Are there any landlords at all taking RAS anymore

Pretzill

Charisma wrote: »

I think they will have to look further afield but as far as Ive herd that too is becoming difficult. His reluctance to move is based on extended family support and circumstance one of which is he takes care of my mum whos health is failing at 80. He does all her shopping, brings her to all her hospital appointments and takes care if her bills, medication etc as well as keeping her 1 bed house clean and in good repair. Hes not her official carer as hes only down 4 to five times a week for one or two hours but this enables her to continue living at home. I am disabled and cant do what he does if he goes away so she will have to go into care and that is going to cost the state a lot more than rent allowance.

Did he check out the list of RAS contacts there is a link for download on the Citezins Advice site under RAS.
He probably already knows this but they may know more about available LL's if any.

Sorry I can't link on my phone - just google RAScheme and Citezins Advice.

Other than that short of pitching a tent or mobile home in a family members garden I really have no suggestions. (Sorry to hear your mum's situation going through this at the moment and having a family member near and able to call on her is so helpful.)

Stheno

Pretzill wrote: »

Did he check out the list of RAS contacts there is a link for download on the Citezins Advice site under RAS.
He probably already knows this but they may know more about available LL's if any.

Sorry I can't link on my phone - just google RAScheme and Citezins Advice.

Other than that short of pitching a tent or mobile home in a family members garden I really have no suggestions. (Sorry to hear your mum's situation going through this at the moment and having a family member near and able to call on her is so helpful.)

I think the link you want is http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/local_authority_and_social_housing/rental_accommodation_scheme.html

the_syco

Stheno wrote: »

they claimed it takes councils up to nine months to "recycle" a vacant property to let!

Is the nine months to get a non-feeing paying tenant out, or are they waiting for X amount of places to be vacant, so that they can hire a contractor for a week, and have them to multiple properties?

quadrifoglio verde wrote: »

Ra was dropped, the rents still rose

RA was dropped, people got houses, less supply, more demand, prices went up.

Charisma wrote: »

They have advertised everywhere and been to every estate agent in South Dublin

South Dublin being where there are tech jobs, and thus people who can pay the full rent? They'll need to go somewhere where the demand is less, to get someone who'll do RAS.

Charisma wrote: »

His reluctance to move is based on extended family support and circumstance one of which is he takes care of my mum whos health is failing at 80.

Is there space in either her house or your house that'll allow him to stay with his family, and do chores for his keep?

Stheno

the_syco wrote: »

Is the nine months to get a non-feeing paying tenant out, or are they waiting for X amount of places to be vacant, so that they can hire a contractor for a week, and have them to multiple properties?

It was from a premises being vacant to being available again

Makes no sense, surely they could take on people/contract the work out to do it quicker?

Twofold benefit, bit more work out there, and homes become available more quickly

Mrs OBumble

Stheno wrote: »

It was from a premises being vacant to being available again

Makes no sense, surely they could take on people/contract the work out to do it quicker?

Twofold benefit, bit more work out there, and homes become available more quickly

You're under-estimating the amount of damage that some tenants do, and the range of skills that are needed to make a house ready for occupancy.

There's also the issue that council budgets for this are not bottomless, and their requirement to use tradespeople who are properly qualified, insured and C2'd. Oh - and be seen to be fair in how they are spending public money. That means that cannot just hire extra contractors when needed - it needs to go through a process of appointing staff or maintenance contractors which is fair.

Scheduling smaller-scale property maintenance is my personal idea of hell: getting tradespeople in the right place at the right time in the right order (carpenter before painter etc) with the right keys is far more complex than it seems, made worse because sometimes things do wrong and jobs take longer than expected.

Lux23

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

You're under-estimating the amount of damage that some tenants do, and the range of skills that are needed to make a house ready for occupancy.

I grew up in a council house, the keys were handed to my parents with the house in an awful state. It was weeks before we moved in because my Dad had to do so much work on the place. They since bought it, but if they were to hand it back tomorrow it would be a much nicer house than was give to them in 1990.

I have been in plenty of other council houses over the years and I would find it hard to believe that they would take 9 months to fix up the average house. It is more likely that they just don't have enough tradespeople to go around.

Mrs OBumble

Lux23 wrote: »

I grew up in a council house, the keys were handed to my parents with the house in an awful state. It was weeks before we moved in because my Dad had to do so much work on the place.

Health and safety + litigious culture means that wouldn't happen today.

fussyonion

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Health and safety + litigious culture means that wouldn't happen today.

I beg to differ.

When we were given the keys to our home 2 years ago, the whole place was disgraceful.
No flooring; just bare concrete, walls in lumps and plaster falling off, every room had just been given a bare lick of paint and the back garden was like a jungle.
Exposed wires poking out of walls, no toilet bowl, etc.

If the shoe was on the other foot and this was a potential RAS house, the Council wouldn't let a tenant anywhere near it.

Gatling

fussyonion wrote: »

I beg to differ.

When we were given the keys to our home 2 years ago, the whole place was disgraceful.
No flooring; just bare concrete, walls in lumps and plaster falling off, every room had just been given a bare lick of paint and the back garden was like a jungle.
Exposed wires poking out of walls, no toilet bowl, etc.

