# Rent allowance tenants. yes or no.



## 485243 (2 Jul 2008)

New to the property rental area.. I'm renting a property out and am wondering what is the situation with taking rent allowance. Does it come from the health board or social welfare?? How is it paid?? Are rental allowance tenant more trouble?? Any advice out there for me.

Thanks


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## mark71 (2 Jul 2008)

Most of it comes from the health board with the tenant making up the rest .Mine is paid direct to my account and i collect the rest once a month from him.You can be lucky or not with tenants ,i'd say there are a few horrer stories on here.


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## g1g (2 Jul 2008)

ditto. mine comes to my account. Been lucky enough so far with tenants.


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## ClubMan (2 Jul 2008)

485243 said:


> New to the property rental area.. I'm renting a property out and am wondering what is the situation with taking rent allowance. Does it come from the health board or social welfare?? How is it paid?? Are rental allowance tenant more trouble?? Any advice out there for me.
> 
> Thanks


Have you searched for existing threads on this issue?


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## NHG (2 Jul 2008)

Mine comes directly into my account every thursday and the tennant lodges the balance on the 1st of every month.  I have never had any problems thankfully with rent allowance tenants.
I would not accept the tenant receiving the rent from hse/social welfare and paying me the full amount.


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## PADDYBOY99 (2 Jul 2008)

Def Yes. It is a gaurenteed payment into your account with the tenant paying the balance. Also be aware that if you advertise "no RA", you are leaving yourself open to a discrimination case, so becare ful how you word the add.


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## rabbit (3 Jul 2008)

485243 said:


> Are rental allowance tenant more trouble?  ? Any advice out there for me.
> 
> Thanks


 
After my last rental allowance tenant I vowed I would never, ever take on one again.   Just my experience.


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## teachai (3 Jul 2008)

My advice would be No. I could tell you many a horror story. You can get lucky but in my experience, these people don't care about your property. 

The typical tenants  you should be seeking are people who will make the house their home and treat it with respect. 

So for example: A young stable couple or a group of professionals sharing. 

Saying this, always meet the prospective tenants if possible. Trust your first Instincts.  

Its usually better to accept  a lower rent from a tenant who is going to be there long term.  Each change of Tenants is going to be costly (Advertising, Cleaning, empty_property).


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## mickpyrmont (11 Jul 2008)

NHG said:


> I would not accept the tenant receiving the rent from hse/social welfare and paying me the full amount.


 

Why would you not accept in full? Is it not the same thing


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## j26 (11 Jul 2008)

teachai said:


> ...
> 
> So for example: A young stable couple or a group of professionals sharing.
> ...


Trouble is there aren't so many of those about at the moment.
I've been through the process lately, and the majority of calls were RA people.  Most of the non-RA people were groups of lads or girls in less than stable employment.


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## rabbit (12 Jul 2008)

j26 said:


> Trouble is there aren't so many of those about at the moment.
> I've been through the process lately, and the majority of calls were RA people. Most of the non-RA people were groups of lads or girls in less than stable employment.


 
If it was easy to get good tenants then few experienced landlords would take on risky, poor tenants.  As teachai correctly said, "The typical tenants you should be seeking are people who will make the house their home and treat it with respect. "   I had to spend a couple of grand fixing up an apartment after some RA people once, so for me personally, never again.  I have heard too many horror stories too.  Trust your instincts.


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## markowitzman (12 Jul 2008)

> Trust your instincts.


Don't. Take loads of refs etc etc.
Take good inventory and deposit etc etc.


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## rmelly (12 Jul 2008)

markowitzman said:


> Don't. Take loads of refs etc etc.
> Take good inventory and deposit etc etc.


 
Do both - if your instinct says 'No', then forget it. If instinct says 'Yes', THEN look for references etc.


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## angrymum (12 Jul 2008)

im 19 and live with my partner and son. we get RA every week. instead of it going to our tenants bank account we get a cheque in the post... usually the social welfare will check up on the tenants who are supposed to be getting their RA cheques to make sure they are getting them.. just because someone is recieving RA doesnt mean their going to damage the house their renting maybe their just unable to get work at the time... i think its totally unfair to advertise a house to rent and then state no rent allowance accepted, its totally discriminating and can make finding somewhere alot harder... we've moved twice (first due to arrival of our son as house was too small for all of us, second due to plumbing & heating problems that was going to take months to fix as some pipes had to be replaced, baby was only three months and it was middle of october, house was too cold for a baby...) and all our landlords have accepted rent allowance... i personally think that people claiming rent allowance are more likely to pay up as if they dont and get reported they wont get it again... many times me and my partner have both been out of work and the we've always managed to pay our rent on time... the way we look at it is if the rent isnt paid we could be asked to leave... and then where would we go???


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## j26 (13 Jul 2008)

markowitzman said:


> Don't. Take loads of refs etc etc.



And check them.  I had someone who seemed perfect, but I rang the referees and it was all a tissue of lies.


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## S.L.F (13 Jul 2008)

j26 said:


> And check them.  I had someone who seemed perfect, but I rang the referees and it was all a tissue of lies.



Or the other scenario where the referees are friends.

