Re: Rent allowance Tennants
ShaneyMac said:
I have a property up for rent at the moment and about 70% of the calls I'm getting to view it are from people asking do I take rent allowance. I'm not sure what to tell them as I don't fully understand how much these tennants are entitled to from the state and where does the rest of the money come from.
My present point of view is that these tennants would be less desireable due to the fact that -
- If they are on rent allowance, they don't work, and therefore, where do they get the balance of the money, over and above what the state pays them.
- Whilst I'll certainly get the state portion of the rent, I could end up chasing the balance every month from the tennant.
Am I misguided in this assumption about rent allowance tennants?
Any experience/advice greatly appreciated.
From a financial perspective the amount paid by the tenant is very tiny (maybe 12 euro a week) so in most cases about 85-90% can be paid directly to you. You can insist with the local helth board that you are paid directly.
If I am not wrong there used to be a tax incentive for renting more than 50% of a place to RA tenants.
So in all honesty they are no different from working tenants.
HOWEVER!
They are going to be there 24x7 so wear and tear on the property will be double the normal amount.
If they do go on to take up a job you can no longer depend on direct payment from the health board.
If they are on the dole there is always a possibility they will be struck off as a lot of wasters sign on the dole with no intention of working to get RA and have a good time etc. (You have to remember that a single person getting both the dole and RA will end up with an income of about 75-80% of what somebody on the minimum wage gets paid for a 40 hour week, which isn't bad for sitting on their arses).
And finally, in my experience, there is a VERY high risk of anti-social bahaviour from RA tenants. In previous rentals my life was made a misery by the noise and anti-social lifestyles of RA tenants living around me. You have to remember that most people who don't work these days aside for reasons of health probably has quite severe problems. In my last place I was the only working tenant in the flat complex (out of 5 flats) and my landlord had to evict 2 guys in 2 years. One guy smashed in all the doors to his flat, tried to kick in another guys door and also tried to break into my place, while the other guy was so filthy and smelly his flat was a health hazard. RA tenants aren't paying with their own money so might be more liable to wreck the place!
The other thing you might want to consider is that you are more likely to be inspected if the tenants are on RA.
If you do go for RA tenants, consider a lone parent - they have responsibilities and so are more likely to be good tenants. I've never seen a lone parent be a bad tenant - its the single adults you need to avoid.
I'm giving this andecdotal evidence as a private tenant who has lived in about 6 different places over 10 years. Have to say that in future I would prefer not to live around RA tenants as I have found in the past that a very high percentage of the non-single mum RA tenants were people with big behavioural issues.
Cannot fault the single mums though - they are usually delighted to get somewhere nice and as I said above, they are people with responsibilities. I have had a few as neighbours over the years and they were grand. About 50% of the single adults however were complete psychos (we had the guards in a few times over several of them, in 2 occasions I've had the police at my door looking for the last tenant - both were single males on the dole, and these were in different places!)
I'd say use your instincts and if you get a bad feeling about somebody then trust your instincts. If they can provide references then fair enough. About 1/3 of all private tenants are on RA so you will get a lot of calls.
Generally landlords who don't take RA do so because they don't pay tax and don't want to risk detection! Its not that they don't want the tenants because they are on welfare.