Council tenants allowed rent out rooms for up to €14,000 a year tax-free

Murph85

Here is my proposal. Free rooms in your free house funded by poor taxpayers. And most taxpayers are the poor.... you pay appropriate rent on the property. 50 ish percent of income like many taxpayer's are paying, sounds appropriate...

Emblematic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120546053#Comment_120546053

In theory, yes. However there are limits to the rents that can be charged. For example in Dublin the maximum that can be charged a single person renting a room in a shared house / apartment is €430. In other parts of the country the limit is lower.

Juran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547782#Comment_120547782

I know young ones who are paying €850 a month (minus bills) for a small room in a shared house in Dublin. Where does this €450 come from ??

Crazy, state provides you with an asset worth 100s of thousands for a token fee and now allows you to rent a portion of it out tax free.

Why not tax the occupants of under utilized socal houses which would encourage them to rent out a room or downsize if the option is available.

Emblematic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548013#Comment_120548013

The highest rent for rent allowance. Yes, hardly anyone pays 450 a month for a room. You are allowed a bit more if you are a couple renting a room but it is still well below market rates.

Emblematic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548088#Comment_120548088

Yes one of the problems with this new measure is that it will make the necessary punitive taxing of vacant privately owned property politically difficult.

SwimClub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548088#Comment_120548088

Because they wouldn't pay, many of them already don't pay their token rent, just google local authority rent arrears.

ApeEvolved

Dont build more cheap and cheerful social houses, that would effect the wealthy, we cant have property prices go down

Let just get the dumb working renters of the Country to pay for a room in a house that someone else got for free 🤣.

You literally couldnt make this up. I would usually say anyone dumb enough to pay for one of these rooms needs head examined but they probably have no choice🤣

SwimClub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548649#Comment_120548649

You mean anyone dumb enough to pay TWICE for one of these rooms.....

maninasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547026#Comment_120547026

Because I have a job, work hard and earn too much money.

You won't get a council house these days unless you are unemployed or extremely low income, single mother with kids, declare yourself homeless in emergency accomodation, or some other major issues.

You KNOW that.

That doesn't mean the people living in council houses are all unemployed. Far from it.

maninasia

They only need to be pay max 24 euro a week to be on the tenancy list with their parents if their parents are still working and earning more than them.

Because its the principal payer pays most of the rent at 12%. If they end up being the principal payer its still a handy ole number to 'inherit' a house that was not supposed to be inherited.

maninasia

Sure they are happy. Multiple generations getting taken care of by the state.

Nice. What's not to like.

dennis72

Total insult to any tax payer or accommodation provider

These are state owned properties maintained by LAs

Ever increasing expanding state benefits are leaving those who contribute and get up go to work alienated.

Do see a scenario where a separated couples who reunited and have 2 council properties can let either 1 and say its rent a room or when an extra money for luxuries can be passed off rent a room funds.

Career on Benefits verses career without now both have incentives but 1 is lot easier.

Next election will be won on future state benefits giveaways sure after dust settles announce a 1.5% prsi no 1 will even notice.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548427#Comment_120548427

True but revenue tend to have a higher level of compliance than the councils when it comes to collecting payments.

Lionel Fusco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547763#Comment_120547763

Do social housing tenants not pay tax? When did the government pass this law?

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120549027#Comment_120549027

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, the average wage in Ireland is around 44k a year. According to Citizens Information, someone on 40k a year would qualify for HAP in Dublin. We're getting close to where the average worker needs state assistance to pay their rent, and that's if they can even find somewhere to rent.

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/local_authority_and_social_housing/applying_for_local_authority_housing.html

The only "solution" that the state can ever offer is more funny-money because anything else gets labeled "far right"....

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120549408#Comment_120549408

It's a huge failure of successive governments, mostly FF/FG, that we have ended up in this situation over a generation. We were able to work in low/ modestly paid jobs in our 20s and easily find affordable accommodation to rent before moving onto a house purchase. That the average working citizen is now likely in need of state assistance for housing is an absolute disgrace. Never lose an opportunity to remind your local TDs this, of all parties.

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120549434#Comment_120549434

Realistically, I don't believe that any other political party would or could have done any different because what we're seeing in Ireland is more or less the same as what's happening in any Western countrie. Things are a little different from place to place, but the unifying fact is the same: decline. Decades of chasing the infinite growth paradigm is reaching the point where it cannot be sustained any longer. 2008 should have been the alarm clock to get the ship in order, but the opportunities for reform were not taken, and it's probably too late now.

