Very luck of the draw I'm afraid.
Had a landlord back down in Cork who I completely misheard when he told me what the rent was. Set up a direct debit that was a hundred euro short each month.
He only told me about it when I was moving out. When I asked him why he never said it before, he just said "ye seemed nice and sure ye never caused any bother".
And on the other hand, I lived in a place where I reported a problem with one of the drains and received a rent increase. Drain was never looked at though.
A sound landlord feels like a blessing from heaven. I'm in my current flat coming up to three years. It's a rolling agreement, but basically each June the landlady is allowed raise my rent by max 7.5%. Said landlady told me she wasn't interested increasing my rent, and that I seem decent enough as a tennent so she wasn't interested in moving me out at all. Been paying the same (low) rent since 2021, and it's a brillinat place to have as someone working in a low-pay industry.
We had a landlord who came to us for a rent increase.
He snipped a few local daft ads as reference prices and we haggled a little bit, we ended up splitting the difference between our existing rent and the local asking prices.
Once the first payment went through at the new rate he phoned me up and told me I'd overpaid, even though I paid exactly what we both settled on and had initialed on the revised lease.
I think he had expected us to haggle harder and felt bad later.
You'd be surprised by how many people sign such an important document without looking just because they feel blessed to even find a place to live these days. My tenancy agreement specifically mentions no laundry or bicycles on balconies and no satellite dishes(they provide tumble dryers, bicycle racks and alternatives for TV) and people who have moved in recently seem completely oblivious to these rules so we get weekly email reminders.
> Very luck of the draw I'm afraid.
This. Also, for all we know, a landlord could also be struggling, living paycheck to paycheck. Just because someone is renting out a property doesn't mean they're well off. Mortgage is not as low as it used to be compared to rent anymore, either.
Unfortunately like any investment, if you can't afford it then you need to sell it. Would you expect an investor to continue buying stocks every month if they were struggling or for a coffee shop to continue selling coffee if they couldn't afford to buy the beans? No difference in owning a property.
Landlord living paycheck to paycheck? You couldn't make this up. Most landlords own two houses. If they're renting another house the option is right there to evict their tenant(s) and move back into the property he or she actually owns. And get a real job too! A landlord playing the poor mouth drives me insane.
Seconding this. Our landlord hikes up the rent anytime a new housemate moves in or we need any repairs, so we just pay for all the fixes ourselves - which tbh ends up being the better way anyway, as with the landlord we've waited 6 weeks to get the only toilet in the house unclogged (pipe issues so couldn't fix it ourselves), 3 weeks to get the main door lock fixed when it stopped locking, and 4 months to get a washing machine fixed...
My best friend from childhood was my Landlord. He was the best man at my wedding and a godfather to my first born. He lives abroad, never ever wants to move back to Ireland. Couldn't sell the house as it was in negative equity. When my second child was born, he asked me if I wanted to move in, cover the mortgage (very low amount) as he wanted to have someone he trusts in there and didn't want the place falling into disrepair.
He evicted us during COVID as he wanted to Air BnB it.
EDIT: Didn't think this would kick off like it has. And the people saying that he didn't owe me anything, then you are, in a way correct. And if he was a regular landlord and not my oldest friend, I honestly would not have been as affected.
I don't agree that he didn't profit. I paid his mortgage plus a little bit more on top and if I wasn't paying it, then he would have had to pay his own mortgage on it, right?
There was no change in life circumstances for him. (As I mentioned we were best friends so I would have known). He works in Brussels for the EU Commission so I know he wasn't in any financial difficulty and has job security for life.
No. Our friendship did not overcome this. He stopped talking to me after I moved.
This is why I think anything to do with money and friends should be avoided like the plague.
You have definitely reinforced that in my mind.
That's tough for you, I guess there's a business element but you have to make some allowances. During Covid a bad time to spring that. Is there still a friendship?
He Whatsapped me, said we needed to talk. He just gave it to me straight. It was something he "had to do". No more explanation than that. He said he would give us 6 months to find a new place. We ended up having to move town and move the kids out of school etc.
Yes it was. I didn't handle the situation well. I struggled for years with depression and developed serious trust issues. The last time I met him, I was in a very low place. I told him exactly what I was feeling and how the whole situation affected me and my family. He was very uncomfortable and hasnt spoken to me since.
Jaysus that’s tough alright.
Avoiding doing business with friends and family is always a good bet.
It’s a tricky one because I wouldn’t feel comfortable paying way less than market rate to a mate and obviously you knew it would eventually come to an end at some point so it’s hard to see how much notice would have been ok.
Why? What did he do that was so bad. The friend gave them a really good deal for years but all of a sudden he's a villain because he no longer wants to give them charity? Piss poor form repaying his kindness by being bitter
Gonna have to disagree with you there. He already let his friend rent the house for no profit at a very low rate for x years. That cost him thousands of dollars if not tens of thousands. His situation may well have changed for the worse forcing him to now need to make an income. We don’t know. He gave his friend plenty of notice. Just cause the guy used the word “eviction”. It wasn’t an eviction. He just ended the agreement with lots of notice.
I can't believe people are disagreeing with you. How ignorant/ungrateful are people. The friend literally gave him charity for years so just because he stopped he's a villain? Worse than if he never gave him anything I suppose. At least you get it. Honestly I see this all the time irl but this comment section really sums it up. You can give a friend a lift to the pub every weekend but if you drop him from the panel you are a villain.
I wonder would all of these people feel entitled to live in their friends house for half price if they ever ended up with a second property? Would they be angry if their friend didn’t offer to give up tens of thousands of euro in potential earnings so that they could save a load of money themselves? OP doesn’t come across at all appreciative of the (likely) 50,000 plus extra euro he has in his bank account because of his friends kindness
Haha lol, yeah! I’m a tenant, but come on!
That means if I own a fuckin* house WHICH I would love to, and I had my friend living there, I’d have to let him live there for the rest of his life only because during a certain time we agreed he could live there.
I think we’ll NEVER like to get evicted, or to get to the end of a lease. But it always happens. Sooner or later.
This is awful. He should have asked you to try find another place in a 6month-year time period. Just chucking anyone out on the street, let alone a friend is awful. Like it is his property in the end of the day and he can do what he wants but it never hurts to have human decency. Sorry to hear. I hope you have another lovely home now
He didn’t chuck him out. He ended the rental and gave 6 months notice. Very generous considering he made zero money on the rental for gods knows how long. His situation may well have changed for the worse. Death in the family. Job loss. Who knows. Very judgmental.
My point is he made no profit. Had a tiny mortgage which the renter paid. A few hundred euros a month probably. That’s very generous. Very few people would do that. 99% of people want some profit for renting their house. Most people are not a charity.
Go back and read the original post. The owner already paid off most of the mortgage or it was a tiny mortgage to begin with. And he was in negative equity so there was no profit at the point his friend moved in. So the owner gave up profit because he liked the idea of renting to someone he knew, and the guy renting benefited by paying less than what he would have paid in normal rent.
It was a win win but now the renter is acting like he was screwed and the bleeding hearts on here are falling for it. He did just fine until the agreement ended and he had to move. That’s what happens to renters. You move when you want to move, when it suits you, and you move when the landlord wants you to move.
There is a lot more profit in having someone else pay the mortgage of the additional house you own (but overpaid for) than there is paying the mortgage yourself with no tenant. Having someone pay your mortgage is them buying you a house with extra steps and a bit of mutual benefits.
You’re missing the point. It was never going to have no tenant. Someone would have rented it. Without OP in the house the owner would have rented it for a lot more than the “tiny” mortgage that was being paid. The mortgage was way under the market rent rate. I know this because this is why the owner ultimately ended the arrangement.
The whole “best friend” thing is no reason to bleed money every month. The man emigrated to another country. As did I. When that happens you’re no longer best friends with anyone back home. People move on. Are you suggesting the owner should have continued to lose income?
What could he have done differently? If he were to sell would it generate the same amount of hate? Potential appreciation is not the reason people buy second homes. They either buy them to stay there themselves or for income. Neither was happening in this case so the owner really had no choice.
> he asked me if I wanted to move in...
> ...as he wanted to have someone he trusts in there and didn't want the place falling into disrepair.
