Affordable Housing: Interview coming up any tips?

Re: Affordable Housing

and half off topic, but I am a lot more concerned about the case involving L.A. officials that began the process of buying a plot of land for over 11 million, that had been purchased for 8 million only a matter of days earlier. And it had been advertised nationally before the 8 million sale.

No problem with the sellers here, but doesn't sound like our taxes are being used by competent buyers at the L.A.

Re: Affordable Housing

i bought an affordable house 4 years but on my particular road there are 2 houses rented out, if even though it was specifically said at interview that you were not allowed rent out these houses. One house in particular has never been lived in by the buyer, he has rented it out for the last 4 years and is making a sizeable profit. I rang the authority in question on a number of occasions to complain but was told it's very hard to monitor etc.

Re: Affordable Housing

I'm sure as a result of the next round of bench marking pay increases, the productivity increases that will be required will be such that this lack of monitoring will become a thing of the past.

Seriously though, it is the guy that got the affordable house and rents it out is the guy that is screwing the tax payer. At least the 'honest' flipper released the LA's investment for someone else. This guy has kept the LA investment tied up in his property, and I would be willing to bet that there are probably cases where the tennants may be on rent allowance, so not alone is the LA investment tied up, but the taxpayer is also funding the monthly income.

Re: Affordable Housing

I'm glad that I don't live near you Rex. You may report me to the Gardai if my car tax is out of date, or to the council if I haven't paid my bin charges. Thankfully, the council have better things to be doing than listening to 'tell tales' like you. I think that it is unbelievable that you actually rang the council to complain, I really don't see what business it is of yours to become the affordable housing police, if I was you I would be content that I had received a cheap house and would mind my own business.

Re: Affordable Housing

dats_right said:

I'm glad that I don't live near you Rex. You may report me to the Gardai if my car tax is out of date, or to the council if I haven't paid my bin charges. Thankfully, the council have better things to be doing than listening to 'tell tales' like you. I think that it is unbelievable that you actually rang the council to complain, I really don't see what business it is of yours to become the affordable housing police, if I was you I would be content that I had received a cheap house and would mind my own business.

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Disagree. Rex is completely right to report to the council, more people should, and I suspect you're just trolling.

Re: Affordable Housing

I don't agree with people renting out there AF house just for the sake of it but I do think there are certain circumstances where is should be allowed.

For instance we have a 2 bed house and 1 child but if we had 2 more kids which we would both really like, I think I would approach the council and ask them could we rent out our house while we rented a bigger house in the same area with the intention of moving back into our house eventually. I don't think they could refuse under those kind of circumstances. The reason they don't like people renting them out is because of profiteering.

Re: Affordable Housing

i agree with andy and lou there are special circumstances like they stated. But this person didn't need a house, never lived in it, probably getting a mortgage subsidy (if you're under a certain salary) and is renting it out for approximately twice his mortgage, is this fair??? i don't think so. I know when i bought my house 4 years, i had friends who would have loved the opportunity and really needed housing but unfortunately weren't so lucky.

Re: Affordable Housing

Once you rent your AF property you would then be considered an investor and liable for stamp duty clawback, and possibly cgt. The LA may also become liable since technically they share a proportion of future profit on the property. This is a very ropey area legally and one I'm sure the LAs would try and avoid - hence the stipulation that people do not rent out their property.

At the end of the day you engaged in a legally binding agreement to buy a property at a substantial discount on condition that you fullfilled certain criteria. Once you break those criteria you don't have a leg to stand on and the LA can probably do as it feels.

It's nothing to do with being fair, it's the breaking of a legally binding contract.

Re: Affordable Housing

But I don't think it said on my contract that you could not rent it out, maybe I miss read it or something but I don't think it did :-? I thought it was more of an unwritten rule to try and filter our people that didn't really need the houses to live in????

Re: Affordable Housing

Then you'll simply become liable for stamp duty clawback and tax on rental income / cgt. What level of stamp duty you're liable for (market value or price paid) is anyones guess.

Re: Affordable Housing

coinfused said:

Social housing is subsidised by our taxes as are the local authority budgets, .

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This is not the case. The council concerned does not pay any more for the house than the purchaser. They pay agricultural value for the site and pay for the cost of building. This build cost will be around €100 per Sq Ft.
The real subsidiser is the other house purchasers as the entire profit margin on the development has to be made up by the remaining houses.