Essential reading for all who rent accommodation in Sligo

Brite_Cloud · 20-01-2012 03:02PM #1

I am posting the link below because at the moment I myself am actively looking to move home in Sligo Town. And, to be honest, I have been somewhat shocked by the lack of BER certs for most properties. In my own experience this has more often been the case with Private Landlords rather than Letting Agents.

The Law >>> http://www.irishlandlord.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1593

Opinions?

Sligored · 21-01-2012 01:35AM

agreed , but as bad it is to be a prospective tenant , its worse being a landlord.

dnme · 21-01-2012 08:13PM

My own recent experiences of moving from Sligo to Galway.....I spoke to about 30 landlords enquiring about houses on daft.ie. Not a single one has a BER cert nor is registered with PRTB. Both are legal requirements.

Apart from that, I found most properties that I looked at, freezing and a little damp. Houses vacant for the past couple of months. I cannot fathom why the LL would not run the oil for 10 mins in the morning and evening to keep the damp out of the house (in most cases their own family homes that they are now letting due to changes in circumstances).

I travelled to one property. When I was let in, there was a dehumidifier running and a leak coming from the bathroom ceiling. I just think the ante needs to be raised, this is from my own very recent experiences.

As it happens, in the end I found a lovely cottage near Athenry, great landlord, PRTB registered etc. Just took a fair bit of time, but my god the cowboys and cash addicts that I met along the way....

SligoLady · 25-01-2012 12:22PM

There have been so many legal requirements brought out in the past few years that the costs of having an investment property have racked up very quickly(NPPR €200 per annum, PRTB €70-90 per tenancy, BER €130-170, ETCI €130-220 and the new €100 property tax to mention a few!), that coupled with the fact that most landlords are in negative equity and are struggling to cover their mortgages means that the majority of landlords have not bothered to get a BER done on their property until their hand is forced, ie. Council doing their job and checking for it.

When the BER law was brought out, there was a huge surge in people paying approx. €2000 to train as an Energy Assessor, who were thinking that everyone who was selling or letting a property would be getting them done and there would be a ton of work. Very quickly, landlords/ vendors realised there wasn't anyone to check the BER's were done (just the council, who randomly select a few properties from estate agents etc and request the reports.. in 3 years, I was asked to produce 12 out of over 100 properties on the books) so no one bothered getting the BER's and now, 3 years later, there are a lot of jobless Energy Assessors!

It's a great idea in theory but it hasn't worked very well in practice unfortunately.

dnme · 25-01-2012 12:57PM

As a tennant I want to know roughly what my fuel bills are going to be. The cost of a BER is trivial, if you cannot afford it, you are already in deep deep trouble. Its a legal requirement. Ive rented houses where, upon going uo into the attic to check I have found little or no insulation. The price of home heating in no longer something that can be considered lightly.

If a landlord is renting an investment property, then they are speculators who need to understand the "up as well as down" principle. Personally, I do not think property should be traded as a commodity. If peopple want to trade and invest, let them buy stocks and shares in whatever, just not property. Property is a basic human need and right. When you get into property speculating and trading, you destroy communities, drive out young people from the affodrability line and transfer wealth from the many to the few. Not to mention the fallout of where Ireland is today.

BER is a legal requirement. I think an easy way to approach the enforcement of such would be to apply leglislation at the agent / advertisement level. Perhaps make it a requirement produce a BER cert before an individual or agent is allowed to advertise a property.

Finally, can you imagine how competitive a property with a good BER would be amongst the miriad of properties availabel right now. I'd jump at a B+. The investment in insulation and the cert would pay for itself.

Don't even get me started on the environment. Its about time we stopped buring fossil fuels up chimneys, through cold walls and ceilings etc. The environment is the bigger picture. Of course being Irish we just never seem to care!

SligoLady · 25-01-2012 01:42PM

dnme wrote: »

The cost of a BER is trivial, if you cannot afford it, you are already in deep deep trouble.
Personally, I do not think property should be traded as a commodity. If peopple want to trade and invest, let them buy stocks and shares in whatever, just not property. Property is a basic human need and right. When you get into property speculating and trading, you destroy communities, drive out young people from the affodrability line and transfer wealth from the many to the few. Not to mention the fallout of where Ireland is today.

