Commuter looking for solution

tw0nk

Hi All,

I commute 5 days per week from Wexford to Sandyford, I bought a house and I am pretty much stuck with it now, so I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on a possible solution for me?

Problems:
Fuel costs (90 per week)
Time costs (3 hours per day)
No work from home available in job

Possible solutions?:
Find very cheap bedsit to stay in Tue,Wed and Thur night
Do deal with a hotel to stay these nights for v.reduced rate (anyone hear of this kind of thing?)
Rent my house and pay the difference with mortgage, then rent a house closer to work

Thanks in advance for your help/suggestions

mari2222

unless family / social ties, rent near work, try to rent out the other home

Idbatterim

try the IMI hotel (beside sandyford industrial estate, they have very reasonable rates and may do a deal) Op would you always go home at weekend, even if you had a place in Dublin? is your current house in negative equity?

The_Conductor

Personally I'd take the hit and do my damndest to offload the house in Wexford.

At present you're driving for 15 hours a week, ontop of fuel costs of another hundred- not to mention vehicle depreciation etc. In my eyes- the 15 hours a week is the significant part of this equation, ignoring everything else......

Of your possible options:

1. You are not going to find someone willing to give you a bedsit for 3 nights a week- its just not going to happen. You will find loads of people willing to do 5 nights a week though?

2, Hotels will in general do a reduced rate for repeat visitors- which can be as much as 50% off their list rates. On the basis of a 3 night week- you are not going to get someone to guarantee you a room- and at times of trade shows, etc- its possible that you might find your room gone- though if you're doing this indefinitely- they will go that extra mile to be as good as they possibly can.

3. Rent your house out and pay the difference in mortgage?
Its not as simple as that unfortunately.

Any rental income is taxable income, after allowable deductions- the rate of tax dependent on any other income you might have.

You cannot offset renting one house against letting another (though you can claim a credit for renting the new home)

You loose your TRS on your mortgage and are automatically moved to an investor mortgage (this was not being enforced rigorously heretofore, but the lending institutions are becoming nazis at squeezing every last possible cent from you)

You have all the baggage that comes with letting your property- registering the tenancy, satisfying any concerns the tenants might have, complying with all your legal obligations under the 2004 Residential Tenancies Act, tax returns etc

Its entirely possible that there may not be a year round demand for your property- in which case you have significant vacant periods, during which you still need to provide for the upkeep of the property etc.


Personally- I'd accept that buying the property was a mistake, sell it, convert the negative equity into a term loan and rent in Dublin.......

iguana

I agree about doing what you can to sell the house. In the mean time another option is to rent a room in a house share near your work. Obviously it would be hit and miss in terms of what flatmates are out there but financially you could rent a room for less a month than you are spending on petrol.

Jo King

You might get a deal from a householder to allow you stay three nights a week. Another option might be the half share. I have heard of it in Galway. The idea is that you find someone who comes to Dublin at weekends. You both jointly take one room in a shared house, one staying midweek and the other at weekends. The two are treated as one party to the houseshare, Can be very economical.

antiskeptic

tw0nk wrote: »

Hi All,

I commute 5 days per week from Wexford to Sandyford, I bought a house and I am pretty much stuck with it now, so I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions on a possible solution for me?

Problems:
Fuel costs (90 per week)
Time costs (3 hours per day)
No work from home available in job

It's not at all ususual for a Dublin commute to take an hour each way and weekly fuel costs to work totallying 50 quid. You're 5 hours and 40 quid worse off than a situation lots of Dubliners face. Just to put it in context.

Given the potential expenses involved for you, would it be better to move work down to where you live?

gabria

Search on daft to see if there are any people owning or renting two bed apartments to themselves, but would have no problem renting their spare room for a few midwk nights a week. They may occasionally let you stay more time for free if they were away a few days and wanted minder for their house

eimhin.ennis

check the house-shares on daft : i'd imagine you'd be an ideal housemate - only there midweek, not around at the weekends making noise and having mates over, and employed. could prob negotiate a good discount if you agreed never to be there at weekends.... maybe ask around at work - someone who knows someone might be interested in this arrangement but not willing to advertise for a 7day tenant , would want the place to themselves at the weekend.... etc etc

Monife

+1 on daft and the "Sharing" section.

Just had a quick nosey there and you can get a single room in Dundrum/Sandyford for €230 per month. There is plenty available and you could view a few places and try and strike a deal where you can pay a bit less and stay only midweek, some might jump at the offer especially if it is just the 2 of you, because they would have the place to themselves at the weekend.

tw0nk

thanks so much for all replies, I tried ringing a few hotels today, they best rate I could get was 50 per night, 3x50x4 = 600

I took a look on daft under sharing section and definitely an interesting option, depending on how nice the people are.

Myself and the OH discussed it tonight and think renting a house might be the best option. We are kind of lucky that our mortgage is only around 700 p/m so even if we had to rent a house without renting out our own, it wouldnt be too much of a burden on us.

Im sure there are a lot of people in the same situation as me, I was kind of surprised when I began looking that there wasnt a mid-week renting solution available. There are a few guys in work who travel from UK to Dub for work, arrive Monday morn, head back Friday evening. Seems like there might be a market for it.

Victor

Get train / bus and sleep / read / listen on the way.

Finnegans of Bray have a bus from Bray to Sandyford or alternatively route 114 Blackrock-Sandyford.

Idbatterim

op does your other half live in Dublin?

Tigger

swap houses, someone should set up a system where people swap houses like that holiday thing except for a year at a time

Home exchange simply means that you and your family agree with a family from a different area to live in each other's homes during your holiday. The length of the holiday exchange is entirely up to you. Only have a free weekend? Arrange a weekend exchange. No money changes hands between the exchangers so you can have free accommodation anywhere in the world.

like this except for everyday accomodation makes sense with all the people that will wanna move but can't and a rent and rent out scheme would be tax inefficient for people struggling with morgages

it'd need to be a me to you to him to her to me type arrangement to accomodate (sic) everyone


its soo crazy it just might work

look this is similar
http://www.globalpacificvacationhomes.com/listings/quickSearch.php?search_level=Country&search_area=Ireland&search_category=exchange

except for town - town rather than country to country