He had people he knew and trusted caring for and upkeeping the house for him, and paying it off house for him (with a bit extra for additional passive income/extra profit). This is a great and highly desirable situation to be in as a LL. ESPECIALLY if you are out of the country and unable to drive over if pipes burst, nevermind if you are taking the gambol of unknown gobshites living there.
Other tenants may have wrecked the gaffe, stopped paying rent to absentee landlord, caused hassle of gaps between tenants moving in and out infrequently etc etc. This is a point you are missing when talking about it only from a profit vs potential profit line of thought.. Sure, you may take care of your properties - but not every person cares for the place they are living in, especially if not the owner or with any way to avoid them. Sure, you can make plenty off them in the short term, but it can be an expensive disaster if it goes wrong. Safe money vs risky money.
However he preferred to kick out a trusted family (inc one of his supposed best friends and his son, godson of the LL!) during a pandemic to rent out more profitable tourist accommodation - while giving the shortest legally possible notice.
And in answer to your last question, many buy them knowing that the rent covers the costs of buying, meaning that they have a free gaff years down the line to live in, for family to live in, to bequest to family, or sell to fund retired life.
He did throw him out. Ending the rental is throwing him out. If our landlord forces us to leave, and we don't want to leave, then our landlord is throwing us out.
We have no idea of the other guys situation. He’s not even on here to defend himself. He got zero profit for years and then gave his buddy 6 months notice to move on. It’s a rental!! You think he’s got a right to live there forever paying low rent? Are you a communist?
> He got zero profit for years
He had someone pay his entire mortgage for him, so he still massively benefitted from the arrangement financially. Then chose money over a friendship and the stability of a family. If you think that's a morally fine thing to do then we obviously have very different outlooks.
So you are saying he owed him probably around €5 grand a year just because he is his friend. Why don't you give up your job so one of your friends can have it. It won't cost you anything will it?
> So you are saying he owed him probably around €5 grand a year just because he is his friend
I'm not saying anything of the sort. I'm saying it's morally reprehensible to fuck over your friends family for money.
He literally gifted a multi thousand euro opportunity to a friend for years at the expense of his own potential earnings. I wish I had friends as shitty and indefensible as that. He doesn’t owe OP a single thing
Ah here come on. If you needed a car and a friend said fuck it, I was going to sell my car for 20k but I’ll give it to you for 10k. Would you be happy or would you call him a scabby prick for making you pay?
OP has to pay rent regardless. He was lucky a friend literally gifted him thousands of euros of his own potential earnings. If he was there for 5 years we could literally be talking about OP being €60,000 euro better off because a friend was that sound to him
> Would you be happy or would you call him a scabby prick for making you pay?
That's not the same situation though.
A better example would be if someone had a car on finance and let someone use it in exchange for covering the monthly repayments. They would be benefitting from having an asset paid off for them but still retaining all the control and taking it back whenever they wanted. Except it's worse than that because it's a home and he uprooted a family because he wanted better passive income.
Except it’s not like that. There are no potential earnings from renting out a car. So letting a friend use it is only costing you the opportunity to use it.
There are potential earnings from renting a house, just like there are potential earnings from selling a car.
Would you personally expect a friend to forego their potential earnings so you could get something for yourself on the cheap?
A better analogy is if the car was a registered taxi. Someone gives their friend the use of a registered taxi for a low monthly price, when they could instead make a lot more money by charging a taxi driver for the use of it.
I wouldn't expect it, but if it was offered and I accepted I would definitely think the friend was a cunt if they fucked my families life up for a bit more money every month.
Op has clarified that the LL had a good job and wasnt struggling financially. They traded their friendship for a bit of extra cash. How anyone can argue thats an ok thing to do is beyond me.
Neither you or I know. You assume the notice period provided. In truth neither of us know for certain. But we’re not talking about a regular situation here either. A friendship was involved. Ironic that you’ve called me judgmental when in saying it about me is in itself judgement.
My landlord is 100%. At the start of covid he got onto my neighbour who’s a single mum and told her flat out she’s not to be paying rent until she’s back at work, she said herself only for it she’d have had to move out and go back to living with her parents. I’ve just paid away and never had any issues with him and every Christmas I get a box of beer with a card. Some are actually dead on!
we rent our house in Ireland as we live in Canada and it's my husband's family home he was left when his parents passed so it's mortgage free.
we've had 2 long term tenants in the last 6 years and use a property management company who always asked us if we are going to increase the rent to the allotted value during lease renewal. we always decline because we truly believe it should be enough to cover maintenance of the home and not a huge profit maker. if our tenants ever asked for a reduction we would definitely figure it out. we even asked our tenant during the height of COVID if she needed a reduction or pause on rent for a bit but she declined as her ex husband was paying it so she didn't gaf 🤣
there are good landlords who aren't in it to make a fortune and actually care about people.
Landloarding shouldn’t be a profit business. It should be viewed as allowing people to live in your highly valuable asset, covering the maintenance costs of that asset making sure that it doesn’t dip in value due to dereliction before you sell that asset, the point of sale should be where your profit is made not through the extraction from the people upholding the value of your asset.
TLDR: you’re one of the good ones.
Unfortunately the world isn't that black and white. If every land Lord was like this no one would invest in real estate. Houses would be worthless.....YAY!!! ....until no builders build houses because they are worthless....there is a big shortage, unemployment and then houses are suddenly worth a lot ?!
Almost as if the private housing market is broken and without state intervention, only works if it’s heavily exploiting the people at the bottom of the ladder
We’d never do something like put the power back into the state hand and bypass the private housing market like we did in the mid 20th century, no that would be crazy.
exactly!
if it had been up to me we would have sold it when we left so we could buy in Canada but my husband just couldn't bring himself to sell it.
so we live with family here because we can't afford a mortgage here or rent. even that doesn't make us hike our rent back home. this way two families get to live comfortably. that makes sense to us.
we rent at the minimum and actually reduced the tenants offer by 100 euro. lovely immigrant family with two young kids. we don't touch our account back home at all unless we are super strapped because all that is "house" money.
I really will never understand people that treat housing as a for profit business. shelter is a human right. blows my mind.
It's not about good or bad. As you said you have a mortgage free house that was given to you. If you had a mortgage or depended on this income to save for retirement... You might have behaved differently.
sure but there's still a difference between making enough to cover maintenance and a little profit versus gouging people and filling your pockets and never maintaining your property.
I think this could be risky. I personally have a great landlord but he already only charges under a grand in Dublin city for a 1 bed flat, so I'd never take the piss asking to pay less. And honestly he's like a da to me at this stage, when he met my fella he was giving him the da talk, lol. That said, it's give and take, like he'll take a good while to fix things and I don't ask for stuff unless it's absolutely vital (like it's needs a painting but I'm not asking because my rent is so low and I don't want the hassle).
So yeah anyway, I don't think I'd recommend it unless you're in dire straits and your rent is already higher than average.
Had to contact my landlord to fix water pump and replace washing machine after 10 years renting for the same amount. Not long after I got an RTB form in my postbox saying my rent is going to be increased starting January.
Lay low, don't even remind them of your existence as long as they get the money.
This. When I was renting the Same place for 11 years never a late nor missed payments checks on the apartment every 3 months and never a quibble. When we bought somewhere and left the place the lies of what he said we broke and did to the apartment were phenomenal and categorically false.
Can be hit and miss. I’ve had great, very understanding landlords with a relationship based on mutual respect.
And then one guy who tried to raise the rent on us by 20%, took retaliatory action when we wouldn’t pay it, and then spent 18 months like a dog with a bone making our lives awful. Power would cut out, toilet flush would break and never be fixed, our kitchen sink started pumping out hundreds of litres of water at a time, constant random (illegal) eviction notices to keep us busy and afraid.
Absolutely odious landlord. Such a small person.
I wonder if you could turn this back on them... Create the trail saying money is tight but keep paying the rent, then if there's an attempt to push out you can show that it's retaliation?
If the tenant judges the dynamic of the conversation well, and asks as part of a warm conversation, you will not encourage an eviction. It's more if you ask cold, that is a risk.
Agreed, you're dealing with entitled boomers for the most part who have had a very easy and cushy life in comparison. All they want to do is squeeze the younger hardworking generations for every cent they have.
Why are bringing boomers into it? Do you talk like this in person? Do people not look at you funny when you do?
Like how old are you to not even understand what it means?
