up the house to the way you want it as in new carpets and furniture, or would my landlord have a massive issue with this. Bare in mind the house we choose will hopefully be our home for the foreseeable future and we would like make it our own as much as we can or else it wouldn’t really feel like home if you get me?

Faith · 09-02-2021 10:19pm

It depends on the landlord, but most would be slow to agree, tbh. In Ireland, longterm renting is not a thing the way it is elsewhere. Unfortunately, many landlords here are very overprotective of their shįtty houses and wouldn't take a chance on having to do extra work down the line. They way they'd be thinking is, when you move out, they might have to redo the whole place if you make a mess of it. They're rather control it by refusing to let you make any changes and that's their prerogative. Given most tenants stay relatively short-term (less than 5 years, say), it could be more hassle than it's worth for a landlord.

You can look for unfurnished properties, but they're rare. I've negotiated replacing furniture by promising to leave the replacement furniture when I move out, or storing the old furniture at my expense and putting it back when I move out. Some landlords will remove furniture, but it depends on whether they have anywhere to put it. Sadly, the majority of properties are what look to be inherited houses, where the elderly occupant has either died or moved into a granny flat or something, and the landlord just leaves all the old furniture and decoration in place. Others are investment properties furnished with the cheapest items to save money.

It's all part and parcel of renting in Ireland, unfortunately! It's why we're all mad to buy, I reckon. In other countries, you can take on long-term leases and make changes ranging from paint to structural work with very little input from a landlord, but we don't have that.

That being said, it's always worth asking! I've had one landlord who didn't give a shíte what we did with the house, and another who wouldn't let us hang pictures on the walls in case we damaged them. So you never know unless you ask

WonkyGlasses · 10-02-2021 1:23am

Thanks so much for replying. Yeah it’s just a bit ridiculous to be paying money to rent and you can’t even have the house the way you want it. We’d buy it we could but we just can’t afford it. Yeah I suppose it’s all gonna depend on what type of landlord we get. All of the houses we’ve looked at are all furnished and we were thinking of asking the landlord we get if we’re able to store the furniture somewhere else. They all have beds in the bedrooms and were going to need to turn one of the bedrooms into a nursery (all going well that we do end up having a baby) so we’re definitely going to need that bed removed so I don’t know what the stance will be on that. I suppose I’ll just have to ask and see how I get on. Thanks again for your response. It helped a lot

LenWoods · 11-02-2021 11:48am

If you were to plan to have three kids instead of one then you could forget about renting and apply to the council for a free house, used to be one kid to qualify back in the 80's then they had to increase it to two kids got you a free house and now it's three to reduce the list a bit.
When renting get it solely in the female partner's name too as that will be of benefit when the baby comes along as she can avail of rent allowance as a single mother, Aslong as you don't sign the birth certificate,

We rented for six years before getting a mortgage back in 2006 and then having kids followed by getting married to gain the wife's tax credits as she's a full time job stay at home mother now due to cost of child care outweiging her level of income.
It's not worth her while working.
From 2000-2006 our landlord used to allow us discount the rent if we produced receipts for paint and DIY materials,
Every landlord is different, calculate wisely though as kids get more expensive as they get older, rent gets higher while mortgage gets lower, kids also reduce your chance of getting a mortgage in the future as the level of miselanious expenditure is reduced overall the struggle is real but equal for everyone,
Can always retire in the west of Ireland around knock or Leitrim where the houses are bought for fifteen to twenty thousand.

FionMc · 28-02-2021 11:35pm

But its not legally going to be your home. It belongs to the landlord. And you wont be able to take any new furnishing or fittings with you that you pay to have put in. I'd imagine that landlords would be thrilled at the idea that you'll renovate their property for free, but they would want to agree to the materials you use because ultimately they will need to rent it to some other person at some future time.

Can we renovate a rented house?

Comments