# tenant looking for rent reduction



## bwdbwd (6 Feb 2009)

Our tenant is looking for a rent reduction half way through the lease – any opinions ?


P.S.    Not a hard nosed, multi property landlord – property was not a buy-2-let, just two people with a house each who moved in together – rent doesn’t even cover mortgage


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## S.L.F (6 Feb 2009)

Yes best option is to put it into the correct forum before it is deleted


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## bwdbwd (6 Feb 2009)

apologises - wrong forum - could a mod please move this to Property Investment

Thank you


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## twofor1 (6 Feb 2009)

Have a look at this.

_http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=97244 _


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## ontour (6 Feb 2009)

Does the current lease allow for it to be broken?  What is the penalty?
What are similar properties renting for in the area?  Would it be difficult to rent your property if it became vacant?
Have the tenants been good by keeping the house well, maintaining gardens etc?  

On possibility is to consider a rebate at the end of the lease.  So if they stay until the end of the lease and have the house in good order, you will give them back €500 ( or whatever...) of the rent they have paid for the current lease.  This is an incentive for them to be good tenants and defers any change to cashflow.


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## z104 (8 Feb 2009)

If you can't afford to drop rent then tell them that you can't afford to drop the rent.


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## ardman (8 Feb 2009)

I've been issued with a similar request re- lowering rent. Although given the tough times that are in it, I intend to negotiate a new figure this week as promised. I don't want to lose my tenants but I'm conscious of the fact that rents have fallen. I probably will have to notify PRTB with regard to changes.


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## AlbacoreA (8 Feb 2009)

Niallers said:


> If you can't afford to drop rent then tell them that you can't afford to drop the rent.


 
I think the question is can you afford not to.


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## Howitzer (8 Feb 2009)

ardman said:


> I've been issued with a similar request re- lowering rent. Although given the tough times that are in it, I intend to negotiate a new figure this week as promised. I don't want to lose my tenants but I'm conscious of the fact that rents have fallen. I probably will have to notify PRTB with regard to changes.


?

Why?


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## twofor1 (8 Feb 2009)

Howitzer said:


> ?
> 
> Why?



http://www.prtb.ie/landlord_pubregfaq.htm#lq13


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## Howitzer (9 Feb 2009)

twofor1 said:


> http://www.prtb.ie/landlord_pubregfaq.htm#lq13


What an absolute waste of everyone's time and resources. That doesn't make sense on any level. For such an obviously stretched body thay sure do enjoy making work for themselves.


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## z104 (9 Feb 2009)

I suspect so they can reconcile the rent with the tax return of the landlord. If the landlord is saying he is getting 800 euro a month on the PRTB form and declaring 500 month to the tax office then there is an anomoly.


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## Howitzer (9 Feb 2009)

Niallers said:


> I suspect so they can reconcile the rent with the tax return of the landlord. If the landlord is saying he is getting 800 euro a month on the PRTB form and declaring 500 month to the tax office then there is an anomoly.


That's not their mandate.



> The PRTB was established in September 2004 to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants; operate a national tenancy registration system and provide information and policy advice on the private rented sector


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## bankrupt (9 Feb 2009)

Howitzer said:


> That's not their mandate.



One of their responsibilities is to determine fair market rent in disputes between landlords and tenants so presumably they need to keep an up to date record of current rates.


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## sam h (9 Feb 2009)

It's actually not that big a job to contact them with such changes....a e-mail will suffice (as least it did when I had a tenant change).....din;t even have the number to hand.  Just said "ref property 123 main street - tenant A has moved out & tenant B + PPS has moved in )


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## Greeny (9 Feb 2009)

The amount of available rental property has doubled in the last 12 months. So it really is a renters markets at the moment. 

http://daftwatch.thepropertypin.com/


You need to ask youself the following, does your tenant pay on time and without issue? Does he/she keep the property in good order? 
If you have ever dealt with difficult tenant, you will know how valuble a good tenant is.


And most importantly, how long can you afford to leave the property vacant in the event that he/she decides to leave?


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## Bronte (9 Feb 2009)

sam h said:


> It's actually not that big a job to contact them with such changes....a e-mail will suffice (as least it did when I had a tenant change).....din;t even have the number to hand. Just said "ref property 123 main street - tenant A has moved out & tenant B + PPS has moved in )


Is this a change of tenant?  You need to fill out an original PRTB form, an email is no good.  You are very much mistaken if you think you can change tenants without going through the proper procedure.  And the PRTB certainly like their procedures.


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## sam h (9 Feb 2009)

Bronte - just 1 tenant of 4 moved out, the rest (3 of them) were the same....so you can just make an ammendment without having to redo the form (& the fee!!!).  The mailed me back to confirm (within about an hour !!) so I assume it was all OK


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## Bronte (9 Feb 2009)

OK Samh H I understand now it not a change of tenancy but I don't trust the PRTB with anything.


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## Vinnie_cork (9 Feb 2009)

Rents are coming down. A good friend of mine had her lease due for renewal at the end of January. Last year she was paying €1050 a month, she noted that now rents in same area for similar properties were €900 a month. So she told letting agent she only wanted to pay €900. Landlord came back to say €925, which my friend said fine, but to be reviewed in 3 months as she called for a short term contract to be made up and if not lowered then she was moving out. He has since came back saying €900 for 12 months was therefore ok. 

I thought it mad that he should try risk being down rent for at least 1 month looking for new tenants for trying to play hard ball for €300 over the year.

Bwdbwd, ontour had a good suggestion regarding a cash back at end of lease. If you say no way to lowering rent and they move out, how long will it take you to re-rent, will you have to re-use agent and re-pay agent finding fees? Even if you manage to keep the current tenants deposit would you have to lower rent anyhow for a new tenant?


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## sam h (9 Feb 2009)

It seems the county coucils are reducing what they are paying out also.  I had someone contact me about RAS (rent allowane scheme) so I decided I'd do some research & called Fingal CoCo.  Apart from a variety of red tape (forms, contracts, inspections, etc) the current figure they will pay for any 3 bed in the Fingal area is currently €1050....it seems they make no account of whether the house is central, rural, sml v's lgr 3 bed, good/bad area etc. 

The girl in Fingal told me they had 1000's of landlords passing over their vacant properties....yet she reckons it will take about a year to get around to making offers to tenants.


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## ardman (9 Feb 2009)

Originally I rented house there were only two renting. When they later asked me to allow in a third person I agreed but with a E30 increase monthly in rent. I notified PRTB at that stage. There wasn't a problem.
I am now doing the reverse so I'm assuming there will still be no problem.
Why am I notifying PRTB? Just to keep all in order with PRTB and revenue.


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