Rent allowance, landlords

compaqlaptop1

Can someone explain the rent allownce system to me in that some landords won't take it because they have to be registered? Is this correct? Registered with who? Are they dodging tax hence why they can't take rent allowance?

Dymo

Landlords are under no obligation to accept rent allowance, and since civil liberties decided to pay the money directly to the tenant instead of the landlord a lot of rent has gone unpaid. Before it was a safe bet talking on a tenant with rent allowance as the landlord was guaranteed the rent being paid but now its very difficult to get paid.

All landlords have to be legally registered with the PRTB.

edellc

Dymo wrote: »

Landlords are under no obligation to accept rent allowance, and since civil liberties decided to pay the money directly to the tenant instead of the landlord a lot of rent has gone unpaid. Before it was a safe bet talking on a tenant with rent allowance as the landlord was guaranteed the rent being paid but now its very difficult to get paid.

All landlords have to be legally registered with the PRTB.

Dont be so ridicules all tenants want are to live in good accommodation for a reasonable and fair price and to have a decent landlord these however are few and far between lots of tenants are getting screwed by LL not giving deposits back and taking their sweet arse time fixing things

There is no obligation for a LL to accept RA and a lot of LL don't even bother to register with the PRTB we in Ireland really need a to have a complete overhaul of the system and for proper rules and laws that are enforceable to be introduced so both parties don't get screwed

Whether you are on RA or paying out of your own wages who says you are going to hand it over in rent??? there are people like this in every walk of life not just on SW there are lots of people today through no fault of their own find themselves on SW and in desperate need of RA in order to survive and way to many LL not accepting it as they dont want to declare their rental income so dont have to pay tax on it

People should be judged on who they are and not if they are on social welfare

ricman

A landlord has to fill in alot of forms to get ra, in most cases its not to do with tax avoidance.
IN many cases its easier to rent to a person working full time on a good salary.I think theres plenty of units avaidable for rent allowance clients ,but many are over the ra limits ,a single person on ra has to look at flats or bedsits under 100 euros per week, approx.

shoegirl

The problem, especially in the cities, from what I can see is not so much landlords not taking RA but the vast majority of rents are well above the RA limits for the designated "family" size (eg in Dublin even studios are 600-800 a month - well over the RA limit, and REAL apartments tend to be 750+. As a result there is huge competition for a relatively small amount of affordable accomodation which makes it extremely hard for tenants and easy for landlords to be picky.

I don't know what planet the ESRI myth comes from that the "average" rent is 800 pm, it must be 800 per person, because a huge chunk of 2/3 bed units even outside Dublin are above this level.

The trouble with a lot of the cheaper stuff is that landlords cut corners to bring down the advertised rent, then pile on extra charges for waste, etc.

The landlords are mostly ok but might prefer to have self-paying tenants they can more easily gouge in future with extortionate rent increases, as this isn't really possible for RA tenants right now.

compaqlaptop1

ricman wrote: »

A landlord has to fill in alot of forms to get ra, in most cases its not to do with tax avoidance.
IN many cases its easier to rent to a person working full time on a good salary.I think theres plenty of units avaidable for rent allowance clients ,but many are over the ra limits ,a single person on ra has to look at flats or bedsits under 100 euros per week, approx.

You say in most cases it is not to do with tax avoidance...so in some cases it is then? I just want to know if a landlord accepts rent allowance tenants will he then be liable for paying tax that he otherwise wouldn't have?

shoegirl

compaqlaptop1 wrote: »

You say in most cases it is not to do with tax avoidance...so in some cases it is then? I just want to know if a landlord accepts rent allowance tenants will he then be liable for paying tax that he otherwise wouldn't have?

No, he was always "liable" to pay tax, regardless on who or what was renting the unit, the problem for RA tenants (and in fact, self paying tenants who insist on having their rights met, such as PRTB registration and getting tax relief) is that there is no way of claiming without making the identity of the landlord and the fact that the place is rented known to the state.

In a state where there is no audit of building use or occupancy, the only way up until a few of years ago of knowing if a building was in use for renting was if the landlord themselves declared it to be so. Even now the onus is on the landlord to register with PRTB - incredible as it may sound, PRTB don't look at a form, see "flat 10" and realise, "as yes there are 9 other flats in that building unregistered, lets check them up", they will simply register the one flat and leave it at that. If the PRTB expires, likewise they don't turn up at your door to check if the place is still on the register!

This did partly change with the 2nd property tax, it at least meant that the identity of investment residiential property owners is now known, although I don't think it makes any note of the actual use. I suspect this is why there was such an underestimate of the actual level of investment involvement in residential property until that point.

You'd be surprised at the bare faced cheek of some cowboy property owners. I rented from one "main street" seemingly legit estate agent in East Cork some years back. We discovered when we went to get our tax form signed that not only was the place effectively owned by the OWNER of the estate agent, he wasn't declaring it for tax! So you can imagine that "don't ask, don't tell" is still common.