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Letting a House?

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  • 04-08-2004 4:33pm
    #1
    Raskolnikov
    Registered Users Posts: 10,148 ✭✭✭✭


    My parents were letting a house to a couple in Co. Mayo, the couple cut and ran a month ago after trashing the house and getting into arrears with their rent by €1,000. No rent agreement, lease or contract was ever signed and everything was done informally. After this unpleasant experience and my criticism (!) of their handling of the affair, they've decided to put the house in my hands. Unfortunately though, I know absolutely nothing about renting or letting houses! I'm wondering how to I go about making a legally binding rent agreement whereby the tenant is liable for any damage caused to the house or if they don't pay?

    If anyone has any sources or advice to help me out here I'd be grateful!


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    #2
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,387 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Ask a legal stationers for a standard lease.


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    #3
    shoegirl
    Registered Users Posts: 2,021 ✭✭✭shoegirl


    Raskolnikov wrote:
    My parents were letting a house to a couple in Co. Mayo, the couple cut and ran a month ago after trashing the house and getting into arrears with their rent by €1,000. No rent agreement, lease or contract was ever signed and everything was done informally. After this unpleasant experience and my criticism (!) of their handling of the affair, they've decided to put the house in my hands. Unfortunately though, I know absolutely nothing about renting or letting houses! I'm wondering how to I go about making a legally binding rent agreement whereby the tenant is liable for any damage caused to the house or if they don't pay?

    If anyone has any sources or advice to help me out here I'd be grateful!

    Sorry to hear this has happened.

    There are a number of things you can do to prevent this from happening again:

    1. Contact one of the landlord's associations for details of standard rent agreements. You may be able to find examples on the net, you must list the rnt amount, what is included and not included, and reasonable terms and conditions, such as notice period, etc, how you will collect rent

    2. Next time, ask for references and check them - get a previous landlord's reference and an employer reference. If you really want to be careful, exclude students and those on rent allowance - a lot of these turn out to be bad tenants (mainly because students are mostly young and immature and RA is heavily exploited by people who just want to enjoy life at other people's expense)

    3. Get an agency to do the ground work - might work out cheaper

    4. Avoid bill payment problems by installing metres.

    5. Check you insurance to see whats covered.


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    #4
    Raskolnikov
    Registered Users Posts: 10,148 ✭✭✭✭Raskolnikov


    Thanks for the advice, information for letting in Ireland on the web is scant :(
    I did find one resource at www.let.ie on the net, maybe you can add that to the list Victor? Going to have a chinwag with a letting agent tomorrow. For those of you who're interested, letting agents have a rate of 10% + VAT.


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