Prime Time: Nightmare to Let RTÉ Investigates

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Eric Cartman wrote: »

A lot of people seem to give out about the 40, 60 whatever amount of people living in a property. A lot of these are constructed about by tenants with no landlord knowledge.

Talking to a Brazilian lad in a pub a while back, he explained how there were 12 of them staying in a 2 bed apartment (without the landlords knowledge) , he explained how this was the third time they had done this and had been kicked out previously, his argument was that they were used to it and it saves a lot of money, even if renting a 2 bed place was 200 a month each (as they were each paying between 12) they would still live 12 together for 33 a month each. They just wanted to get the cheapest bed in the city regardless of overcrowding or amenities.

I just heard from someone I know who let a 1 bed property to 2 Brazilian students last year and then a few months ago he gave them their notice because he found out there were now 8 of them living in it. He only found out because he stopped by to drop something in one day and the front door was open and when he walked in there were air mattresses with people asleep on them all over the place. The door was left open for ventilation because it was so stuffy inside.

Guess what happened when he asked them to vacate?
He was taken to the rtb and that is still ongoing.

Eric Cartman

utmbuilder wrote: »

There is much more to this story, without being too cryptic , some students use some "colleges" which are just visa factory's, not to mention key board members have links to terrorist funding allegedly, these colleges are turning over a couple of million each

students come in, and bobs your uncle do an online course, spend the rest of the time working and trying to make ends meet

Apart from the funding bit, students should.nt be brought here without services being provided, or without them being able to afford to live in some what livable conditions

I really think foreign students should have to prove that they have the means to afford a bed at market rate for the duration of theor visa before coming here. There are so many language schools that are basically sign on offices you pay 50 quid a week to come and get a work permit effectively.

Topgear on Dave

Eric Cartman wrote: »

I really think foreign students should have to prove that they have the means to afford a bed at market rate for the duration of theor visa before coming here. There are so many language schools that are basically sign on offices you pay 50 quid a week to come and get a work permit effectively.

I have little doubt that moving in on the language schools or enforcing funding rules for students would be condemned as racism pretty quickly. :pac:

Sleeper12

__..__ wrote: »

I just heard from someone I know who let a 1 bed property to 2 Brazilian students last year and then a few months ago he gave them their notice because he found out there were now 8 of them living in it. He only found out because he stopped by to drop something in one day and the front door was open and when he walked in there were air mattresses with people asleep on them all over the place. The door was left open for ventilation because it was so stuffy inside.

Guess what happened when he asked them to vacate?
He was taken to the rtb and that is still ongoing.

I'd imagine they took him to RTB for entering the premises without giving 24 hours notice.

Eric Cartman

Topgear on Dave wrote: »

I have little doubt that moving in on the language schools or enforcing funding rules for students would be condemned as racism pretty quickly. :pac:

Its 2017 , saying anything bad about anyone who's not a white straight middle class male is offensive now

Gumbo

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I'd imagine they took him to RTB for entering the premises without giving 24 hours notice.

Would be deemed an emergency situation.

Landlord arrive at the property.
Door wide open.
Beds/mattresses/duvets laying across the floors.

The landlord had every right to enter the property in that situation as anything could have happened to the occupants at that time. It was a justified entry.

Topgear on Dave

kceire wrote: »

Would be deemed an emergency situation.

Landlord arrive at the property.
Door wide open.
Beds/mattresses/duvets laying across the floors.

The landlord had every right to enter the property in that situation as anything could have happened to the occupants at that time. It was a justified entry.

Are you sure? It sounds pretty dodge that its an emergency really. No fire etc

Itll be their word against the landlord that the door was open surely?

Gumbo

Topgear on Dave wrote: »

Are you sure? It sounds pretty dodge that its an emergency really. No fire etc

Itll be their word against the landlord that the door was open surely?

Fire is not the only emergency.
Door wide open with air beds everywhere. Viable entry due to the unknown of what was happening inside. The end result of over crowding proved his entry was justified.

Sleeper12

I'm not on the side of dodgy tenants but according to the poster, landlord only saw blow up beds after he entered the house illegally.
Maybe the poster miss spoke but you can't be making mistakes like that with the RTB. Seeing the mattress from outside the building and you are most likely in the right. Seeing them after you enter the building and you have broken the lease. Maybe trespass, I'm not sure about that.

Idbatterim

would it make sense as an emergency measure, to allow warehouses near residential areas, to be allowed to be converted to hostel like accomodation for say a period or 4-5 years, at which case it could be reviewed? You could have large communal areas, kitchens, showers and dorms and even small private rooms...

Gumbo

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I'm not on the side of dodgy tenants but according to the poster, landlord only saw blow up beds after he entered the house illegally.
Maybe the poster miss spoke but you can't be making mistakes like that with the RTB. Seeing the mattress from outside the building and you are most likely in the right. Seeing them after you enter the building and you have broken the lease. Maybe trespass, I'm not sure about that.