Lionel Fusco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120549434#Comment_120549434

Housing is of course the major issue in Ireland now and the responsibility for that falls squarely at the feet of FF/FG. The housing crisis is not an accident that the poor government is trying to fix it is a situation deliberately created by the actions of the ruling parties. They have chosen the profits of the developers and funds over the welfare of their own citizens. The state is running huge budget surpluses that it refuses to spend on the welfare of its citizens this is a deliberate ideological choice just as leaving housing to the market is a deliberate ideological choice. Hopefully at the next election these bastards will finally pay for that choice.

feelings

An absolute joke. So you can get a free house/reduced rent and now they're going to allow tenants of said properties to make up to 14k for free??

Oh just f**k off FF/FG. Another failure for Darragh O'Brien.

DubCount

Can we stop the party political broadcasts on this topic. Much of the damage to the rental market in particular has come from opposition parties hurling from the ditch supported by the media and "homeless charities". How many landlords are leaving through fear of what a SF/PBP government would implement. Most of the damage has been done by over-regulation and all political parties supported it and want even more over-regulation. Its not a FF/FG blame game, its a collective failure by all parties and most media to support the popular answer in stead of answers that fix the issues. External factors like Covid and Ukraine are also not the fault of any political parties, but we all have to deal with the consequences.

rob316

You can bitch and moan about it but we are in a crisis. All avenues need to be looked at to increase housing.

In the UK they have a bedroom tax if you have a council house under occupied, there should be the same here but there is nothing available in properties to encourage downsizing.

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120549584#Comment_120549584

External factors are not under the control of the state, on that I will agree. However, how those problems are dealt with is certainly under the states purview. I'll leave it at that...

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058294833/council-tenants-allowed-rent-out-rooms-for-up-to-14-000-a-year-tax-free

...ah shur it just shows how much our approach to property has completely collapsed, with a high level of dysfunction, addiction, mental health issues etc etc, amongst council tenants, this policy is also set to completely fail, ffg truly are fcuked!

Juran

Nothing would change tomorrow if new parties ran this country. All every party can do is to rearrange the deckchairs on the titanic.

Without major building of local authority housing/apartments and building affordable housing/apartments (to allow average workers to buy) across the country, and in particular the cities, there is no viable, practical, social or economic solution to this problem, or crisis in reality.

Government departments, LA's/councils, Bord Pleanaila, An Taisce, etc. Need to all come together to form an action group on housing .. like a Cobra group as they do in the UK. Plenty of LA and state land in this country. Inact CPO if required. Hire resources, look abroad .. plenty of apartment engineers and architects in Germany, Scandanavia, etc. Dont rely on the small pool of Irish building firms. All agree on plans to prevent delays. Bring in builders from abroad - give them work visa's and house them in the hotels and accomidation that we currently use (Ukrainians will return and asylum applicants should be processed quicker to make room for builders).

It would be the best investment this country will do for generations to come.

I know all this sounds simple, but it can be done. Look around the world, others can do it, why can't we ?

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120549703#Comment_120549703

....property and land markets are simply locked down by vested interests, its not gonna be easy to change this....

robinbird

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547782#Comment_120547782

There is now however "discretionary" HAP which is an additional 35% and homeless HAP. Let's tease this out.

Suppose Mikey who is unemployed has a social house. His friend Paddy lives next door with his parents.

Paddy unfortunately is kicked out by his parents and is now homeless.. How much a month could Mikey get from the council in HAP payments if he was to say he was renting a room to Paddy.. At the discretionary or homeless rate.. If he was to rent another room to another friend Billy how much could he get for the two . How much if Paddys girlfriend moved in too.. Not rent from his friends now but tax free HAP payments from council

walterking

For all those getting on their high horse over this.

1 - There won't be a huge number of council houses in areas that will command €14,000 - even for 2 rooms.

2 - The 14k is the MAXIMUM amount they can receive. It includes everything. So no extra for bins or insurance or electricity. Even 1c over 14k and its all taxable.

3 - Those advocating people "downsize". It never works. Most people will still need a kitchen & living room. Many could easily claim that they need at least two bedrooms. And the cost of moving someone from a 3 bed to a 2 bed would negate any advantages.

It might bring a few rooms in Crumlin / Fairview and a few other areas. And if they get a few extra quid, so be it. Its not as easy as you think allowing your house to be used by a stranger. I suspect many might be used as digs for students.

ednwireland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120545484#Comment_120545484

a lot were converted to flats or back to houses and hence have lower occupancy

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120549584#Comment_120549584

There's always been a certain amount of dysfunction in the housing system here. The middle classes and their children were able to muddle through though and find a way. What has changed in recent years is that these same middle classes and their children are increasingly being affected. Leaving aside what we might think of this, this is bad news for government parties and politics in general. They talk of looking after the middle ground but are in danger of rapidly losing this middle ground.

Housing minister heard on radio earlier, pattering away like a salesman. Smoke, mirrors and spoof.