If the shoe was on the other foot and this was a potential RAS house, the Council wouldn't let a tenant anywhere near it.

Pretty common in parts of sdcc stock seen 2 that literally had holes in floors big enough for a small child to fall through from upstairs another had 4 steps missing from the stairs midway up

Van.Bosch

Another issue with the RAS top ups for landlords is that is under the counter as far as I can see? In which case the PRTB get told 975 so if the tenant stops paying the extra, who can the landlord complain to?

MouseTail

Van.Bosch wrote: »

Another issue with the RAS top ups for landlords is that is under the counter as far as I can see? In which case the PRTB get told 975 so if the tenant stops paying the extra, who can the landlord complain to?

The tenant always has that hold over the LL, that they falsified documents to DSP, PRTB and even if they were really foolish, Revenue. Its just too big a risk for LLs to accept under the counter top ups.

newacc2015

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

You're under-estimating the amount of damage that some tenants do, and the range of skills that are needed to make a house ready for occupancy.

There's also the issue that council budgets for this are not bottomless, and their requirement to use tradespeople who are properly qualified, insured and C2'd. Oh - and be seen to be fair in how they are spending public money. That means that cannot just hire extra contractors when needed - it needs to go through a process of appointing staff or maintenance contractors which is fair.

I know someone who does building work after fires and serious flood. You can literally gut a house and have it ready within 3-4 months after a serious fire/flood. A ****ty corpo 2 bed apartments in Dublin CC would take a few weeks max. You are only altering the internal structure eg plastering over cement walls, a new kitchen/bathroom and new flooring. Its all cosmetic work. There is no serious structural alternations taking place

DCC have a list of contractor approved. The pay them not so great money. But its steady work, so the contractors dont mind too much.

DCC arent arsed doing serious work. Its handier to hand a contract out to a landlord, than co-ordinate their housing stock efficiently. There was no logic in selling their council housing over the years. But they still did it anyway

handlemaster

When you have social clients such as the following its no wonder landlords dont want rental allowance

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057259267/1/#post91494275

Teyla Emmagan

There are a few council houses on my street (in Dublin). They take a minimum of a year to turn around from what I have seen. They're smallish but still 2/3 bed houses, at the moment 4 of them just have one occupant. 3 of them are women whose kids have moved out but who I'm sure are "still on the rent book" so there is no chance anyone will reassess their situation. I am quite happy, as in the fewer neighbours the better, but on the other hand it's a bit mad.

One of the houses was given to a woman with a kid who never moved in. Instead she sublet it (I am serious) as a drugs den. All these mattresses on the floor and people inside shooting up all night and day. When the council got the house back it was destroyed, and this after only being done up for your woman. Waste, waste, waste. We had junkies roaming up and down outside, it was really scary.

Mrs OBumble

Teyla Emmagan wrote: »

3 of them are women whose kids have moved out but who I'm sure are "still on the rent book" so there is no chance anyone will reassess their situation.

Council tenancies are for life. There is no mechanism for re-assessment, unless the tenant themselves has to move out (eg into a nursing home). It's mad, I agree, but the way it is.

And in fact, once the kids are 18 their income is taken into account for calculating the income related rent. So it's actually worth getting them off the rent book (which generally requires some proof that they've moved elsewhere).

Teyla Emmagan

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Council tenancies are for life. There is no mechanism for re-assessment, unless the tenant themselves has to move out (eg into a nursing home). It's mad, I agree, but the way it is.

And in fact, once the kids are 18 their income is taken into account for calculating the income related rent. So it's actually worth getting them off the rent book (which generally requires some proof that they've moved elsewhere).

I don't really understand the rent book thing; one of my neighbours just mentioned in passing that she got her house because her mother 'kept her on the book' while she moved out in her twenties. Then when her mother died she got the house because the council thought she'd always been living there. Nuts. And another neighbour said she was hoping to pass her house onto her daughter the same way but X, Y, Z - I zoned out then.

I think the 'house for life' thing is bananas though. As your housing needs and financial circumstances change your state provided accommodation should also change. Free bigger premises up for those who need them etc. It's so obvious it's ridiculous.

riclad

i know a bloke lived with his father,
the council evicted him when his father died .
He was hoping to get the 3bed house for himself.
But 90 per cent of council house,s have been sold to previous tenants .
I know another man lives in a 3 bed house by himself .
He wanted to buy the house in 2008,
council wont sell it to him as he is separated from his wife .
but not divorced .
he pays around 50 euro rent per week,
most people who could afford it bought council house,s if they were allowed to .
The rent is assessed based on who lives there ,and their incomes .
rent goes up or down based on the income of the people living there every year .
Say joe lives with his girlfriend ,he might want to be listed on the rent book as living with his mother ,
in the council house for various reason,s .
Normally theres a rent income assessment form to be filled in every year .

Gatling

Seen similar case where a woman on social media was thanking a local councillor for helping her inherit( for want of a better word) her mother's 3 bed coucil that she moved out of 15+ years previously with one child ,
Yet in the same area I'm told my wife and me + 2 kids can only ever get a 2 bed apartment