Landlord gave me a cheque for €750 for Christmas - WTF

jjwada

Something totally unexpected just happened.

Has this ever happened to anyone else here. I read something about it happening to someone last year and something else about landlords doing this for good tenants, but took no notice of it really.

I was home in the parents for Christmas and just came back to Dublin this morning nursing my newly broken ankle and was all depressed.

I find a mountain of letters and bills on the the floor and throw them on the bed and settle in for a couple of weeks in bed with nothing to do. So i start opening them and lo and behold out falls a Christmas card from the landlord with a note in it.
Ah the dreaded rent increase...
But then I read the letter. A lovely note from the LL. Basically the jist of the note is Happy Christmas and saying that I have always paid my rent on time and I havent asked for anything this year and he hasnt had to spend anything on the apartment so he was writing me the cheque for the amount he was expecting to have to spend but didnt. And that the same deal applies next year. Explaining that it will be €750 and will drop by the amount he has to spend on the apartment and i will get the rest.

And wow, a cheque for €750 stapled to the card.

Now I have to get it cashed before he cancels it.
I must say, this has cheered me up today.

TracyFlick

He sounds like the most awesome landlord ever!

Are you female by any chance OP?

Fol20

jjwada wrote: »

Something totally unexpected just happened.

Has this ever happened to anyone else here. I read something about it happening to someone last year and something else about landlords doing this for good tenants, but took no notice of it really.

I was home in the parents for Christmas and just came back to Dublin this morning nursing my newly broken ankle and was all depressed.

I find a mountain of letters and bills on the the floor and throw them on the bed and settle in for a couple of weeks in bed with nothing to do. So i start opening them and lo and behold out falls a Christmas card from the landlord with a note in it.
Ah the dreaded rent increase...
But then I read the letter. A lovely note from the LL. Basically the jist of the note is Happy Christmas and saying that I have always paid my rent on time and I havent asked for anything this year and he hasnt had to spend anything on the apartment so he was writing me the cheque for the amount he was expecting to have to spend but didnt. And that the same deal applies next year. Explaining that it will be €750 and will drop by the amount he has to spend on the apartment and i will get the rest.

And wow, a cheque for €750 stapled to the card.

Now I have to get it cashed before he cancels it.
I must say, this has cheered me up today.

Not all landlords are the big bad wolf. You sir have one very nice landlord. I have heard of this incentive before but never as high as 750. It works in the interest of both parties. You get money back and he little no hassle for a good tenant as well. Both parties are happy and all round good situation.

gaius c

Very, very unusual. My cynical soul smells a tax dodge of some sort.

seamus

I wonder if he's writing that €750 off as sundry expenses anyway.

Nevertheless even if he did, he doesn't have to give it to you, that's very sound of him. He's probably also hoping that since you know repairs are coming out of "your" €750, you'll look after minor repairs and issues yourself and bother him less.

CaoimheSquee

That is so wonderful! Thank you for sharing OP

Our landlord called up with a card and a very expensive bottle of wine before Christmas thanking us profusely for being "the best tenants she ever had".

It was rather lovely!

jjwada

seamus wrote: »

I wonder if he's writing that €750 off as sundry expenses anyway.

Nevertheless even if he did, he doesn't have to give it to you, that's very sound of him. He's probably also hoping that since you know repairs are coming out of "your" €750, you'll look after minor repairs and issues yourself and bother him less.

I think you might be right there. He can just take this off his total rent receivable (thats the accountant in me talking).

Thinking more about it I can see that this is a good think for both of us.

I was going to ask for a new mattress, since i'll be spending more time in bed for a while, but I think now i'll go to the shops and buy my own decent one instead of a rental quality one. Since effectively as I understand this, it comes out of my "pocket" now anyway.

And, I just thought, if I move out before Christmas I get nothing, so I suppose that would be an incentive to stay too for people, although I had no intention of moving anyway.

And for the poster who is asking, I am male

Lux23

That's every nice, I got some candles, which was nice too I suppose.

Mrs OBumble

Nice one.

I think it's legit, there's at least one LL poster here who does something similar, I'd expect there will be others.

And it does put a nice incentive in place and as you say, gives you some choices about replacing items with quality of your choice.

I won't be doing it for my tenants this year .. it's not their fault that a water-main started leaking of that the property manager suggested installing heat-pump, but never-the-less I've well and truly spent this year's maintenance budget. Maybe next near.