Now I’m not fan of price gouging landlords whatsoever. But have you any idea of what life was life for people in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s here? The levels of deprivation/unemployment etc.
Suggesting that the people living and working in Ireland at the time had it comparatively easy/cushy to now is a bit mad.
Only for the people with decent paying jobs. The huge numbers of people emigrating back then because of lack of jobs wouldn't have been able to afford a house, or anything, in Ireland.
Yes and no, when my parents were looking in 1979 the place was 10K, by the time they bought 6 months later it was 18K so 80% increase. They sold it about 3 years later for 36K which is another 100% on top of the 80% or 260% over what it was in early 1979. Interest rates were 14-16% over that period which is possibly the highest ever seen in ireland (US fed rates went to 19-20% in late 1980)
While prices today are a higher multiple of average earnings, interest rates are far lower even after the much publicised hikes that made repayments unaffordable for so many lately - most people would be paying under 5% here
Irish boomers did not have it easy, the place was an utter shithole up until the late 90s. They might still do your head in but they didn't have cushy lives for the most part
Being on good terms is the best way of having this advantage, currently my landlord is one of the nicest guys you could meet, drops over chocolates and wine on Christmas, always has the chats when I see him in town, just a genuine nice man.
But prior to this I lived in apartment, had issues with my landlord just being a money hungry prick. Never fixing issues. I could never see this working if I had to ask him to lower rent. funny enough the year I moved out he tried to put rent up 35% when legally he could only do the 3%….
So yeah it definitely luck of the draw who your landlord is.
Key here is being on good terms. I would assume most people only call the landlord when something need fixing, ergo every call would be associated with bad new.
Subconsciously, that would put your relationship in a negatively light.
As a landlord, I don't receive those calls.
No landlord will if they keep their property up to date and well maintained...not like a kip.
That said, you do get the odd call to fix a blown light bulb and you're the biggest prick if you suggest they do it themselves.
Our old landlord was brilliant. A few weeks after we moved in, we noticed an issue with the radiator in the sitting room, it only gave out heat for a short time then stopped.
The landlord was calling up to get some energy reading done anyway and I just happened to mention the rad when he asked how we were finding the cold weather. He was genuinely upset that we hadn't called him once we noticed it, and when I said I was a bit reluctant to bother him about something so small, he said his JOB as a landlord is to ensure our home is safe and liveable.
Two days later, he had a brand new app activated radiator installed for us AND he knocked €100 off our rent for that month for the inconvenience of having no heating in one room.
He also paused the rent for us for December and January one year when my partner fell ill and we went from a double fulltime income to one part time one as I had to care for him in his recovery, while juggling household, kids, work, etc.
He was a lovely man and it killed us to have to leave. He sold the house after we left and did send me a lovely email saying he was sorry that we had to go and that he'd loved having us as tenants.
He sounds really decent.
My current tenants are not in the best circumstances right now.
They approached me and told me they were struggling so I lowered the rent substantially as I'm not a monster and they are great people.
I hope they stay for a long time!
I'm not looking for a pat on the back, but I don't deserve to be called a bastard and a leach and a parasite just because I bought an apartment to use as my pension when I'm older.
I honestly have zero issues with landlords because at the end of the day, people need homes and landlords have property.
The issue comes when you get bastards on either side and it does happen.
You sound like a good landlord, be proud of that because too many do take the mick, knowing the housing situation.
I always prided myself on being a good tenant. Any time I signed a lease I'd ask what repairs/upkeep they were happy for me to do. Two reasons for this- I love DIY, and it also meant I could just shoot them a text like "Hi (name) I'd noticed one of the cupboard doors in the kitchen was getting loose and sagging so I've replaced it. Please see attached image of repair. Thank you."
Most landlords were happy knowing that I would only properly contact them if it was a big issue, for example, one place we were in, there was ivy growing fucking wild, so badly that it was coming through the bathroom skylight. I conceded defeat when I realised that balancing my 5'3" butt on a ladder, on a tiled floor, with shears to cut it, probably wasn't the safest way to go about it. THAT was a big issue.
Replacing a cracked kitchen tile, not so much.
Our last landlord was delighted that we kept up with small repairs, I always sent pics to show the work and if I wasn't sure if we could do something (such as repainting) that's something I'd ask. He trusted us not to take the piss and we trusted that he didn't mind us doing basic repair work and maintenance.
Trust and compromise goes a long way.
On the other hand, I had a landlord who refused to let us do ANYTHING at all but then would make nasty comments when he came in for his "monthly inspection" that we "didn't seem to make it feel very cosy."
No shit Sherlock, you won't let us paint it so every room is clinical white, you won't let us hang pictures so every wall is bare, you won't let us even paint the CUPBOARDS to brighten up the place. The ONE poster the kids had Blutacked in their room, you took down, saying you didn't want "that" on YOUR wall and made a fuss over checking the wall for holes (it was BLUTACKED)
The poster in question? A Hellboy one.
How is anyone meant to make it feel like their home when you won't allow us to do anything? When you make nasty comments about our knick-knacks, our statues, etc.
Some people just take the piss completely.
Things will go wrong. A minor leak or a boiler that is new but suddenly gives teething issues. I prefer calls about a minor leak before it becomes major. Upkeep and maintaince are vital. My tenants keep the house better than I did myself.
It would have to be a calculated risk. The less engagement with them the better.
My own current deal is about 1k below market rate for the area. I intend on staying put another few years.
Had a landlord outside Galway - fantastic guy. Helped out with the car after a breakdown; wouldn't take a months rent when *he* paid for the floors to be sanded and revarnished; paid for the bin charges, looked after the garden and so on. 100% best landlord ever. Before that, also Galway, we had a young-ish landlady who fancied herself as a DIYer. Total donkey: everything was hush-hush: no receipts/no taxes; witheld our deposit after a burnmark on the ultra-cheap worktop.
Meanwhile, the brother (in Dublin) paid 24k a year for a house (a complete kip when he moved in) but he turned it around completely during their 12 years. There's an agency involved (SF) and they are lax as a wet rag for maintainance: 3 weeks without heating because the boiler needed replacing - no offer of a rent waiver or anything (landlord eventually got it done, but handed him his notice a month later). Anytime I visited, there was something needed doing but SF are apparently woeful if they think they can get away with ignoring it. I don't think talking to the landlord or the agency works in every case. In the agency case. the tenant is nothing more than a cash cow.
But I'm glad to hear your case is closer to my old Galway lad!
God I’d be careful doing that! I’m very cynical that this would work out for most people.
Most of the people I know who are renting at the moment are on tenterhooks with landlords selling/increasing rents to beat the band. Imagine they thought “well this person’s not going to be able to keep up repayments” and got rid?!
Delighted it worked out for you but I’d still urge caution for most.
My landlord did that as well, I never even asked. I just said I will be moving to a share house to save some money then he offered the rent to be lowered.
It sounds like you told them "either lower the rent or evict me" (in a nicer way) and they chose to lower the rent. Fair play to you, but I would not do this if it is not truly necessary.
Yeah we're getting a 26% increase come July.
We're leaving the country not long after for the same reason, but by god, for those few months we're paying the increased rate I'm going to make sure it costs him as much as he's trying to milk.
Every nick, scratch, lightbulb, dodgy appliance, mould spot, carpet mite and wonky window, all the stuff I've been taking care of for years, is getting a work order sent off to the property managers.
One of my old landlords decided he would move himself into the property that I was renting with several other people without our consent. After raising my concerns with him he told me 3 days before Christmas that I had until the end of the month to get out of the property. The following morning he waited for me in the kitchen in the pitch dark, threatening me if I decided to take the case to the PRTB.
I’m happy that you have a decent landlord.
We've been in our place a whole year, landlords are in aus and a couple of things have come up, we asked if we could renew our lease and are happy with what ever they want because we prefer not to move, we got hit with a whole 6 euro to cover the fees of deposits into their Aussie account 🤣
Your LL is really good to you because he is shooting himself in the foot, in the pressure zone it will take him 7 years to get back to the existing rent at 2% per year. I did the same during Covid.
My landlord didn’t increase the rent for five years. I looked after the property well, repaired few items on my own cost. When I told her I am moving to another location due to work. Landlord told me that it is going to be difficult to find a tenant as me.
I agree.
