Rent supplement and subletting

I've been asked to leave my current home and need to find a new place to live.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057311552

I'm a mature student, in my 3rd year and on rent allowance, so my options are limited, but I have a few question I'd like answered.

The maximum cost of rent on shared accommodation I can get is €350, so my first question is, can I rent a house and sublet the other rooms? would the SW be ok with this? I would be on the lease as paying the full amount, but would only actually be paying for my room, anybody have any incite into this?

If I moved into a place and got a lease and then shortly after I informed my LL I was changing to rent allowance due to change in circumstances, but would still pay the full rent, is this grounds for lease termination?

I have some money saved up and was thinking of offering a significant security deposit to my potential LL to give him/her some peace of mind that I would look after the house and be on time with rental payments, is this a good idea?

Does anybody know of any other solutions to my situation? any advice greatly appreciated.

jack1000

As far as I know the social welfare office would not look favourably on either of those situations. The landlord probably won't care as long as he gets his money.Could you not just rent a room in someone else's house?

Gatling

I highly doubt what your asking is legal in SW eyes

Mrs OBumble

Remember that the LL can terminate you for any reason during the first six months (or at the six month point, if you have a fixed term lease). Most would, rather than deal with RA.

Besides, if you rent the place at full rent, it will be above the amount allowed for RA, and you're not allowed to top up.

Cushie Butterfield

The only way you might (& that's a very big might) be able to achieve what you're trying to is to firstly speak to your DSP representative (CWO), explain the situation & ask what they suggest you do in the circumstances. They are also bound by rules & regulations, so even though the net result of what you want to do would probably result in you being under the maximum rent limit guidelines you would be breaching DSP rules & regulations, especially at the beginning of the process, so you should tread very carefully & definitely not do anything that would jeoparise your rent supplement claim & certainly not attemt to either circumvent the system or conceal anything as it's bound to come back to bite you tenfold. You would need to follow the CWO's advice, which would more than likely be that you can't do what your idea is.

My advice would be to forget about that idea altogether, speak to your student's union office who may have a list of people offering rooms for rent or put up a notice looking for a room to rent that accept rent supplement. Also spread the word through social circles that you're looking for a room. Your cat is another story as not everyone likes them, but you could try & sell the fact that having one is a form of pest control & it's better to have dead mice than live ones.

If you hear of any rooms to rent you could speak to the landlord/leasee directly which might have a more favourable outcome than an ad that states no pets & no rent supplement.