Landlord wants more money if using rent allowance

slowmoe

My sister who is a single mother found a new place to live and they agreed the rent would be 1000 a month. Its a tiny tiny house but sure she's happy. Anyhow when she confirmed with landlord she would be paying by rent allowance he said he'd forgotten and wants 1200 if she's getting rent allowance.

So my question is can the landlord legally do it? Whether its rent allowance or not he is still getting paid?

Giblet

Have they agreed with a lease? If not, your sister should look elsewhere. If he's like this now, he'll only get worse.

OS119

Giblet wrote: »

Have they agreed with a lease? If not, your sister should look elsewhere. If he's like this now, he'll only get worse.

thats my advice too - you could make an argument that the LL is doing the same thing as a credit card company does when they take on a more 'risky' customer - but the truth is that in the current market she'll find other properties without the RA 'surcharge' and what will probably turn out to be a catalogue of hassle. the LL doesn't really want to deal with your sister - as is his right - but he needs to find someone else to pay his mortgage...

ricman

i think the ra limit for single mothers,is around 930 per month, she should go to centrecare or focuspoint .They give out lists of houses, apartments for rent every day that take rent allowance tenants.FOCUSPOINT templebar opens at half eleven,centrepoint at ten am weekdays as far as i know.
centrecare is in cathredral st, just off oconnell st,dublin1.IE just go past the tax office, it s on the left about 30 yards down,opposite the church.
She should not be paying over the ra limit.ITS not legal for the landlord to say i forgot ,you are on ra ,can you pay me an extra 200 euro, to get an ra tenant he has to sign ,fill in a form from the hse,i,m taking on this person as a tenant under the rent allowance system.

keithm1

Tell him to stick it
Shell find somewhere else without any of that nonsense

slowmoe

she wants to be near parents and there isnt much small rented proeperty in that area. if shes too far from our parents they wont help her out as much. she was going to be giving max ra plus 70 euro, now he wants 270 euro more. she had told him initially that she was an ra tenant, has provided good references, shes working in permanebt stable employment and her child is in creche. he said all fine, settle on 1k and then when she was meeting to give him the deposit said he had forgotten and wanted 1200 a month because shes on ra. its not like an extra deposit, this is extra money for nothing that she would never get back. she is tempted because the house is small enough for the two of them and safe

slowmoe

She also offered to sign an 18 month lease for the rent to be 930, which he considered but then said he wanted her to sign a 5yr lease!

freelancerTax

slowmoe wrote: »

She also offered to sign an 18 month lease for the rent to be 930, which he considered but then said he wanted her to sign a 5yr lease!

tell her to run away... what an offer?????
does he even live in ireland and see what the rental market is like?

Blackjack

He doesn't want her as a tenant, simple as.

She needs to find somewhere else, this place isn't going to work out, regardless of how well it suits her.

echosound

God almighty - tell her to run as fast as she can from this place.

If the landlord is creating all these weird and outrageous stipulations before she's even moved in, imagine what craziness he'll be insisting on once she's installed and tied into a 2/5 year lease :eek:

I know you say it's in the area she wants and smaller properties are not plentiful, but there has to be something else out there, even a short distance further from her ideal location (I'm sure your parents wouldn't quibble over an extra few miles as regards helping out), or even a bigger house or an apartment or something.

Why don't you post the area she's looking in and perhaps someone here will know of an alternative property your sister could look at?

slowmoe

templeogue shes looking in.

gas thing is she said if it was working out well after 6 months she wouldnt mind signing 5yr lease because its so ideal. he was behaving differently before she said shed take it, much more accomodating then.

anyhow there is no reason for an ll to ask for extra rent because its ra is there?

also she had probs with places flat out refusing to show her properties cos she was ra. She's in stable employment with good opportunities, shes even back at college part time, is from a good area has god education etc and is an ra tenant just because her relationship broke up. Is there any way to place herself in a different lgiht from the usual reputation of ra tenants like the other thread here? i think its mainly because of that sort of reputation that she has such difficulty in finding a place

echosound

No there's absolutely no logical reason for a LL to ask for extra payment from a RA tenant, although in reality LLs can ask whatever price they like and refuse any tenant TBH.

I know what you mean about some places refusing to even consider RA tenants, unfortunately that is because there is the untrue perception out there that all RA tenants are scummy lowlifes out to wreck a house and withhold rent and refuse to move out for years etc.

When your sister is arranging to view places, she should say that she is in employment and can provide an employer's reference if required, and that she is also studying part-time, and following that, she should explain that she will be in receipt of the RA because she is also a lone parent (well I am assuming that's the case).

It seems that LLs tend to look on people like your sister, or those on RA because of a disability etc. more favourably than people who are on RA due to unemployment if you know what I mean. Although thankfully I do think that attitude is changing now as so many people are finding themselves out of work through no fault of their own.

I hope your sister gets sorted, and that someone here might be able to point you to some suitable properties (I don't live in Dublin so am of no help to you there). I would just say again - do your best to dissuade your sister from entering into a lease with this landlord, it sounds like it would be a nightmare.

blobbie

Tell her to look elsewhere. LL looks like trouble with a capital T

A quick look @ daft lettings returns 20 options in Dublin 6w for 1k or less.

Bob Z

Either he doesn't want rent allowance or he is being greedy. Either she should move out. I'd say if anything breaks he will take a while to replace it or blame her

a good landlord is just as important as a good place

slowmoe

There might be twenty places but a lot are studios or one beds and in harolds cross, terenure etc. There are only 6 places in Templeogue and the one thats under 1000 wouldn't return her emails or phone call.

Actually a lot of places she contacted wouldn't return emails or calls. You'd think there was tons of tenants out there :rolleyes:

Tbh i think he's being greedy because initially when she told him it would be ra he had no probs but when she went to give the deposit he claimed to have forgotten and wanted more. I'll try to talk her out of this place anyhow as i think the general consensus of the landlord to be avoided is correct.

Also i have seen on another thread the discussion of being passed for ra or having a housing need. She hasn't mentioned that to me so i don't know if she's gone through the process, how long does that take? I thought you had to move in before applying but i guess its different for single parent ra?

And to the poster that asked how she is getting ra, yes its because she is a single parent, she is working part time and in college part time