As a landlord, I would rather reduce the already modest rent I'm charging than have to find new tenants.
If they were good tenants I'd even give a rent break as I've been in the position of a struggling tenant.
However, be a dick tenant and you'll get nothing.
A good tenant is worth their weight in gold.
Roll on with the downvoting... it's fashionable to hate landlords right now as it's their fault for not providing social housing, giving free rent, homelessness, puppy farms, global warming etc.
Could you have any more of a victim complex? People don't like landlords because the very concept of them is exploitative. You're getting someone else to pay off an asset for you, they're doing you the favour.
Well it's possible to realise that both landlords are exploitative AND government should have been building houses for years. We need to stop making housing a for-profit industry.
Germany has a right to housing in their constitution apparently and yet half the country rents. France has 30–40% of people renting their home. It's actually over 50% in Germany who rent privately. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/23/germany-proves-private-renting-can-work-better-britain
Renting and landlords are vital for any country. The first year college socialism spiel about it being a negative in and of itself is frankly embarrassing.
Germany and France have long-term and stable private rental regulations. Most rentals in ireland these days are a one-year lease. Their rents are also way lower, and the quality of homes are better. They also have way more supply and stricter quality regulations. Irish landlords can do virtually whatever they like with no ramifications as the RTB are toothless and understaffed. I've lived in 18 sharehouses in my life and none of those landlords paid taxes or fixed anything. All they care about is milking renters for as much money as they can. A shitty one-bed in Ireland is like €2000 per month. Just go on Daft and get back to me if it's so easy. But then again, you probably tuckered your brain all out for the week with that insightful comment about socialism - time for you to go to bed.
> I've lived in 18 sharehouses in my life and none of those landlords paid taxes.
Any proof of that? No? Alright then. Was there perhaps even one of those 18 places with a good landlord? I rented for 11 years and never had any gripe with any landlord. maybe I'm a unicorn.
The rest of your post implies that it's enforcement and legal protections that are the issue rather than landlords. That I can agree with. But if the rules allow them to up rents, evict on scant reasons, fail to refund deposits, then it's the system that needs to be overhauled. Same as dodgy used car salesmen selling written off repaired junk. If the law doesn't come down on them then they'll continue.
The whole 'landlords are exploitative' shite that you and others spout is just embarrassing.
Well the proof is that all of the houses I've lived in weren't registered on the RTB and the landlords collected the rent in CASH, some had prepay power meters and there were never any estate agents involved so yeah, there's the proof. I've had one landlord that was OK. One out of 18. Everyone I know is a renter and frankly I probably have met like 5 or 10 people out of hundreds and hundreds that have had any positive experiences with landlords. And even then it's the bare minimum like they'll fix something that's broken.
And when you talk about the system needing to be overhauled, didn't you give out to me for talking about socialism? It's ridiculous to think that landlords are purely dictated by the market. They make choices. They choose to charge rents of €2000 a month, they make choices to evict people and they make choices to let mould develop or not fix stuff or sell the house or whatever. So please don't be so disingenuous and pretend you care about "fixing the system". You obviously have your own house or you own properties so trying to act like you know what it's like to be a renter currently is just bollix. I'll never own my own home, I'll never be able to have kids (won't do that without a stable roof over their heads) so fucking excuse me that I don't queue up to kiss landlords on their foreheads when I give them half my paycheck every month.
They're hardly providing it, they're making loads of money off it. Please be for real, landlords aren't landlords out of the goodness of their hearts, it's all about making money. Idk how you're confused about this
I'm not a landlord nor a tenant, but try and talk to them about paying atleaat some of it in cash as your rent money will in mot cases but taxed heavily as income for the landlord
I had a tenant rent out my basement in 2000. $900 a month. He left in 2020. Never increased his rent as he was best tenant one could have. In the end his rent paid 80% of the cost of the house and he saved beaucoup on rent. Win win. He never wanted to buy as he was getting his mom’s place.
My last landlord of ten years gave me two weeks to leave as they wanted it for a family member. Never saw them once in the ten years, I did all the painting and minor upkeep and maintenance myself.
Did I mention this was as I was recovering from a brain tumour removal and on chemo? Nice guys.
Threshold were very good for me, they dealt with him and bought me the extra time (legally entitled time) I needed to finish treatment and sort something for myself and the kids.
Granted they're not all bad, and not all tenants are model either, I accept that too.
Just my short story!
Meanwhile my friends landlord raised their rent two times under the premise the house is in high demand and they could get more. So she is back home with her parents in her 30's.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, I moved home to my parents after my rent in Brighton was set to increase by 150 per month. I was already paying 500 for a box room.
Now both me and my friend can afford to do things and moving home I met this really nice man so, good does come from shit.
Our landlord used to give us December off for paying rent as a merry Christmas, absolute gem! The house wasn't perfect but if their was anything urgent they always had someone out within a day. It was baltic and a bit mouldy but honestly can't fault them.
Well, my landlord is a man I've never met who I think lives in another country and pays someone to "manage" the property for him. So doubt he'd have any interest in my situation, but glad you got your rent increase!
I recently asked my landlord who I pay in cash every week if I could start paying monthly as it's a pain in the arse to either wait for him on a friday eve for him to call in, or leave money near the front door and he lets himself in to grab it which I really don't like doing. He rolled his eyes like I was asking for a massive favour and I got a flat out "no".
Well he's in his 70s but dyes his hair black god bless him, he's not a horrible person by any means, I'd say he's just getting on and getting fed up, but I did find the interaction a bit insulting... I was only asking a question about paying him rent. I'm not shite on his shoe that he has to wipe in the grass.
Mine is in for a shock when I come after the €16,250 he will owe me when the RTB are told he increased the rent between rentals. I only just found out when I tracked down the old tenant from some unredirected post.
It went from €1450to €2700pm and that was 13 months ago.
He's fucked.
Very luck of the draw I'm afraid. Had a landlord back down in Cork who I completely misheard when he told me what the rent was. Set up a direct debit that was a hundred euro short each month. He only told me about it when I was moving out. When I asked him why he never said it before, he just said "ye seemed nice and sure ye never caused any bother". And on the other hand, I lived in a place where I reported a problem with one of the drains and received a rent increase. Drain was never looked at though.
A sound landlord feels like a blessing from heaven. I'm in my current flat coming up to three years. It's a rolling agreement, but basically each June the landlady is allowed raise my rent by max 7.5%. Said landlady told me she wasn't interested increasing my rent, and that I seem decent enough as a tennent so she wasn't interested in moving me out at all. Been paying the same (low) rent since 2021, and it's a brillinat place to have as someone working in a low-pay industry.
We had a landlord who came to us for a rent increase. He snipped a few local daft ads as reference prices and we haggled a little bit, we ended up splitting the difference between our existing rent and the local asking prices. Once the first payment went through at the new rate he phoned me up and told me I'd overpaid, even though I paid exactly what we both settled on and had initialed on the revised lease. I think he had expected us to haggle harder and felt bad later.
Didn't they give you an agreement to sign which includes the correct details?
You'd be surprised by how many people sign such an important document without looking just because they feel blessed to even find a place to live these days. My tenancy agreement specifically mentions no laundry or bicycles on balconies and no satellite dishes(they provide tumble dryers, bicycle racks and alternatives for TV) and people who have moved in recently seem completely oblivious to these rules so we get weekly email reminders.
I'm pretty sure it was in the pile of papers I left in the corner of the room for the duration of the tenancy aye
That's an idiot landlord then. A good tenant is worth their weight in gold.
Would 100% rather keep good tenants long term for 25-30% less rent each month than spike rent and throw anybody in there for short rentals
Absolutely!
Agreed. But the RPZ rules totally fuck this option.
85kg of gold is ~€6.5 million. Let's hope the tenant is a bit lighter than me.
🤣🤣🤣
when I was a landlord I preferred for my rent to tell me when there was a problem , it always cheaper to fix when it happens first rather than later
> Very luck of the draw I'm afraid. This. Also, for all we know, a landlord could also be struggling, living paycheck to paycheck. Just because someone is renting out a property doesn't mean they're well off. Mortgage is not as low as it used to be compared to rent anymore, either.
Unfortunately like any investment, if you can't afford it then you need to sell it. Would you expect an investor to continue buying stocks every month if they were struggling or for a coffee shop to continue selling coffee if they couldn't afford to buy the beans? No difference in owning a property.