Diarmuid

Very nice gesture.

However if I was a landlord I'd wouldn't be doing this. It could have some unintended consequences. For instance if the oil burner starts to act up, this could act as an incentive for the tenant not to bring it to the landlords attention. So by the time the landlord does find out about the issue it could have become a much bigger and more costly problem . Replace oil burner with leaks, damp etc and your short term money saving scheme could cost you in the long run.

Lau2976

I can see how this would be good for a certain type of tenant but I think, as another poster has said, it could lead to a lot of issues in the long run tbh. My landlord usual gets me a gift and get him one. He also gave me a slight price reduction on one of his larger places for being a good tenant.

SarahMollie

seamus wrote: »

I wonder if he's writing that €750 off as sundry expenses anyway.

Nevertheless even if he did, he doesn't have to give it to you, that's very sound of him. He's probably also hoping that since you know repairs are coming out of "your" €750, you'll look after minor repairs and issues yourself and bother him less.

Probably true but still a great strategy for him if he wants be be left alone and for you as you get free money. Bonus!

Gumbo

He could be giving it back from your months rent and hence he has received less rent this year and has less tax implications. Either way it's a nice gesture.

I have a similar tennant, never rings unless a problem and the one problem this year she just told me to give the guys her number and shed arrange days she was there to meet them. I didn't even have to rearrange anything after the initial inspection of the machine.
I dropped in 2 bottles of prosecco and a box of celebrations to my tenant in December and on rent due day told her to lodge €50 less and to get a drink if she gets out over the Xmas or somethin small for the 3 kids, I though I was being nice

Fair play to the LL.

Graces7

he is a Keeper...hope the ankle heals well. My landlord brought me many bags of turf and wood when winter hit and we exchange cards is all. My best ever gift from a landlord was a sack of coal when I saved six of his ewes and 12 lambs from drowning in a flash flood.....

MrDerp

As far as I know, there's a rental threshold above which tax on his rent is payable in 2015 vs 2016. A family member renting out a house mentioned something along these lines to me when I asked if their most recent lease was providing more rental income now. Seemingly they're used to doing a return one year later, and it would have been very inconvenient to effectively pay both 2015 and 2014 in one year. As such, there's a limit on the rent they'll charge based on this, allowing for some expenses.

lcwill

jjwada wrote: »

Something totally unexpected just happened.

Has this ever happened to anyone else here. I read something about it happening to someone last year and something else about landlords doing this for good tenants, but took no notice of it really.

I was home in the parents for Christmas and just came back to Dublin this morning nursing my newly broken ankle and was all depressed.

I find a mountain of letters and bills on the the floor and throw them on the bed and settle in for a couple of weeks in bed with nothing to do. So i start opening them and lo and behold out falls a Christmas card from the landlord with a note in it.
Ah the dreaded rent increase...
But then I read the letter. A lovely note from the LL. Basically the jist of the note is Happy Christmas and saying that I have always paid my rent on time and I havent asked for anything this year and he hasnt had to spend anything on the apartment so he was writing me the cheque for the amount he was expecting to have to spend but didnt. And that the same deal applies next year. Explaining that it will be €750 and will drop by the amount he has to spend on the apartment and i will get the rest.

And wow, a cheque for €750 stapled to the card.

Now I have to get it cashed before he cancels it.
I must say, this has cheered me up today.

I am also a landlord (since 2-3 years ago) and have thought about doing something similar but to my shame have not followed through on it yet.

I did once send an ex-tenant a cheque for several hundred Euros when he left early but had paid until the end of the month. I had new tenants in the day after he left so I sent him back the money which would have covered the rest of the month. This just seemed like the honest thing to do though so not quite in the same category.

minikin

It's an obvious scam, the best thing to do is:
1. Tear up the cheque.
2. Have no further contact with the so called landlord.
3. Move out of the premises immediately without any notice.
4. Forward me on address of the premises and your landlord's contact details so that I can sort out this scamster for you.

Tar.Aldarion

In 4 years I haven't had the landlord (well estate agents) do anything, I need to bill them. The landlord probably thinks they are handling it and paying for things etc.


