Giving Notice of Termination

kelbal

Hi guys, I own an apartment which I've decided to sell. Its the only investment property I've had. I have a tenant in it at the moment, who has been there for just over 4 years. I have filled out the "Notice of Termination" letter from the RTB website, and I've gotten the Statutory Declaration signed by a Peace Commisioner, declaring my intent to sell the property.
Is there anything else I need to be aware of that I'm not thinking of? We're giving her the required notice period (112 days), plus an extra week. I just don't want to miss something and find the whole process is delayed

Thanks in advance

Donie75

It sounds like you have everything in order. Did you add a date for inspecting the property before they move out?
I'm doing the same thing myself. I just posted the Notice of Termination and the Statutory Declaration this morning. My tenant is in place 5 years so I gave the required notice plus 5 days. She won't be out until early September. I had recently sent her notification that I was increasing the rent in July. I am only doing this because it is in a rent pressure zone. I have been told that I may be asked what rental income is the house registered for as this will have an impact if an investor/buy-to-let landlord buys it.
I'm selling because I am worried that future more punitive laws will prevent me from selling.
I paid €317k for the house at the very peak of the boom. I'm hoping to get €240k for it. I had an expensive equity release on the property at 5.5% but I cleared that. It's on a very cheap tracker and I owe €190K on it.
I really couldn't be bothered subsidising the governments social housing programme any longer. The high tax bill and huge costs associated with keeping a rental property mean it is no longer viable. I'd rather have the money to pay something off the mortgage on my own home.

pc7

Jesus Donie thats a depressing read and a big loss for you, sorry to read that.

Donie75

pc7,
Yes it doesn't make for good reading. I suppose I am lucky that I have a tracker and I've been paying around €10k per year off the mortgage. I came into some money a few years ago so I cleared the equity release. When I add up the costs and the tax paid, I really can't see how anyone makes money out of renting property in this country.
I think I'll book myself a nice holiday when I sell it. At least I can say some good has come from it.

Woshy

Donie75 wrote: »

I really couldn't be bothered subsidising the governments social housing programme any longer. The high tax bill and huge costs associated with keeping a rental property mean it is no longer viable. I'd rather have the money to pay something off the mortgage on my own home.

That is exactly why we are selling. I feel bad for the tenants because I know the rental market is terrible and they are decent people but the truth is we cannot afford to subsidise someone else's accommodation costs, at the detriment of our family life and plans. We are losing money every month and it started to cause proper issues.

We have private tenants but between maintenance, repair costs and the tax - never mind the hassle involved it just isn't worth it anymore. We were unlucky that the house needed a lot of money put in to it over 18 months.

Fingers crossed you can sell the house with no issues and can move on soon.

OP - that's exactly what we did to terminate the tenancy. Letter and Statutory Declaration (our solicitor did both for us) - We gave the tenants an extra 4 weeks notice too to be fair. We called them to let them know and then dropped letters in to them. They asked us to give them a reference too so maybe think about preparing something like that if you feel your tenant will also ask.

Sunrise_Sunset

Similar situation. Just gave our tenants Notice of Termination. Never heard of Statutory Declaration. I guess I better look it up. We too are on a tracker mortgage. Bought the property for 317,500 at the height of the boom, still owe 230,000, and it's been valued now at below this. We wanted to keep renting it out for another couple of years while we save more for our "dream home", but with all of the new legislations coming in, I want out of the game as soon as possible. We can't afford our dream home, and will be settling for something smaller. I feel bad for the tenants too but we have to put our situation first.

Browney7

Sunrise_Sunset wrote: »

Similar situation. Just gave our tenants Notice of Termination. Never heard of Statutory Declaration. I guess I better look it up. We too are on a tracker mortgage. Bought the property for 317,500 at the height of the boom, still owe 230,000, and it's been valued now at below this. We wanted to keep renting it out for another couple of years while we save more for our "dream home", but with all of the new legislations coming in, I want out of the game as soon as possible. We can't afford our dream home, and will be settling for something smaller. I feel bad for the tenants too but we have to put our situation first.

I'd be looking into it pronto if I were you.