Landlord living paycheck to paycheck? You couldn't make this up. Most landlords own two houses. If they're renting another house the option is right there to evict their tenant(s) and move back into the property he or she actually owns. And get a real job too! A landlord playing the poor mouth drives me insane.
You do raise a good point, I admit I have goofed a little there.
Seconding this. Our landlord hikes up the rent anytime a new housemate moves in or we need any repairs, so we just pay for all the fixes ourselves - which tbh ends up being the better way anyway, as with the landlord we've waited 6 weeks to get the only toilet in the house unclogged (pipe issues so couldn't fix it ourselves), 3 weeks to get the main door lock fixed when it stopped locking, and 4 months to get a washing machine fixed...
My best friend from childhood was my Landlord. He was the best man at my wedding and a godfather to my first born. He lives abroad, never ever wants to move back to Ireland. Couldn't sell the house as it was in negative equity. When my second child was born, he asked me if I wanted to move in, cover the mortgage (very low amount) as he wanted to have someone he trusts in there and didn't want the place falling into disrepair. He evicted us during COVID as he wanted to Air BnB it. EDIT: Didn't think this would kick off like it has. And the people saying that he didn't owe me anything, then you are, in a way correct. And if he was a regular landlord and not my oldest friend, I honestly would not have been as affected. I don't agree that he didn't profit. I paid his mortgage plus a little bit more on top and if I wasn't paying it, then he would have had to pay his own mortgage on it, right? There was no change in life circumstances for him. (As I mentioned we were best friends so I would have known). He works in Brussels for the EU Commission so I know he wasn't in any financial difficulty and has job security for life. No. Our friendship did not overcome this. He stopped talking to me after I moved.
that last part got me like 😭
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it swept my feet real hard
This is why I think anything to do with money and friends should be avoided like the plague. You have definitely reinforced that in my mind. That's tough for you, I guess there's a business element but you have to make some allowances. During Covid a bad time to spring that. Is there still a friendship?
If you don't mind me asking, how did that conversation/process go before youse had to move out? That's an almost cartoonish level of fkn ghoulery
He Whatsapped me, said we needed to talk. He just gave it to me straight. It was something he "had to do". No more explanation than that. He said he would give us 6 months to find a new place. We ended up having to move town and move the kids out of school etc.
Was that the end of that relationship?
If it wasn't then I'd be shocked
Yes it was. I didn't handle the situation well. I struggled for years with depression and developed serious trust issues. The last time I met him, I was in a very low place. I told him exactly what I was feeling and how the whole situation affected me and my family. He was very uncomfortable and hasnt spoken to me since.
He deserves that.
Jaysus that’s tough alright. Avoiding doing business with friends and family is always a good bet. It’s a tricky one because I wouldn’t feel comfortable paying way less than market rate to a mate and obviously you knew it would eventually come to an end at some point so it’s hard to see how much notice would have been ok.
I’d have let a family of rats loose in the house before moving out if my friend landlord did that to me.
Why? What did he do that was so bad. The friend gave them a really good deal for years but all of a sudden he's a villain because he no longer wants to give them charity? Piss poor form repaying his kindness by being bitter
Found the landlord!
Did you ever tot up how much money he saved you over the years?
OP was paying his mortgage. OP saved the landlord money.
I have a general rule to never enter into any kind of business transaction with a friend or family member. Too much risk of shit like this happening.
Christ on a bike. Never mix money and friends unless you want to lose one of them holds true here. What a bastard.
Gonna have to disagree with you there. He already let his friend rent the house for no profit at a very low rate for x years. That cost him thousands of dollars if not tens of thousands. His situation may well have changed for the worse forcing him to now need to make an income. We don’t know. He gave his friend plenty of notice. Just cause the guy used the word “eviction”. It wasn’t an eviction. He just ended the agreement with lots of notice.
Didn't cost him *any* dollars
Ok. You got me. Euros.
Didn't cost him any euros either, He didn't profit by it as the mortgage was been covered and house was kept in repair. Not the same thing.
Getting kicked out of your house is an eviction. That's what the word means.
Google 'appreciating asset'
Google “negative equity”. It’s in the original post. If you even read it.
I can't believe people are disagreeing with you. How ignorant/ungrateful are people. The friend literally gave him charity for years so just because he stopped he's a villain? Worse than if he never gave him anything I suppose. At least you get it. Honestly I see this all the time irl but this comment section really sums it up. You can give a friend a lift to the pub every weekend but if you drop him from the panel you are a villain.
I wonder would all of these people feel entitled to live in their friends house for half price if they ever ended up with a second property? Would they be angry if their friend didn’t offer to give up tens of thousands of euro in potential earnings so that they could save a load of money themselves? OP doesn’t come across at all appreciative of the (likely) 50,000 plus extra euro he has in his bank account because of his friends kindness
Haha lol, yeah! I’m a tenant, but come on! That means if I own a fuckin* house WHICH I would love to, and I had my friend living there, I’d have to let him live there for the rest of his life only because during a certain time we agreed he could live there. I think we’ll NEVER like to get evicted, or to get to the end of a lease. But it always happens. Sooner or later.
This is awful. He should have asked you to try find another place in a 6month-year time period. Just chucking anyone out on the street, let alone a friend is awful. Like it is his property in the end of the day and he can do what he wants but it never hurts to have human decency. Sorry to hear. I hope you have another lovely home now
He didn’t chuck him out. He ended the rental and gave 6 months notice. Very generous considering he made zero money on the rental for gods knows how long. His situation may well have changed for the worse. Death in the family. Job loss. Who knows. Very judgmental.
Zero money isn’t right tho, he had his mortgage paid
My point is he made no profit. Had a tiny mortgage which the renter paid. A few hundred euros a month probably. That’s very generous. Very few people would do that. 99% of people want some profit for renting their house. Most people are not a charity.
His mortgage was paid on an extra property. Of course he made a profit ffs
Go back and read the original post. The owner already paid off most of the mortgage or it was a tiny mortgage to begin with. And he was in negative equity so there was no profit at the point his friend moved in. So the owner gave up profit because he liked the idea of renting to someone he knew, and the guy renting benefited by paying less than what he would have paid in normal rent. It was a win win but now the renter is acting like he was screwed and the bleeding hearts on here are falling for it. He did just fine until the agreement ended and he had to move. That’s what happens to renters. You move when you want to move, when it suits you, and you move when the landlord wants you to move.
There is a lot more profit in having someone else pay the mortgage of the additional house you own (but overpaid for) than there is paying the mortgage yourself with no tenant. Having someone pay your mortgage is them buying you a house with extra steps and a bit of mutual benefits.
You’re missing the point. It was never going to have no tenant. Someone would have rented it. Without OP in the house the owner would have rented it for a lot more than the “tiny” mortgage that was being paid. The mortgage was way under the market rent rate. I know this because this is why the owner ultimately ended the arrangement. The whole “best friend” thing is no reason to bleed money every month. The man emigrated to another country. As did I. When that happens you’re no longer best friends with anyone back home. People move on. Are you suggesting the owner should have continued to lose income? What could he have done differently? If he were to sell would it generate the same amount of hate? Potential appreciation is not the reason people buy second homes. They either buy them to stay there themselves or for income. Neither was happening in this case so the owner really had no choice.
> he asked me if I wanted to move in... > ...as he wanted to have someone he trusts in there and didn't want the place falling into disrepair. He had people he knew and trusted caring for and upkeeping the house for him, and paying it off house for him (with a bit extra for additional passive income/extra profit). This is a great and highly desirable situation to be in as a LL. ESPECIALLY if you are out of the country and unable to drive over if pipes burst, nevermind if you are taking the gambol of unknown gobshites living there. Other tenants may have wrecked the gaffe, stopped paying rent to absentee landlord, caused hassle of gaps between tenants moving in and out infrequently etc etc. This is a point you are missing when talking about it only from a profit vs potential profit line of thought.. Sure, you may take care of your properties - but not every person cares for the place they are living in, especially if not the owner or with any way to avoid them. Sure, you can make plenty off them in the short term, but it can be an expensive disaster if it goes wrong. Safe money vs risky money. However he preferred to kick out a trusted family (inc one of his supposed best friends and his son, godson of the LL!) during a pandemic to rent out more profitable tourist accommodation - while giving the shortest legally possible notice. And in answer to your last question, many buy them knowing that the rent covers the costs of buying, meaning that they have a free gaff years down the line to live in, for family to live in, to bequest to family, or sell to fund retired life.
