Horrible boss

Some_randomer

A female friend moved to Dublin last September to take a job with a small company in the publishing industry. The company has been around a long time and would be well known in the industry, but it's really just one main guy (who's over 70) plus a couple of employees in the US and various interns coming and going over time.

The boss rents a house in the city year round and stays there when he's in town, usually 3 or 4 times per year for a few weeks at a time. He said to my friend that she could stay in the house when she moved to Dublin, so she assumed the job included accommodation which was a bonus.

It turns out that the boss is, well, difficult to say the least. He seems to enjoy playing staff off against each other, sends angry emails at all hours of the day and night, is rude and difficult a lot of the time etc.

Anyway he's been in Dublin for the past couple of weeks and my friend had a gutful of his behaviour, and yesterday morning snapped at him when he said they have to meet and discuss a report being late. (She just said it would be ready in a couple of hours and didn't want to discuss it).

So this morning he told her there's someone visiting Dublin for the weekend and that she'll have to vacate her room while this person is there. She was obviously shocked and said she doesn't have anywhere else to go, and he replied that her having a room there is a luxury and it's not his problem.

I checked her contract and it doesn't mention accommodation being included in the job, so just wondering what she can do and if she has any legal rights?

(She can't quit yet as she needs the income and it would take a while to get another job, plus it's her first job and would need a reference etc. Also her employment contract is "fixed term" and ends on February 27th this year, so if she causes trouble then she's afraid they won't renew her contract.)

Dial Hard

He has her over a barrel, tbh. The accommodation was an unofficial perk and she has no legal rights in that regard. If I were her I'd be looking for alternative arrangements for both home and work ASAP.

Stheno

Does she pay rent? If not she could be subject to bik for living in the house and may be liable for tax on the equivalent rent she would pay in a house share

So if e.g it would cost her 500 pm to rent a room and she is not paying rent she'd be liable to tax on an extra 500 per month

The same applies to bills if she does not pay them

There are some exceptions

dennyk

> The boss rents a house in the city year round and stays there when he's in town, usually 3 or 4 times per year for a few weeks at a time. He said to my friend that she could stay in the house when she moved to Dublin

Based on that arrangement, it seems likely she would be a licensee of her boss, so she'd have no tenant rights and the boss can require her to leave without notice. If her employment contract also doesn't stipulate that her employer is to provide accommodation, she'd unfortunately be on her own as far as arranging somewhere else to stay (whether temporary or permanent).

Also, as Stheno mentioned, if she hasn't been paying rent for that room, it would most likely be considered a Benefit in Kind and she will owe additional taxes on the value. See this page at Revenue for details:

https://www.revenue.ie/en/employing-people/benefit-in-kind-for-employers/free-or-subsidised-accommodation/index.aspx

Since the employer is renting the whole property and she is essentially a licensee subleasing a room from him, I'd guess the value for tax purposes would probably be the appropriate percentage of the total rent the employer is paying (e.g. 25% if it's a four-bedroom house, 33% if it's three bedrooms, etc.), but she should check with Revenue and provide them with all of the details of the arrangement to find out for certain.

Some_randomer

Didn't realise she would be liable to BIK but will say it to her. Not sure how much of a benefit it is though if she can be forced to vacate the room at any point in time.

Her salary is pretty low and reflects the fact that she has accommodation. My main point is that before she took up the job she was told that she wouldn't need to look for accommodation as she could live in his house, so am wondering if this verbal agreement is legally binding in any way. It's also a form of bullying in my book as he did this because he was annoyed at her and it's a pretty cruel thing to do to a person, especially when they're new to a country and don't know anyone.

She has started looking for a new job and accommodation but this all takes time so will have to tough it out until she finds alternatives.