Sunrise_Sunset

kelbal wrote: »

Hi guys, I own an apartment which I've decided to sell. Its the only investment property I've had. I have a tenant in it at the moment, who has been there for just over 4 years. I have filled out the "Notice of Termination" letter from the RTB website, and I've gotten the Statutory Declaration signed by a Peace Commisioner, declaring my intent to sell the property.
Is there anything else I need to be aware of that I'm not thinking of? We're giving her the required notice period (112 days), plus an extra week. I just don't want to miss something and find the whole process is delayed

Thanks in advance

Regarding the Statutory Declaration. Did your solicitor arrange this? How long does it take to get it sorted? Also, how much is it? Thanks.

flowerific

Sunrise_Sunset wrote: »

Similar situation. Just gave our tenants Notice of Termination. Never heard of Statutory Declaration. I guess I better look it up. We too are on a tracker mortgage. Bought the property for 317,500 at the height of the boom, still owe 230,000, and it's been valued now at below this. We wanted to keep renting it out for another couple of years while we save more for our "dream home", but with all of the new legislations coming in, I want out of the game as soon as possible. We can't afford our dream home, and will be settling for something smaller. I feel bad for the tenants too but we have to put our situation first.

You need to give then the statute of declaration asap as your notice is not valid until you do. Plus the notice period does not start until one day ofter the Valid notice. You dont need a solicitor to sign it. Look up peace commissioners of oath in you local parish and most should sign it for free.
The RTB website has a sample notice which you can download and bring ID with you to a commissioner if oaths in you local area. Google your local commissioners and give them a call

overkill602

Its also sad while you are doing everything right you are being used as a reason to legislate to make it harder for others in the future by a leftist communist ideology that seeks to protect a few existing tenants in a contracting market at the expense of encouraging what should be a normal expansion with an increasing population
Policies are anti tenant as much as they are anti LL its a pity the media doesn't see it for what it is....

The_Conductor

Sunrise_Sunset wrote: »

Regarding the Statutory Declaration. Did your solicitor arrange this? How long does it take to get it sorted? Also, how much is it? Thanks.

30 Euro (depends on your solicitor's charges for legal declarations)- and prepared there and then on the spot (they have a draft template ready to go).

It might take them 10 minutes to do.

Sunrise_Sunset

The_Conductor wrote: »

30 Euro (depends on your solicitor's charges for legal declarations)- and prepared there and then on the spot (they have a draft template ready to go).

It might take them 10 minutes to do.

Thank you. I've emailed my Solicitor.

Woshy

Our solicitor didn't charge us for the statutory declaration - or really he said it would just be absorbed to the cost of the conveyancing when we sell the house. He saw it as part of that process.

He also said a lot of his clients are landlords with one to two properties and a lot of his work at the moment is them giving notice to tenants and selling their properties. He said a lot of people are getting out and it's just not worth being a landlord anymore. That made me feel a bit better because I do feel bad about our tenants but it seems to be across the board that people just can't do it anymore.

Donie75

I downloaded the form from here https://onestopshop.rtb.ie/ending-a-tenancy/sample-notices-of-termination/
Then I filled out the Notice of termination and Declaration and dropped into my solicitor to get it signed. He didn't charge for it but then again, I did give him a bit of business over the last few years.
I used regular post but I suppose I should have used registered post.
Anyway, my tenant has engaged with me and is looking for a reference and is working on getting somewhere to move to.
I just need to decide if it's worth doing some renovations to the house before I sell it or not. I was thinking of painting it, doing the garden and maybe new carpets.
What have other selling landlords done?

The_Conductor

Absolute minimum- freshly painted in neutral colours, clean and unfurnished- is probably the best.
Re: the garden- tidyup- and declutter.

Re: the furniture- cheap tat isn't going to help sell the place- I honestly think an unfurnished house gives prospective purchasers a blank canvas where they can imagine for themselves what it'll look like.

Essentially you want to make the place look as large, clean, neat and tidy as possible.

Claw Hammer

The_Conductor wrote: »

30 Euro (depends on your solicitor's charges for legal declarations)- and prepared there and then on the spot (they have a draft template ready to go).

It might take them 10 minutes to do.

There is a fixed charge of €10 for commissioner of oaths witnessing a signature on a document.

Sunrise_Sunset

Fluked I came across this thread. Thanks all. My solicitor is sorting out the letter for me, and we will probably re-do the Notice of Termination to go with it. As I gave them a fair bit longer than the required 42 days notice, I should be able to get this to them on time to keep our dates in place for the termination of the lease.

tretorn

Sunrise_Sunset wrote: »

Fluked I came across this thread. Thanks all. My solicitor is sorting out the letter for me, and we will probably re-do the Notice of Termination to go with it.

All the information you need is on the RTB website, they even have template letters there for each scenario.

You can fill in the templates with your own information, ie you are selling the house. Follow the template completely using the terminology and make sure you give the correct period of time to the tenants before they must leave.

Your solicitor will probably charge you a couple of hundred euros to prepare the notice and he will use the RTB templates. You only need him to witness the sworn declaration and you can use the RTB template here too, its really easy to do it yourself.

You really need to familiarise yourself with landlords responsibilities when terminating the tenancy, again the RTB website is really good but you need to study it in detail.