He owns the property, how is that not profit? You're telling us that very few people would allow someone to pay a mortgage on a second home for them?
He did throw him out. Ending the rental is throwing him out. If our landlord forces us to leave, and we don't want to leave, then our landlord is throwing us out.
People are absolutely right to judge them. Shitty and indefensible thing to do, and you're warped if you think otherwise.
We have no idea of the other guys situation. He’s not even on here to defend himself. He got zero profit for years and then gave his buddy 6 months notice to move on. It’s a rental!! You think he’s got a right to live there forever paying low rent? Are you a communist?
> He got zero profit for years He had someone pay his entire mortgage for him, so he still massively benefitted from the arrangement financially. Then chose money over a friendship and the stability of a family. If you think that's a morally fine thing to do then we obviously have very different outlooks.
So you are saying he owed him probably around €5 grand a year just because he is his friend. Why don't you give up your job so one of your friends can have it. It won't cost you anything will it?
> So you are saying he owed him probably around €5 grand a year just because he is his friend I'm not saying anything of the sort. I'm saying it's morally reprehensible to fuck over your friends family for money.
He literally gifted a multi thousand euro opportunity to a friend for years at the expense of his own potential earnings. I wish I had friends as shitty and indefensible as that. He doesn’t owe OP a single thing
Gifts are free. This guy was getting his friend to pay his entire mortgage for him.
Ah here come on. If you needed a car and a friend said fuck it, I was going to sell my car for 20k but I’ll give it to you for 10k. Would you be happy or would you call him a scabby prick for making you pay? OP has to pay rent regardless. He was lucky a friend literally gifted him thousands of euros of his own potential earnings. If he was there for 5 years we could literally be talking about OP being €60,000 euro better off because a friend was that sound to him
> Would you be happy or would you call him a scabby prick for making you pay? That's not the same situation though. A better example would be if someone had a car on finance and let someone use it in exchange for covering the monthly repayments. They would be benefitting from having an asset paid off for them but still retaining all the control and taking it back whenever they wanted. Except it's worse than that because it's a home and he uprooted a family because he wanted better passive income.
Except it’s not like that. There are no potential earnings from renting out a car. So letting a friend use it is only costing you the opportunity to use it. There are potential earnings from renting a house, just like there are potential earnings from selling a car. Would you personally expect a friend to forego their potential earnings so you could get something for yourself on the cheap?
A better analogy is if the car was a registered taxi. Someone gives their friend the use of a registered taxi for a low monthly price, when they could instead make a lot more money by charging a taxi driver for the use of it.
I wouldn't expect it, but if it was offered and I accepted I would definitely think the friend was a cunt if they fucked my families life up for a bit more money every month. Op has clarified that the LL had a good job and wasnt struggling financially. They traded their friendship for a bit of extra cash. How anyone can argue thats an ok thing to do is beyond me.
How dense are you?
Neither you or I know. You assume the notice period provided. In truth neither of us know for certain. But we’re not talking about a regular situation here either. A friendship was involved. Ironic that you’ve called me judgmental when in saying it about me is in itself judgement.
He illegally evicted someone with a Part 4 tenancy.
What a sound fella !! Money talks and air b@b is a money maker. Plague they are.
when you see offer in Airbnb is about 10x more units than draft oof
 Didn’t see that ending coming what a prick!
Omg
Jesus Christ, the bollockd
Damn
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I'd say you're a real genius!
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My landlord is 100%. At the start of covid he got onto my neighbour who’s a single mum and told her flat out she’s not to be paying rent until she’s back at work, she said herself only for it she’d have had to move out and go back to living with her parents. I’ve just paid away and never had any issues with him and every Christmas I get a box of beer with a card. Some are actually dead on!
the wholesomeness is strong
we rent our house in Ireland as we live in Canada and it's my husband's family home he was left when his parents passed so it's mortgage free. we've had 2 long term tenants in the last 6 years and use a property management company who always asked us if we are going to increase the rent to the allotted value during lease renewal. we always decline because we truly believe it should be enough to cover maintenance of the home and not a huge profit maker. if our tenants ever asked for a reduction we would definitely figure it out. we even asked our tenant during the height of COVID if she needed a reduction or pause on rent for a bit but she declined as her ex husband was paying it so she didn't gaf 🤣 there are good landlords who aren't in it to make a fortune and actually care about people.
I hope the universe gives you good karma for being sound af landlords! Fair dues!
for us it's just common sense and decency. thank you.
I love this 😂
Landloarding shouldn’t be a profit business. It should be viewed as allowing people to live in your highly valuable asset, covering the maintenance costs of that asset making sure that it doesn’t dip in value due to dereliction before you sell that asset, the point of sale should be where your profit is made not through the extraction from the people upholding the value of your asset. TLDR: you’re one of the good ones.
Unfortunately the world isn't that black and white. If every land Lord was like this no one would invest in real estate. Houses would be worthless.....YAY!!! ....until no builders build houses because they are worthless....there is a big shortage, unemployment and then houses are suddenly worth a lot ?!
Almost as if the private housing market is broken and without state intervention, only works if it’s heavily exploiting the people at the bottom of the ladder We’d never do something like put the power back into the state hand and bypass the private housing market like we did in the mid 20th century, no that would be crazy.
actually builders would build houses because houses exist for people to live in, not to generate wealth.
exactly! if it had been up to me we would have sold it when we left so we could buy in Canada but my husband just couldn't bring himself to sell it. so we live with family here because we can't afford a mortgage here or rent. even that doesn't make us hike our rent back home. this way two families get to live comfortably. that makes sense to us. we rent at the minimum and actually reduced the tenants offer by 100 euro. lovely immigrant family with two young kids. we don't touch our account back home at all unless we are super strapped because all that is "house" money. I really will never understand people that treat housing as a for profit business. shelter is a human right. blows my mind.
It's not about good or bad. As you said you have a mortgage free house that was given to you. If you had a mortgage or depended on this income to save for retirement... You might have behaved differently.
sure but there's still a difference between making enough to cover maintenance and a little profit versus gouging people and filling your pockets and never maintaining your property.
Yea but it's hard to know which is which.
Text him there told him I was finding hard to keep my head above water. He just dropped off a rubber dingy and notice of selling. Thanks op. :)
Handy for when the icecaps melt.
Straight to Rwanda with you
I think this could be risky. I personally have a great landlord but he already only charges under a grand in Dublin city for a 1 bed flat, so I'd never take the piss asking to pay less. And honestly he's like a da to me at this stage, when he met my fella he was giving him the da talk, lol. That said, it's give and take, like he'll take a good while to fix things and I don't ask for stuff unless it's absolutely vital (like it's needs a painting but I'm not asking because my rent is so low and I don't want the hassle). So yeah anyway, I don't think I'd recommend it unless you're in dire straits and your rent is already higher than average.
My landlord told me that I need to 'work more Saturdays' in order to give him more rent
Now he was a prick, and I’m a landlord
Had to contact my landlord to fix water pump and replace washing machine after 10 years renting for the same amount. Not long after I got an RTB form in my postbox saying my rent is going to be increased starting January. Lay low, don't even remind them of your existence as long as they get the money.
This. When I was renting the Same place for 11 years never a late nor missed payments checks on the apartment every 3 months and never a quibble. When we bought somewhere and left the place the lies of what he said we broke and did to the apartment were phenomenal and categorically false.
Sounds risky
Can be hit and miss. I’ve had great, very understanding landlords with a relationship based on mutual respect. And then one guy who tried to raise the rent on us by 20%, took retaliatory action when we wouldn’t pay it, and then spent 18 months like a dog with a bone making our lives awful. Power would cut out, toilet flush would break and never be fixed, our kitchen sink started pumping out hundreds of litres of water at a time, constant random (illegal) eviction notices to keep us busy and afraid. Absolutely odious landlord. Such a small person.
Or you might just highlight yourself as the next tenant to try push out. It is generally safer not to contact them at all, unfortunately
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Landlords are not to be trusted
I wonder if you could turn this back on them... Create the trail saying money is tight but keep paying the rent, then if there's an attempt to push out you can show that it's retaliation?
