Only Professionals need Apply?

Copper

Was looking at renting a house and many ads have "would suit professional" or "only professionals need apply". What exactly does this mean and why is it so important to the landlord that hes unwilling to rent the property to a "non-professional"?

"...the adjective professional identified somebody recognized for expertise or skill in a craft or activity. In narrow usage, not all expertise is considered a profession. Although sometimes referred to as professions, such occupations as skilled construction work are more generally thought of as trades or crafts." (wikipedia.com)

Silverfish

What they mean in this usage of the word 'Professional' is people who have a profession - i.e are in permanent employment and can pay rent on time and in full.

stepbar

in other words no students / bums need apply. Professionals aka PAYE / self employed workers

DonkeyStyle \o/

"Professional" to me suggests "college educated high earner".
Personally I think it's a marketing trick to make the property seem exclusive and upmarket... possibly to mask the fact that it's in a shítty area.
But then I'm a bit cynical.
Maybe it's just a nice way of saying 'no tinkers please'.

Silverfish

Not true - I've been renting in Dublin 11 years, and for at least 5 of those years I was not a college educated high earner, in fact, for a year of that I was working in Centra.

Still got apartments / houses that were for professionals only - because I had a job. It doesn't matter what job really.

Employed with guaranteed earnings basically..

Brian Capture

You're all wrong.

The term refers to 'professional sportspersons'.

I remember looking at a flat in Mount Merrion in the late 1990s and the landlord asked me what sport did I play. I said golf and he asked 'Are you on the tour or a club professional?'

When I said I was a 15 handicapper in Deer Park he quickly terminated the conversation and said he would 'get back' to me.

Never heard from him again.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Silverfish wrote:

Not true

Well, I was just saying that's what I'd think of the term "professional" in general use, personally.
I don't doubt that in this context it's used more as a gentle euphemism for the vulgarity that is "steady income required"... but it's in my bitter and twisted nature to look for more evil motives for such things... and I have fun doing that... so 'go me'.

BC

On somewhere like daft professional basically means no students. I have advertised 3 rooms on daft over the past 4 years. I have always put 'professionals only' in the ad, meaning no students or people who don't have a job.

shoegirl

"Professional" is usually a euphemism for "must have a job."

Students are not welcome usually because they often only rent from October to June and a lot of landlords don't take rent allowance recipients because they don't declare tax and revenue would catch them out if they took them.

Sometimes it does mean that the landlord wants a more respectable tenant but often it does indicate a tax-dodger.

Philbert

Or a professional could mean...

"One Refined Young Lady Clerk"

According to this muppet of a landlord. :rolleyes:

So let me see, the tenant must be..

1. Female (but a "Lady")
2. Young
3. Refined
4. A Clerk of some sort.
5. Most likely single.

leeroybrown

I would think that from a landlord or letting agency's point of view a professional is someone who has a decent job and more money than time. They are consequently unlikely to be running parties, annoying the neighbours or thrashing the place and if the landlord is really lucky they'll be sufficiently busy with life/work that they'll spend barely any time there. In late August and September it definitely means no students.

That said some formal or smart casual work clothes and a reasonable looking work reference generally gets anyone who could be bothered trying one of these properties.

sweetie

Philbert wrote:

Or a professional could mean...

"One Refined Young Lady Clerk"

According to this muppet of a landlord. :rolleyes:

Ha ha ha!
And they only put up a picture of the front gate!

The_Conductor

shoegirl wrote:

"Professional" is usually a euphemism for "must have a job."

Students are not welcome usually because they often only rent from October to June and a lot of landlords don't take rent allowance recipients because they don't declare tax and revenue would catch them out if they took them.

Sometimes it does mean that the landlord wants a more respectable tenant but often it does indicate a tax-dodger.

