Asking landlord for rent reduction ?

piperh

Sitting here with a friend and we were looking through daft.ie and she realised 3 houses in her estate were for rent at €175 a mnth less than she's paying :eek: She's a long term tennant on part 4 tenancy. She's considering asking for a rent reduction but wonders if it will affect her tenancy rights, and how likely the ll is to agree to it.

Are rents going up or down? Any thoughts on if her tenancy will be affected.

Graces7

piperh wrote: »

Sitting here with a friend and we were looking through daft.ie and she realised 3 houses in her estate were for rent at €175 a mnth less than she's paying :eek: She's a long term tennant on part 4 tenancy. She's considering asking for a rent reduction but wonders if it will affect her tenancy rights, and how likely the ll is to agree to it.

Are rents going up or down? Any thoughts on if her tenancy will be affected.

Ask by all means, but make sure you are not threatening to leave... don't be confrontational..

piperh

Graces7 wrote: »

Ask by all means, but make sure you are not threatening to leave... don't be confrontational..

Its not me Grace i don't rent. But she is the least confrontational person i have ever met... people walk all over her. She's not interestd in leaving as she loves her house and has put a lot of her own money and time into it.

biko

Have her mail the landlord instead of speaking over the phone.
She can formulate the question better than over the phone and also will have a paper trail.

Graces7

piperh wrote: »

Its not me Grace i don't rent. But she is the least confrontational person i have ever met... people walk all over her. She's not interestd in leaving as she loves her house and has put a lot of her own money and time into it.

Ah, doormat! lol!

I was like that until a few rentalsago..

And yes as the next post says, email or write, saying what you have done here.

There surely is no danger of evicition etc, so don't let fear deter a wise question.

Good luck

Graces7

PS daft is addictive!

djimi

When on a part 4 you are entitled to a rent review once a year. If there are a number of houses for rent in the same estate (and in the same condition) as the house she is in then Id say she has a good case to request a rent decrease.

piperh

biko wrote: »

Have her mail the landlord instead of speaking over the phone.
She can formulate the question better than over the phone and also will have a paper trail.

Will do, i think she was intending on texting him to ask so she didn't have to face him lol :rolleyes:

Graces7 wrote: »

Ah, doormat! lol!

I was like that until a few rentalsago..

And yes as the next post says, email or write, saying what you have done here.

There surely is no danger of evicition etc, so don't let fear deter a wise question.

Good luck

Graces7 wrote: »

PS daft is addictive!

Hehe yes it is Grace hubby keeps telling me we can't afford to buy again so no point in looking, but when i find bargains like a 2 living room 5 bdrm 4bthrm house with a 1 acre garden including dog runs for €250,000 i can't resist showing him lol :P

djimi wrote: »

When on a part 4 you are entitled to a rent review once a year. If there are a number of houses for rent in the same estate (and in the same condition) as the house she is in then Id say she has a good case to request a rent decrease.

Thanks djimi i'll show her these posts and maybe she'll pluck up the courage, she's been paying the same rent since 2004.

quaalude

piperh wrote: »

Sitting here with a friend and we were looking through daft.ie and she realised 3 houses in her estate were for rent at €175 a mnth less than she's paying :eek: She's a long term tennant on part 4 tenancy. She's considering asking for a rent reduction but wonders if it will affect her tenancy rights, and how likely the ll is to agree to it.

Are rents going up or down? Any thoughts on if her tenancy will be affected.

She should absolutely ask for a reduction.

If the landlord doesn't comply, he will get the message that she will leave for one of these houses nearby, and he will be left with an empty house that he be forced to rent for cheaper anyway, to compete with the other vacant gaffs nearby.

Also - she doesn't have to sign another lease for a year if she doesn't want to - I know loads of people who have gotten rent reductions while on Part 4 Tenancy and stayed on Part 4 Tenancy.

Graces7

Would love to ask for a rent reduction for these same resons, but as we are on Rent Allowance, it would not be of any benefit to us at all at all as we would still pay the same amount ourselves.

quaalude

Graces7 wrote: »

Would love to ask for a rent reduction for these same resons, but as we are on Rent Allowance, it would not be of any benefit to us at all at all as we would still pay the same amount ourselves.

...and this is part of the problem of rent allowance - the artificial floor it creates, making it more expensive for all renters, and benefiting the landlords only.

Graces7

quaalude wrote: »

...and this is part of the problem of rent allowance - the artificial floor it creates, making it more expensive for all renters, and benefiting the landlords only.

Alternatives? Realistic ones I mean!

We pay the same so it is not in fact more expensive for renters...

Lowering the limits as recently done has made vulnerable people homeless. That is not the answer in any way.

nibtrix

Graces7 wrote: »

We pay the same so it is not in fact more expensive for renters...

Oh course it is! You said that you'd love to ask for a rent reduction "for the same reasons", so presumably your landlord is getting more rent for his house than similar houses in the neighbourhood would command.
If you were a private renter then you would request a rent reduction, but because it won't effect the amount you pay you're not going to ask. Thus keeping the rate high and inflating the amount that the rent allowance has to pay to higher than what the property is worth.

I'm not having a go at you, Graces7, I have no problem with anyone getting rent allowance and you are an amazingly helpful poster on this forum. I just wanted to point out that your view that rent allowance isn't creating an artificial floor seems incorrect to me!

Graces7

nibtrix wrote: »

Oh course it is! You said that you'd love to ask for a rent reduction "for the same reasons", so presumably your landlord is getting more rent for his house than similar houses in the neighbourhood would command.
If you were a private renter then you would request a rent reduction, but because it won't effect the amount you pay you're not going to ask. Thus keeping the rate high and inflating the amount that the rent allowance has to pay to higher than what the property is worth.