As I said, most landlords are in negative equity and barely able to cover their mortgage and ARE in deep, deep trouble. Don't be ignorant to the fact that Ireland became property obsessed for a number of years and anyone who had a bit of money bought property. It was seen as the best kind of investment for a long time. Now the value of their property has completely collapsed and they are in serious negative equity, rent values are way down from the peak and they have been bombarded with new legislation and extra costs over the past couple of years. Do you honestly think that anyone who bought an investment property in the past 10 years is glad that they did or relish the fact that they now own a probably shoddily built apartment that instead of making them money will cost them thousands? With this in mind, most landlords are just trying to make ends meet and if they are not asked to produce a BER then why would they fork out for it? I have accompanied hundreds of prospective renters on viewings and I have been asked about a BER maybe once or twice.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not excusing the landlords, I'm simply trying to show you their very understandable point of view. I do agree that we are now more conscious than ever of energy effiency and how much our fuel will cost and it is a good idea to have BER's on every property on the market - it's just that the government/ councils clearly don't have the time, money or staff at the moment to check every single property on the market. I do feel that it will be enforced a bit better in years to come when our economy has stabilised and we are able to focus on things like this rather than just clearing our national debts. It's just obviously not at the top of the list at the moment.

dnme · 25-01-2012 01:50PM

Thanks for the reply SligoLady, I'm guesing from your responses that you may be an agent and will therefore have a particular view, which I guess is understandable. But I refer you back to my post #5. I'll leave it at that.

SligoLady · 25-01-2012 02:22PM

Yes, I am an agent and it's not my own view as such, it's how I know a lot of landlords view the situation and I'm simply trying to give you a few reasons as to why they may not have a BER.
Believe me, I also understand prospective tenants/ buyers views and I am all too aware of the amount of properties out there that have been poorly built and are damp with little or no insulation/ ventilation and it's a very bad state of affairs really.
I know first hand how horrible it is to live in a cold, damp property with your money literally going up in flames trying to heat it so I am agreeing that BER's are important and should be readily available to tenants/ buyers at viewings and perhaps in time, it will become the norm, however, I think it's going to be a long time before things stabilise and we can afford to fix all the poorly built properties out there.

dingding · 25-01-2012 10:59PM

I would have concerns about the accuracy of BER certs, they may be carried out by people who are not trained in construction putting figures into a computer application.

I had one done on an appartment and the advice for improvement was dubious at the least.

Are there any audits of inspectors to ensure consistency across providers.

Slidey · 25-01-2012 11:35PM

dingding wrote: »

I would have concerns about the accuracy of BER certs, they may be carried out by people who are not trained in construction putting figures into a computer application.

I had one done on an appartment and the advice for improvement was dubious at the least.

Are there any audits of inspectors to ensure consistency across providers.

^

This. I considered getting a BER done on my gaff but from what I read about it the results could vary greatly

Bustler · 26-01-2012 12:41AM

Very true.

At the moment I have a fantastic ll, she's great with repairs, ensured there was oil in the tank when we moved in and that the heating was on when the house was empty. She is a private ll, and not registered though, so we have lucked out.

Mixed experience previously, rented from an EA on Quay St., who shall remain nameless, but have heard very bad things about them since. We rented out a house from them, freshly painted, I was 8mo pregnant at the time and they were fully aware of this. Within weeks the walls were covered in mould, and I reported them, and moved out, with a newborn. Fun.

Painted themselves as a family business, always saying 'God bless you' when I went to complain to them. had a very hard time getting my deposit back off them, the ll was NOT registered, the boiler was unsafe....Made what should have been a nice time in my life very stressful and difficult.

An agency I rented off a few times that I would recommenend is Oates Breheny. Very professional, sometimes a little slow with repairs, but no serious complaints.

AMG86 · 01-02-2012 11:05PM

If a landlord or agent has a BER cert for a property it should make it easier to rent. It should give everybody some indication of what the heating costs might be. The better the BER Rating the less it should take to heat it. The A and B properties should be looked at before the Cs, Ds, etc. Good auctioneers and agents should know good, skilled assessors. This is all about giving good customer service.

Essential reading for all who rent accommodation in Sligo

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