That is great OP, nice to hear

fussyonion

That was very nice of him, OP.
Our previous LL used to give us a voucher for a restaurant/bottle of wine/box of chocs every Christmas as a thank you and we were always floored by this gesture.
He said the same; that we were great tenants who never gave him any hassle.
Enjoy!

elysium321

Similar to some of the previous posts. Our previous landlord left us a welcome letter, 2 bottles of wine (red & white) and a desert in the fridge when we moved in. Over the course of our tenancy we asked him to for a new microwave. He sent me a cheque for €150, I bought a microwave for €100 and asked him how he wants me to send the €50 back. He sent me a note back to take my wife for dinner.
When we moved out, we had to break a fixed term lease (upon prior agreement with the landlord) and he even credited back the rent that we have paid in advance and the security deposit with another note thanking us for being such wonderful tenants. Lovely gentleman and a great landlord.

Our current landlord gave us a 25% rent increase just before Christmas saying take it or move out. Quite a difference, let me tell you.

handlemaster

I once paid a tenant several thousand euro ... No hold on they cost me several thousand euro..

makeandcreate

My LL in Galway, 4 years ago now, gave half my rent back at Christmas, I was delighted, spent most on the kids and a couple bottles of prosseco. When you haven't much to spare, things like that really can make a difference.

Villa05

Many businesses give rewards to good loyal customers. Fair play to the LL and to you.

Is it a sign of bad tenants or greedy LL's that it does not happen more frequently.

Certainly there are benefits for both parties

pc7

Villa05 wrote: »

Many businesses give rewards to good loyal customers. Fair play to the LL and to you.

Is it a sign of bad tenants or greedy LL's that it does not happen more frequently.

Certainly there are benefits for both parties

A few years back I had what I thought was a great tenant and like that at Christmas would drop in a gift, would make allowances when he was short (he'd give me notice of this) and let him catch up with payments when he could. Until he said he was short and getting it sorted, moved country and cleared the place of everything (everything!). So even though I've a great tenant now I haven't done the gift thing, but I also haven't put the rent up since they moved in a number of years back and its well below market rate. But the good tenant is worth the difference in cost.

MarkAnthony

Lux23 wrote: »

That's every nice, I got some candles, which was nice too I suppose.

Oh the irony if the place burnt down!

Wanderer78

MarkAnthony wrote:

Oh the irony if the place burnt down!

Jesus don't be wishing that!

Qualitymark

Neighbours of mine, who rented their house to lovely, careful, responsible tenants withheld €500 of the €1,500 deposit when the tenants left. The tenants went to the Board, but were still forced to let these looters have €180 - completely wrongly.

handlemaster

Qualitymark wrote: »

Neighbours of mine, who rented their house to lovely, careful, responsible tenants withheld €500 of the €1,500 deposit when the tenants left. The tenants went to the Board, but were still forced to let these looters have €180 - completely wrongly.

What was the case

Everyone is lovely until they have to pay..

Qualitymark

Landlords said that they'd left some cobwebs; they also said the garden was "overgrown".

I saw both sides of the family working hard to clean the place glossy after taking all their stuff to their new place. I'd be surprised if a spider put its face near it after them. Garden's fine.

newacc2015

Qualitymark wrote: »

Neighbours of mine, who rented their house to lovely, careful, responsible tenants withheld €500 of the €1,500 deposit when the tenants left. The tenants went to the Board, but were still forced to let these looters have €180 - completely wrongly.

I dont think you know the full story. AFAIK all PRTB cases are public record and you can read them. Generally the burden of proof is on the LL to show that they were justified in withholding the deposit. Such as they have receipts for cleaners and photos of the dirt of the place. It is very likely that PRTB sided with the landlord for the sake of it.

Over a third of all complaints to the PRTB are about tenants. So not all tenants are the innocent victims of heartless landlords. I imagine it would be significantly higher, but the PRTB refuse to take on landlord cases unless they relate to a certain amount of money. This threshold is significantly lower for tenants

jeamimus

seamus wrote: »

I wonder if he's writing that €750 off as sundry expenses anyway.

Nevertheless even if he did, he doesn't have to give it to you, that's very sound of him. He's probably also hoping that since you know repairs are coming out of "your" €750, you'll look after minor repairs and issues yourself and bother him less.

Its a good strategy from a landlord that want a quiet life and a tenant who will do minor things themselves and not bother him too much.

I'm not sure how this would be treated from a tax perspective. He needs to be careful.. Maybe the best way is to call it a rent rebate... tho since its not mentioned in the lease agreement, the taxman might see it as a gift...The tax/social charge on the €750 could come to around another €400 if his allowances are exhausted.