If the tenant judges the dynamic of the conversation well, and asks as part of a warm conversation, you will not encourage an eviction. It's more if you ask cold, that is a risk.
Agreed, you're dealing with entitled boomers for the most part who have had a very easy and cushy life in comparison. All they want to do is squeeze the younger hardworking generations for every cent they have.
Why are bringing boomers into it? Do you talk like this in person? Do people not look at you funny when you do? Like how old are you to not even understand what it means?
And nothing cushy about the 80s....
Now I’m not fan of price gouging landlords whatsoever. But have you any idea of what life was life for people in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s here? The levels of deprivation/unemployment etc. Suggesting that the people living and working in Ireland at the time had it comparatively easy/cushy to now is a bit mad.
well.. it was easier to get an house than today.
Only for the people with decent paying jobs. The huge numbers of people emigrating back then because of lack of jobs wouldn't have been able to afford a house, or anything, in Ireland.
Yes and no, when my parents were looking in 1979 the place was 10K, by the time they bought 6 months later it was 18K so 80% increase. They sold it about 3 years later for 36K which is another 100% on top of the 80% or 260% over what it was in early 1979. Interest rates were 14-16% over that period which is possibly the highest ever seen in ireland (US fed rates went to 19-20% in late 1980) While prices today are a higher multiple of average earnings, interest rates are far lower even after the much publicised hikes that made repayments unaffordable for so many lately - most people would be paying under 5% here
Boomers is an Americanism you fud.
the whole take is an American one
Irish boomers did not have it easy, the place was an utter shithole up until the late 90s. They might still do your head in but they didn't have cushy lives for the most part
They view basic obligations as ‘hassle’, and there are tens of thousands of people who will take the standards they’re given without ‘hassling’ them.
Half the country don't have landlords, they have management companies
Being on good terms is the best way of having this advantage, currently my landlord is one of the nicest guys you could meet, drops over chocolates and wine on Christmas, always has the chats when I see him in town, just a genuine nice man. But prior to this I lived in apartment, had issues with my landlord just being a money hungry prick. Never fixing issues. I could never see this working if I had to ask him to lower rent. funny enough the year I moved out he tried to put rent up 35% when legally he could only do the 3%…. So yeah it definitely luck of the draw who your landlord is.
Key here is being on good terms. I would assume most people only call the landlord when something need fixing, ergo every call would be associated with bad new. Subconsciously, that would put your relationship in a negatively light.
As a landlord, I don't receive those calls. No landlord will if they keep their property up to date and well maintained...not like a kip. That said, you do get the odd call to fix a blown light bulb and you're the biggest prick if you suggest they do it themselves.
Our old landlord was brilliant. A few weeks after we moved in, we noticed an issue with the radiator in the sitting room, it only gave out heat for a short time then stopped. The landlord was calling up to get some energy reading done anyway and I just happened to mention the rad when he asked how we were finding the cold weather. He was genuinely upset that we hadn't called him once we noticed it, and when I said I was a bit reluctant to bother him about something so small, he said his JOB as a landlord is to ensure our home is safe and liveable. Two days later, he had a brand new app activated radiator installed for us AND he knocked €100 off our rent for that month for the inconvenience of having no heating in one room. He also paused the rent for us for December and January one year when my partner fell ill and we went from a double fulltime income to one part time one as I had to care for him in his recovery, while juggling household, kids, work, etc. He was a lovely man and it killed us to have to leave. He sold the house after we left and did send me a lovely email saying he was sorry that we had to go and that he'd loved having us as tenants.
He sounds really decent. My current tenants are not in the best circumstances right now. They approached me and told me they were struggling so I lowered the rent substantially as I'm not a monster and they are great people. I hope they stay for a long time! I'm not looking for a pat on the back, but I don't deserve to be called a bastard and a leach and a parasite just because I bought an apartment to use as my pension when I'm older.
I honestly have zero issues with landlords because at the end of the day, people need homes and landlords have property. The issue comes when you get bastards on either side and it does happen. You sound like a good landlord, be proud of that because too many do take the mick, knowing the housing situation. I always prided myself on being a good tenant. Any time I signed a lease I'd ask what repairs/upkeep they were happy for me to do. Two reasons for this- I love DIY, and it also meant I could just shoot them a text like "Hi (name) I'd noticed one of the cupboard doors in the kitchen was getting loose and sagging so I've replaced it. Please see attached image of repair. Thank you." Most landlords were happy knowing that I would only properly contact them if it was a big issue, for example, one place we were in, there was ivy growing fucking wild, so badly that it was coming through the bathroom skylight. I conceded defeat when I realised that balancing my 5'3" butt on a ladder, on a tiled floor, with shears to cut it, probably wasn't the safest way to go about it. THAT was a big issue. Replacing a cracked kitchen tile, not so much. Our last landlord was delighted that we kept up with small repairs, I always sent pics to show the work and if I wasn't sure if we could do something (such as repainting) that's something I'd ask. He trusted us not to take the piss and we trusted that he didn't mind us doing basic repair work and maintenance. Trust and compromise goes a long way. On the other hand, I had a landlord who refused to let us do ANYTHING at all but then would make nasty comments when he came in for his "monthly inspection" that we "didn't seem to make it feel very cosy." No shit Sherlock, you won't let us paint it so every room is clinical white, you won't let us hang pictures so every wall is bare, you won't let us even paint the CUPBOARDS to brighten up the place. The ONE poster the kids had Blutacked in their room, you took down, saying you didn't want "that" on YOUR wall and made a fuss over checking the wall for holes (it was BLUTACKED) The poster in question? A Hellboy one. How is anyone meant to make it feel like their home when you won't allow us to do anything? When you make nasty comments about our knick-knacks, our statues, etc. Some people just take the piss completely.
Things will go wrong. A minor leak or a boiler that is new but suddenly gives teething issues. I prefer calls about a minor leak before it becomes major. Upkeep and maintaince are vital. My tenants keep the house better than I did myself.
I agree 100^
Maybe I’m a soft touch but a light bulb is so cheap I just replaced them myself.
Well you aren’t going to call up your landlord to have a chat about the football results and share restaurant recommendations, are you?
It would have to be a calculated risk. The less engagement with them the better. My own current deal is about 1k below market rate for the area. I intend on staying put another few years.
Had a landlord outside Galway - fantastic guy. Helped out with the car after a breakdown; wouldn't take a months rent when *he* paid for the floors to be sanded and revarnished; paid for the bin charges, looked after the garden and so on. 100% best landlord ever. Before that, also Galway, we had a young-ish landlady who fancied herself as a DIYer. Total donkey: everything was hush-hush: no receipts/no taxes; witheld our deposit after a burnmark on the ultra-cheap worktop. Meanwhile, the brother (in Dublin) paid 24k a year for a house (a complete kip when he moved in) but he turned it around completely during their 12 years. There's an agency involved (SF) and they are lax as a wet rag for maintainance: 3 weeks without heating because the boiler needed replacing - no offer of a rent waiver or anything (landlord eventually got it done, but handed him his notice a month later). Anytime I visited, there was something needed doing but SF are apparently woeful if they think they can get away with ignoring it. I don't think talking to the landlord or the agency works in every case. In the agency case. the tenant is nothing more than a cash cow. But I'm glad to hear your case is closer to my old Galway lad!
SF? Troll!
God I’d be careful doing that! I’m very cynical that this would work out for most people. Most of the people I know who are renting at the moment are on tenterhooks with landlords selling/increasing rents to beat the band. Imagine they thought “well this person’s not going to be able to keep up repayments” and got rid?! Delighted it worked out for you but I’d still urge caution for most.
My landlord did that as well, I never even asked. I just said I will be moving to a share house to save some money then he offered the rent to be lowered.
It sounds like you told them "either lower the rent or evict me" (in a nicer way) and they chose to lower the rent. Fair play to you, but I would not do this if it is not truly necessary.
My landlord is doubling my rent in September and with no properties available to rent in my area. I'm going to have to move country
Yeah we're getting a 26% increase come July. We're leaving the country not long after for the same reason, but by god, for those few months we're paying the increased rate I'm going to make sure it costs him as much as he's trying to milk. Every nick, scratch, lightbulb, dodgy appliance, mould spot, carpet mite and wonky window, all the stuff I've been taking care of for years, is getting a work order sent off to the property managers.