Trespass on your own property to which you turned up and noticed a door swinging open with beds littered across the floor. If this is the kind of things that a tenant disputes then good riddance to them from the property.

Idbatterim wrote: »

would it make sense as an emergency measure, to allow warehouses near residential areas, to be allowed to be converted to hostel like accomodation for say a period or 4-5 years, at which case it could be reviewed? You could have large communal areas, kitchens, showers and dorms and even small private rooms...

Think this has already been considered. Some fire safety alterations required but otherwise ok in the short term.

Sleeper12

kceire wrote:

Trespass on your own property to which you turned up and noticed a door swinging open with beds littered across the floor. If this is the kind of things that a tenant disputes then good riddance to them from the property.

You are making things up. The or post states that the landlord showed up unannounced. Yes the door was open but he only saw the beds after he entered the house illegally. This is possibly why the tenants were able to bring him to the RTB.

Yes landlords own the property but they can't enter illegally. Again I'm not sticking up for the tenants. I'm just pointing out that the original post states that the landlord entered illegally. Many it was phrased wrong but I can only go on what was posted.

Graham

Mod Note: Let's stop the speculation about what may have happened in a case where someone heard about someone who maybe might have possibly.........

Caliden

What has me angry about the whole situation is that the Government is happy to stand by and watch people pay massive rents but once there's an overcrowding situation (as a result of obscene rents) then there's a problem, but only an overcrowding problem not a rental price one.

It's like 'sorry you can't do that, you must pay at least 30% of your income on rent'. As if current rental prices are normal.

PMBC

DubCount wrote: »

I watched it. A few things struck me.
- When you look at what some people are paying to live in, were Bedsits really such a poor option? I'm not for lowering standards, but there must be a better solution for the "lower end of the market". Bring back bedsits might provide a better solution for the tenants involved.
- To say 60-70% of inspections failed is a misleading statistic. I reckon the CoCo's are only inspecting properties where there has been a complaint, so its not surprising there is a high failure rate. I dont have a problem with the CoCo's only inspecting properties where there is a complaint. That seems like a sensible use of scarce resources.
- the CoCo's not responding to complaints is incredible. Its one thing if they dont know how bad a property is, but not responding when a complaint is made is hard to understand.

There are quite a few bad landlords and Im sure some very pooor tenents. No one knows the exact numbers. I'm a tenant by the way but its important to interpret stats properly. I saw the numbers for some rural local authorities who do very few inspections and i'm reasonably certain that the 100% failure rates was because only the excessively bad properties were investigated, probably under extreme pressure. Small sample size does not give very accurate results. That doesn't mean either that there are only small numbers of badly let properties. Because of the big increase in demand standards that people, initially, accepted dropped.
Why do we do Housing so badly in Ireland? The only thing that will motivate any party in government is the threat to jobs particularly those coming from the outside.

PMBC

Idbatterim wrote: »

would it make sense as an emergency measure, to allow warehouses near residential areas, to be allowed to be converted to hostel like accomodation for say a period or 4-5 years, at which case it could be reviewed? You could have large communal areas, kitchens, showers and dorms and even small private rooms...

There is merit in this provided they are of a good, although low, standard. A lot of the standards are minimum.
But didn't the retiring chief of the HA say that the problem was normal! I thought that was outrageous. Normal is something most people do so would he sleep on the street and yes I do appreciate that there are often other issues involved for street sleepers.
We've aped the UK for this problem and so have the same results

PMBC

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I do appliance repair & I see all types of properties. I see top class homes. I work for some landlords that ring me the day the tenant says that the shower is broken. I have had landlords pay me to repair a shower that is under warranty because they don't think it right that the tenant would be without a shower for 3/4 days waiting to have it repaired for free under warranty. You get the picture. There are some great landlords.

Sadly I have seen many properties like the ones on the documentary. I have never witnessed overcrowding to that extent but I replaced a broken pump in a shower & 3 months later I was called back again. The carbon brushes had worn down in 3 months. Carbon brushes last for around 1000 hours. That means that the shower ran for 40 full 24 hour days out of around 100 days. I was shocked to say the least. The mold I see everyday along with threadbare carpets, dodgy electric fittings & pretty much everything on that program. I've seen handy men work on Gas boilers & on fuseboards. Work that you need training to do & where safety certs should be issued.

IMO the insurance industry should step up & demand to see periodic inspections by REC electricians & Gas inspections by RGI gas installers. That would take care most of the safety issues.

Overall I find the quality of most rented accommodation in Dublin poor to say the least. I certainly wouldn't want to live in them

That's an interesting and informed view from a person who could have a vested interest in poorer properties which would require continuing repairs. So it looks like there is a real problem and RTE were not overstating it.

BTW I once stayed in a student digs where there were four large beds for four of us in one bedroom. I still think about and praise the landlady. Steak on Thursday, home made fish and chips on Friday, dessert every dinner time; if you arrived back during the day a cup of tea was offered. During exam time there were double plates of sandwiches left out each night and extra plates after mid-night for those doing an all-nighter! A saint.