While students may not be considered prime tenants for a property- because of the seasonal nature of their tenancy- it is unfair in this day and age to suggest that tax dodging landlords are the reason that they are not fond of rent-allowance recipients. From experience, rent allowance recipients *can* be a lot more demanding than regular tenants- and may also thanks to the vagaries of the Irish banking system, be more likely to pay the rent late. Each and every tenant is entitled to a rent book- and where one is not supplied, or where a tenant feels that a landlord is "a tax-dodger" they can simply report them to the PTRB and/or the Revenue Commissioners. It would be a very foolhardy landlord who tried to "dodge-tax" on their rental income these days......

I dispute your claim that an advertisement for "Professionals only" is in any manner whatsoever indicative of an attempt by a landlord to dodge tax. If you have any *recent* examples of this- feel free to post about them (in a non-identifying manner) and we can discuss further.

I would have to agree 100% with leeroybrown's summation of what "Professionals Only" means to the average landlord.

lifesucks

i saw an ad that said 'no gays or italians' the other day??!!

The_Conductor

lifesucks wrote:

i saw an ad that said 'no gays or italians' the other day??!!

Thats the landlords perogative- I'd love to see him try to explain that to the equality tribunal though......

Seriously though- I was refused a flat in Frankfurt because I was Irish (no other reason)- there is a lot of predudice out there.......

Dudess

Philbert wrote:

Or a professional could mean...

"One Refined Young Lady Clerk"

According to this muppet of a landlord. :rolleyes:

Wow! It's got a microwave!!! :rolleyes:
And it's on North Circular Road in Fairview - wow! Must be massive!

Clearly a person is going to say to themselves "yeah, I think I'll shell out €560 a month for that." Mr/Ms Landlord - you sir/madame, are an idiot. :rolleyes:

lifesucks

smccarrick wrote:

Thats the landlords perogative- I'd love to see him try to explain that to the equality tribunal though......

Seriously though- I was refused a flat in Frankfurt because I was Irish (no other reason)- there is a lot of predudice out there.......

It was on daft... there was already was an italian living in the house and perhaps they didnt want it to end up with two italian and an irish or sumut but i cudnt see how they cud explain the gay one unless one of them was gat and they did it for the same reason why they didnt want another italian....

You notice on daft all the time that apartment shares will always say stuff like
"No brazilians"/"no Polish"

and then further reading will find out that there's one brazilian one polish and an australian girl already living there.

i just don't understand it...

The_Conductor

Deleted User wrote:

You notice on daft all the time that apartment shares will always say stuff like
"No brazilians"/"no Polish"

and then further reading will find out that there's one brazilian one polish and an australian girl already living there.

i just don't understand it...

Maybe they figure that if another person from their country is living with them- that they would be speaking Portuguese (I think they speak Portuguese in Brazil- correct me if I am wrong someone) or Polish all the time- instead of improving their English? Just a thought.....

japanpaul

smccarrick wrote:

Maybe they figure that if another person from their country is living with them- that they would be speaking Portuguese (I think they speak Portuguese in Brazil- correct me if I am wrong someone) or Polish all the time- instead of improving their English? Just a thought.....

My wife is Japanese and she doesn't want to share with other Japanese for exactly the same reason. Our Korean flatmate is the same, he wants to speak English while he's here so prefers to share with people from different countries.

You notice on daft all the time that apartment shares will always say stuff like
"No brazilians"/"no Polish"

and then further reading will find out that there's one brazilian one polish and an australian girl already living there.

i just don't understand it...

Obviously they don't want to speak their own language at home. When I lived in Spain I avoided flats with English speakers for that reason. It's not really racist or anything. An Irish bloke saying 'no gays/ no Chinese' or something is more questionable. Although I thought it was legal for the owner or current occupants to decide who they wanted, racist or not. A lot of people in Spain didn't want to share with foreigners, and said so.

I always assumed landlords don't want students mainly cos they don't trust them and think they'll wreck the place, have parties, not pay the rent etc. It's pretty annoying looking at ads just to find out they're "professionals only" which most of them seem to be