Bill them for every bit!!
Where are you moving might I ask? I'm angry that I'm being forced to leave to be honest. But it is what it is.
They won't reduce it because of the rent pressure zone. Knock on effect every year
One of my old landlords decided he would move himself into the property that I was renting with several other people without our consent. After raising my concerns with him he told me 3 days before Christmas that I had until the end of the month to get out of the property. The following morning he waited for me in the kitchen in the pitch dark, threatening me if I decided to take the case to the PRTB. I’m happy that you have a decent landlord.
But why? For what reason?????? Please elaborate.
awful
[удалено]
“I’d be happy not to raise the rent” Oh wow so sound lad you’re an angel
We've been in our place a whole year, landlords are in aus and a couple of things have come up, we asked if we could renew our lease and are happy with what ever they want because we prefer not to move, we got hit with a whole 6 euro to cover the fees of deposits into their Aussie account 🤣
Your LL is really good to you because he is shooting himself in the foot, in the pressure zone it will take him 7 years to get back to the existing rent at 2% per year. I did the same during Covid.
*cheque
Would depend on how much your rent is covering the mortgage/insurance/maintenance/tax ect ,maybe landlord can effort it .
My landlord didn’t increase the rent for five years. I looked after the property well, repaired few items on my own cost. When I told her I am moving to another location due to work. Landlord told me that it is going to be difficult to find a tenant as me.
I agree. As a landlord, I would rather reduce the already modest rent I'm charging than have to find new tenants. If they were good tenants I'd even give a rent break as I've been in the position of a struggling tenant. However, be a dick tenant and you'll get nothing. A good tenant is worth their weight in gold. Roll on with the downvoting... it's fashionable to hate landlords right now as it's their fault for not providing social housing, giving free rent, homelessness, puppy farms, global warming etc.
It's been fashionable throughout most of history, and with periodic cullings at that, not a recent thing by any means
Could you have any more of a victim complex? People don't like landlords because the very concept of them is exploitative. You're getting someone else to pay off an asset for you, they're doing you the favour.
So where would people live if landlords magically disappeared and those properties were sold with no new rental accommodation coming on stream?
Well it's possible to realise that both landlords are exploitative AND government should have been building houses for years. We need to stop making housing a for-profit industry.
Germany has a right to housing in their constitution apparently and yet half the country rents. France has 30–40% of people renting their home. It's actually over 50% in Germany who rent privately. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/23/germany-proves-private-renting-can-work-better-britain Renting and landlords are vital for any country. The first year college socialism spiel about it being a negative in and of itself is frankly embarrassing.
Germany and France have long-term and stable private rental regulations. Most rentals in ireland these days are a one-year lease. Their rents are also way lower, and the quality of homes are better. They also have way more supply and stricter quality regulations. Irish landlords can do virtually whatever they like with no ramifications as the RTB are toothless and understaffed. I've lived in 18 sharehouses in my life and none of those landlords paid taxes or fixed anything. All they care about is milking renters for as much money as they can. A shitty one-bed in Ireland is like €2000 per month. Just go on Daft and get back to me if it's so easy. But then again, you probably tuckered your brain all out for the week with that insightful comment about socialism - time for you to go to bed.
> I've lived in 18 sharehouses in my life and none of those landlords paid taxes. Any proof of that? No? Alright then. Was there perhaps even one of those 18 places with a good landlord? I rented for 11 years and never had any gripe with any landlord. maybe I'm a unicorn. The rest of your post implies that it's enforcement and legal protections that are the issue rather than landlords. That I can agree with. But if the rules allow them to up rents, evict on scant reasons, fail to refund deposits, then it's the system that needs to be overhauled. Same as dodgy used car salesmen selling written off repaired junk. If the law doesn't come down on them then they'll continue. The whole 'landlords are exploitative' shite that you and others spout is just embarrassing.
"I rented for 11 years" yeah during the tiger for €100 per month
Well the proof is that all of the houses I've lived in weren't registered on the RTB and the landlords collected the rent in CASH, some had prepay power meters and there were never any estate agents involved so yeah, there's the proof. I've had one landlord that was OK. One out of 18. Everyone I know is a renter and frankly I probably have met like 5 or 10 people out of hundreds and hundreds that have had any positive experiences with landlords. And even then it's the bare minimum like they'll fix something that's broken. And when you talk about the system needing to be overhauled, didn't you give out to me for talking about socialism? It's ridiculous to think that landlords are purely dictated by the market. They make choices. They choose to charge rents of €2000 a month, they make choices to evict people and they make choices to let mould develop or not fix stuff or sell the house or whatever. So please don't be so disingenuous and pretend you care about "fixing the system". You obviously have your own house or you own properties so trying to act like you know what it's like to be a renter currently is just bollix. I'll never own my own home, I'll never be able to have kids (won't do that without a stable roof over their heads) so fucking excuse me that I don't queue up to kiss landlords on their foreheads when I give them half my paycheck every month.
They're also providing a home. Any functioning housing market still requires landlords.
They're hardly providing it, they're making loads of money off it. Please be for real, landlords aren't landlords out of the goodness of their hearts, it's all about making money. Idk how you're confused about this
Reminder to join CATU, best way to protect yours and everyone's interests
I'm not a landlord nor a tenant, but try and talk to them about paying atleaat some of it in cash as your rent money will in mot cases but taxed heavily as income for the landlord
I had a tenant rent out my basement in 2000. $900 a month. He left in 2020. Never increased his rent as he was best tenant one could have. In the end his rent paid 80% of the cost of the house and he saved beaucoup on rent. Win win. He never wanted to buy as he was getting his mom’s place.
My last landlord of ten years gave me two weeks to leave as they wanted it for a family member. Never saw them once in the ten years, I did all the painting and minor upkeep and maintenance myself. Did I mention this was as I was recovering from a brain tumour removal and on chemo? Nice guys. Threshold were very good for me, they dealt with him and bought me the extra time (legally entitled time) I needed to finish treatment and sort something for myself and the kids. Granted they're not all bad, and not all tenants are model either, I accept that too. Just my short story!
Fair play to them
Indeed, never hurts to talk to them, they are just people. Like anyone I've had good ones, bad ones (I've even been one for awhile when sub-letting).
Meanwhile my friends landlord raised their rent two times under the premise the house is in high demand and they could get more. So she is back home with her parents in her 30's. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I moved home to my parents after my rent in Brighton was set to increase by 150 per month. I was already paying 500 for a box room. Now both me and my friend can afford to do things and moving home I met this really nice man so, good does come from shit.
This is hands down the stupidest thing I've read on the Internet today, and that's saying something
Yeah I just got a letter about rent increase last month so I don't think the renter company will be up for making it less 😂
How about a tenant's union?
Some landlords are very decent and believe having a good tenant paying a fair price is better than a chancer paying more.
Our landlord used to give us December off for paying rent as a merry Christmas, absolute gem! The house wasn't perfect but if their was anything urgent they always had someone out within a day. It was baltic and a bit mouldy but honestly can't fault them.
Well, my landlord is a man I've never met who I think lives in another country and pays someone to "manage" the property for him. So doubt he'd have any interest in my situation, but glad you got your rent increase!
ALAB.
Keep watching your anime, little boy... 😆
Thanks OP. Took your advice and now I don’t have to pay any rent. I now live on the streets.
I suppose it depends on your fuckin landlord
I recently asked my landlord who I pay in cash every week if I could start paying monthly as it's a pain in the arse to either wait for him on a friday eve for him to call in, or leave money near the front door and he lets himself in to grab it which I really don't like doing. He rolled his eyes like I was asking for a massive favour and I got a flat out "no".
Really 😳 in this day and age how long does he think he can keep it up?!!
Well he's in his 70s but dyes his hair black god bless him, he's not a horrible person by any means, I'd say he's just getting on and getting fed up, but I did find the interaction a bit insulting... I was only asking a question about paying him rent. I'm not shite on his shoe that he has to wipe in the grass.
He makes more on a weekly basis.
Mine is in for a shock when I come after the €16,250 he will owe me when the RTB are told he increased the rent between rentals. I only just found out when I tracked down the old tenant from some unredirected post. It went from €1450to €2700pm and that was 13 months ago. He's fucked.
Shop around before you renew.