TurnAblindEye

DCC has issued a press release, I can't post Links but it is on their site, they sure are quick to blame the tenant's.

PMBC

wordofwarning wrote: »

You have to wonder if it is responsible for the Government throwing visas at Latin Americans to come here. We are basically letting a ton of people come here who do not have the financial resources to survive in one of the most expensive cities in Europe. AFAIK an Irish person going to the US to study for about 9 months paying no College fees(it is an exchange) has to have to about $15,000 in a bank account for immigration to let them into the country. The result is only issue who can afford to live in the US for College go to College in the US.

In Ireland getting a student visa is a fraction of that for a year of living. The result is Latin Americans coming for here struggling to deal with the cost of living. Is it any surprise that they are ending in modern day tenements?

Maybe we need to increase the limit for a student visa for Latin Americans to €12,000 per year. A policy change that will stop them coming here unless they afford the cost of living here. After all, they are here to learn English and just work...

IMO we should only be attracting actual students and not people wanting to abuse our student visa system.

will take most menial jobs at lowest wages. And NO IM NOT RACIST. Its immoral to allow people to immigrate here when they could not possibly pay rental costs.

Sleeper12

PMBC wrote:

will take most menial jobs at lowest wages. And NO IM NOT RACIST. Its immoral to allow people to immigrate here when they could not possibly pay rental costs.

Was it immoral to let the Irish in touch America during the famine /genocide?

Yes, yes. Let the Irish starve to death in Ireland because they can't afford rent here in new York. Luckily for hundreds of thousands of Irish people not everyone thinks like that

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

makon_mc wrote: »

No person would be happy to live in such horrible conditions.

Do you speak for everybody now? There are plenty out there that are more than happy to live in their own shít if it means they can save a few more pound

Finally - even if few friends from these houses went together to find a decent house - they still wouldn't rent it - just check how many different documents agencies and landlords require these days.

Private landlords need to protect themselves too. A lot get burned very badly by some real degenerates who just refuse to pay or turn the house to complete shít.

Are people aware that many landlords are completely oblivious that their house/apartment has been sublet? Or that the original tenant has invited his 9 buddies to share his house so each of them only have to pay 70-80 a month on rent?

It would be nice if landlords would only focus on the structural integrity of the house and allow tenants to furnish it themselves.

makon_mc

Elora Sticky Soil wrote: »

Do you speak for everybody now? There are plenty out there that are more than happy to live in their own shít if it means they can save a few more pound
.

Yeah I speak for every normal person. - majority of immigrants are normal people who want to live in civilized conditions.
I understand private landlords want some protection, but asking for a bank statement is not right - don't you think so? what is more lettings agencies have no right to ask for it either.

VonBeanie

makon_mc wrote: »

Yeah I speak for every normal person. - majority of immigrants are normal people who want to live in civilized conditions.
I understand private landlords want some protection, but asking for a bank statement is not right - don't you think so? what is more lettings agencies have no right to ask for it either.

Just out of interest, how would you propose a LL could vet a tenant without bank statement? References can be forged. When you have 40 tenants wanting to rent a property and can't discriminate by price, how do you choose the lucky one?

I have encountered one person in a junior position (but still well qualified) at work who moved from Asia who just could not fathom why a couple would rent a two bed apartment or house between them or a houseshare with 3 bedrooms only had 3 people. In fact he was getting agitated at the thought of it.

Not sure if he actually did it (though I think he may have) but his plan was to rent a place and then fill it with people, beds in the living room, multiple beds per bed room etc. Strange character but goes to show that some people are happy in these types of accommodation.

steddyeddy

VonBeanie wrote: »

Just out of interest, how would you propose a LL could vet a tenant without bank statement? References can be forged. When you have 40 tenants wanting to rent a property and can't discriminate by price, how do you choose the lucky one?

How do tenants choose a good landlord? It's all chance.

steddyeddy

PMBC wrote: »

That's an interesting and informed view from a person who could have a vested interest in poorer properties which would require continuing repairs. So it looks like there is a real problem and RTE were not overstating it.

BTW I once stayed in a student digs where there were four large beds for four of us in one bedroom. I still think about and praise the landlady. Steak on Thursday, home made fish and chips on Friday, dessert every dinner time; if you arrived back during the day a cup of tea was offered. During exam time there were double plates of sandwiches left out each night and extra plates after mid-night for those doing an all-nighter! A saint.

But you can't be implying that's representative of over crowded properties?

PMBC

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Was it immoral to let the Irish in touch America during the famine /genocide?

Yes, yes. Let the Irish starve to death in Ireland because they can't afford rent here in new York. Luckily for hundreds of thousands of Irish people not everyone thinks like that

I see your point but they were different times and standards have changed. In addition Ireland is playing a part by taking in refugees - which is what the Famine emigrants were - like the Syrians in Roscommon. While their living conditions there are not ideal at least they are dignified.
Immoral was too strong a word.