I'm not having a go at you, Graces7, I have no problem with anyone getting rent allowance and you are an amazingly helpful poster on this forum. I just wanted to point out that your view that rent allowance isn't creating an artificial floor seems incorrect to me!

I do understand believe me. Not sure though; the rent here was lowered to accommodate RA when we came. It is simply that rents are lower these days. And after six moves in as many years, the thought of ....And no; not going to rock the boat here! Still waiting to see what the result of our wee rent strike is going to be! Letting us opay his electic fences is going too far...

But you see, what IS the alternative without risking either eviction OR appalling accommodation for folk already disadvantaged? The choice of accommodation for RA applicants is poor anyways. And Cork where we are is at the high end of RA limits also. The last cuts may have sorted other areas?

Not sure re an articifial floor either; no accommodation is for RA folk ONLY. We are in competition with other folk and have the same powere

Did not know then that the LL was a miser though!! This was literally the only property that was suitable at our rime of great need.

edellc

I just want to point out that there is a set amount for rent allowance as you all seem aware of, yet apart from those on RA no one seems aware of what the set amounts are for each county.

I know that where I am, the rent allowance you receive is lower than what the going rate is for properties similar to the one I am in

For example I am in a family unit renting for 875 a month yet the house next door with the same family unit yet their rent is 1000euro a month, we have the same landlord, she is employed I am not, at the time of the boom my house was renting for 1400, so how is my rent allowance keeping her rent high?? or anyone elses, the rent allowance limits are extremely low and trying to find somewhere that is actually liveable and that accepts rent allowance within the limits is very hard.

Rent allowance is not keeping the rent high, Landlords are plain and simple be that because they are greedy or be it because they have high mortgages due to buying in the boom who knows, but I am not the only one nor is any one else on rent allowance that keeps the rental market with high rents

The sooner people who work and pay their rents out of wages stop blaming rent allowance applicants and start actually looking at their landlords the better.

I rented privately paying rent from my wages for 10years and was to some degree under the same delusion however now I find myself unemployed and in need of RA I can see that people saying that Rent allowance is what keeps rents high is just wrong

Graces7

edellc wrote: »

I just want to point out that there is a set amount for rent allowance as you all seem aware of, yet apart from those on RA no one seems aware of what the set amounts are for each county.

I know that where I am, the rent allowance you receive is lower than what the going rate is for properties similar to the one I am in

For example I am in a family unit renting for 875 a month yet the house next door with the same family unit yet their rent is 1000euro a month, we have the same landlord, she is employed I am not, at the time of the boom my house was renting for 1400, so how is my rent allowance keeping her rent high?? or anyone elses, the rent allowance limits are extremely low and trying to find somewhere that is actually liveable and that accepts rent allowance within the limits is very hard.

Rent allowance is not keeping the rent high, Landlords are plain and simple be that because they are greedy or be it because they have high mortgages due to buying in the boom who knows, but I am not the only one nor is any one else on rent allowance that keeps the rental market with high rents

The sooner people who work and pay their rents out of wages stop blaming rent allowance applicants and start actually looking at their landlords the better.

I rented privately paying rent from my wages for 10years and was to some degree under the same delusion however now I find myself unemployed and in need of RA I can see that people saying that Rent allowance is what keeps rents high is just wrong

There is a chart; I think on Citizens's info site, that lists the limits for each area.

And thank you for an intelligent post.

Many of us are seeing properties of equal or higher grade going for less than we are paying and that does irk at times.

And of course, we have no idea from eg daft what the properties are really like. When we had some issues last year I did start seeking and being wiser re what ?? to raise it was an eye opener. I suspect a case of GGS ( grass is greener syndrome..)

piperh

Well she asked him today and he agreed to drop it by €75 a month, so they are still paying more than the going rate but not as much. He wasn't happy about it and and at first refused but she said he only had to look on daft, he said he had and there was none in the area but she knew there was.

djimi

Thats a good start but I wouldnt leave it there to be honest. I think she would be well advised to call his bluff and hand in her notice to leave if he doesnt lower the rent further to bring it in line with the other properties in the area. The landlord is not going to get that extra €100 off a new tenant if they can rent similar places for cheaper in the same area anyway, and the fact that she has been there for a long time and is prepared to take care of the place should work well in her favour with the landlord.

She has been there for 8 years and in that time (especially recently) should have seen reductions in her rent as rental prices have dropped. The landlord has gotten more out of her already than he should have gotten, and he is living in a fantasy land if he thinks he can continue to ask for €100+ more than the rental market value for the place. She needs to show him that she is prepared to move if he is not prepared to sort the rent out.

If the landlord doesnt believe here about the other property prices then she needs to print them off Daft and show them to him. Also remind him that the asking price is not always the rental price, and some of those asking prices may end up reduced by as much as €50 a month when the place finally gets let, so her original rent could be more like €200+ a month over rental market value, rather than the figure she originally thought.

KTRIC

I was thinking of asking for a reduction myself. Just had a look for whats on offer in the area on Daft and they're between 10 - 50 euro more for the same sort of thing. Not sure if it gives me any room for negotiation ???

djimi

KTRIC wrote: »

I was thinking of asking for a reduction myself. Just had a look for whats on offer in the area on Daft and they're between 10 - 50 euro more for the same sort of thing. Not sure if it gives me any room for negotiation ???

Theres no harm in asking I suppose, especially if you have been there a while and have been a good tenant, but if similar properties in your area are going for more than you are paying then Id say you might struggle to get a reduction. If a reduction was forthcoming it would most likely be to keep you in the place (if indeed you have been a good tenant).