The way around this is to ask for a land-line and an address for the refs.

If they won't give you the land-line or the address then you know you are going to be suckered

I personally go with my gut instincts.

I've gone against my gut instincts 2 times and both times I've regretted it.

Regarding whether or not I would let RA into my flat the answer is NO.


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## sidzer (21 Jul 2008)

A house on my street is rented out Via RA and it is one big mess. Bins overflowing / broken bits of toys scattered around / graffiti on walls / garage door sitting on only one hinge. 

This particular group have absolutly no respect for the house and it is bringing the rest of the street down. I have also heard horror stories. Personally I would leave the house empty rather than take a chance!

I know that not everyone one on RA is the same but when its bad it's v bad and u have major problems to deal with....


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## doll2824 (3 Aug 2008)

teachai said:


> My advice would be No. I could tell you many a horror story. You can get lucky but in my experience, these people don't care about your property.
> 
> The typical tenants you should be seeking are people who will make the house their home and treat it with respect.
> 
> ...


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## doll2824 (3 Aug 2008)

thats so unfair.i am seeking rent allowance apartment.i have 2 well diciplines daughters .i didnt ask to be a single mom ,i grew up with 2 hard working parents and a stable home.its unfair you you to make such a comment. working professional my butt..


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## REMFAN (4 Aug 2008)

teachai said:


> My advice would be No. I could tell you many a horror story. You can get lucky but in my experience, these people don't care about your property.


 
These people??  No one could accuse you of painting with the one brush A good tenent is a good tenent, regardless of receiving R.A or not. 

OP- Meet the tenent and request a ref, then decide based on if you are happy with the person living in your property or not.


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## advisor (5 Aug 2008)

Just make sure that you don't get sucked into the myth that Eastern Health Board/Social Welfare pay for any damage, bills outstanding etc if the tenant does a runner.  You are basically in a contract with the tennant and as with any tennant that ups and leaves with no forwarding address you pay the costs of all outstanding damages/bills. Outstanding Gas & ESB remain in their name but unless your new tennant has accounts previously with these companies hefty deposits are required by them so you can have problems when re-renting.


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## Cheeus (5 Aug 2008)

With lots of 'professionals' being laid off at the moment I'm guessing the sterotypical profile of the rentallowance candidate is changing. I'd say look for lots of references and make your choice on your own judgement.


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## Haille (12 Aug 2008)

With regards rent allowance is it paid directly to the landlord's account or to the tenant first.Does this vary in different parts of the country.Was wondering what applied to Clare area?


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## PaddyW (13 Aug 2008)

Hopefully you'll get an RA tenant like my sister. She was receiving RA and when she left the house, it was in a better condition than when she first moved in. I wouldn't totally disregard RA tenants, check that all is ok with them first before just totally saying no. They may turn out to be rather good ones, like my sis.


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## nt00deep (22 Aug 2008)

With RA, you are fairly safe in terms of "ability" to pay the rent, given that the RA part of the rent is as good a guaranteed income as the tenant is likely to have.

"Willingness" to pay the rent is another story.  I have been through two RAs and on both occasions, RA was paid to the tenant, not to me, and in both cases, the RA was NOT passed on to me.  Needless to say, both tenancies were short lived.

I spoke to the HSE CWO, and their position is that in any new RA contracts, the payment will go to the tenant in full.  The only payments direct to landlord are for agreements already in place.

My general advice would be to ring the local HSE CWO to get a reference regarding payment behaviour for the proposed tenant.

For any tenant, ring the local Gardai for a character reference.

The above seem logical, but I did neither in the last two tenancies and have paid the price.


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## csirl (22 Aug 2008)

Can never get my head around the concept of the HSE paying rent allowance. Surely this is a Social Welfare issue?


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## webtax (22 Aug 2008)

csirl said:


> Can never get my head around the concept of the HSE paying rent allowance. Surely this is a Social Welfare issue?


 
Agreed, especially when the HSE have such difficulties trying to keep their core responsibilities in order. 
Perhaps it dates from the days of the old health boards, where local politicians would have liked to have input into getting rent allowance for their constituents?


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## nt00deep (22 Aug 2008)

I think it is merely a logical way of handling the distribution of funds.  I suspect it is indeed Dept of Social ... funds but administered from HSE local offices by the CWO.


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## gipimann (22 Aug 2008)

The Supplementary Welfare Allowance Scheme (of which Rent Supplement is a part) is administered by Community Welfare Officers employed by the HSE on behalf of the Dept of Social & Family Affairs. All SWA paid, plus staff and admin costs are paid from DSFA budget, not the HSE.

Historically, the Community Welfare Service is "descended" from Home Assistance Officers, who were employed by Local Authorities and transferred to Health Boards when they were established in 1970. When SWA was introduced in 1977, the Assistance Officers became CWOs and remained within the health boards (because in many areas they carry out health-related duties), but the service was funded from the Dept.

There are plans to transfer the Community Welfare Service into DSFA, with all staff transferring from the public to civil service.


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## Trustmeh (22 Aug 2008)

*Rent allowance tenants. yes or no. *

*yes*


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