I can’t be bothered to increase the rent !!!

L

landlord

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Any Landlord out there with rental property will probably dred that time of the year when rent reviews are due…….
  1. RTB rent review calculator (and the issues with “date rent was last set” whatever that means????)
  2. RTB notice of rent review form (and similar issues with “date last notice of rent review was served”)
  3. Email to tenant including the above forms.
  4. Finding 3 similar dwellings (not easy to do when there are very limited properties to rent)
  5. Sending all this to HAP/Homeless HAP and monitoring for 1. A reply that the email has been received and 2. That they have accepted the forms and approved the rent increase. This can take months.
  6. Updating the RTB website with the new rent. (Possibly the most non user friendly website ever invented)
  7. What have I missed…..
That’s just for 1 property !!!

ALL THIS FOR A MEASLY 0.3% increase (limited by the HCIP on the rent calculator)
That’s equivalent to only a €6 increase on a €2000 rent.

Even with the compounding effect of these tiny rent increases, so much effort for so little reward. WHY WOULD YOU BOTHER!!!
 
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Yeah couldnt be bothered, havent increased rent since the day tenant moved in 7 years ago..
You can be sure the vulture fund properties are getting their yearly increase..

And according to alot of ppl, good riddance to the small landlord lol
 
colin44 said:
Yeah couldnt be bothered, havent increased rent since the day tenant moved in 7 years ago..
You can be sure the vulture fund properties are getting their yearly increase..
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You're making the choice you want to make.

The "vulture fund properties" are making the choice they want to make.

Everybody is doing what suits them best. I'm not seeing a problem here.
 
Of course you dont... I take it your not a landlord

The loops a landlord has to go through to get a measly increase, despite the rent being far lower than market value..
To be quite honest it is a choice that is forced upon us! They make it so difficult to do it, why bother..
And then taking the human factor into account, most small landlords appreciate the issues facing tenants and wouldnt increase rent, but that may be a very BIG mistake in the long run..

Whereas the heartless vulture funds have people managing it, going thru these loops is their job!
 
colin44 said:
You can be sure the vulture fund properties are getting their yearly increase..
Click to expand...

I agree with the overall point you and landlord are making, but it has nothing to do with "vulture funds".

If an investment company financed the building of a block of 300 or 3000 apartments and rents them out at market rent and increases the rent in line with what is allowed, that is great. It does not impact on you at all.
 
colin44 said:
The loops a landlord has to go through to get a measly increase, despite the rent being far lower than market value..
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There are hoops for all businesses, that's just part and parcel of running a business, particularly one in a regulated market. It's a pain yes, and the RTB certainly try their best to complicate it, but don't forget it is a business you are running and so bureaucracy and red tape are to be expected.
 
@Leo What one man business would invest x% of time to get a measly 2% increase, their is a line to be drawn where it becomes uneconomical
 
colin44 said:
What one man business would invest x% of time to get a measly 2% increase, their is a line to be drawn where it becomes uneconomical
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A one man business so focused on a margin increase over the bigger picture really should take the first opportunity available to get out of that business. Being a landlord isn't a hobby.

You raised the issue of the funds being sure to get their increases, and of course they are, you're find they run their business professionally.
 
Leo said:
You raised the issue of the funds being sure to get their increases, and of course they are, you're find they run their business professionally.
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I agree.

But a lot of the regulation around rent-setting is very complicated even for professionals.

Much of the complexity is unnecessary and a the result of excessive policy tinkering since 2015.

It wasn’t the intent of the policy to put small-time landlords off but that has been the net effect.
 
Having been a landlord (one apartment) I can totally understand OP's initial posting - one thing to be mindful of however...

Assume Landlord A choses not to increase the rent but Landlord B chooses to do so - over time a gap forms between the two rents for e.g. E900 and E1400 (that's a real life example of rents in the block where I owned the apartment in RPZ) - I knew Landlord A - had a tenant for over 10 years - perfect tenant so he never increased the rent over the years. Tenant left and Landlord A wanted to sell the apartment - no investor would buy it at market value given the low rental yield - his only hope was that an owner occupier or someone wanting to purchase the apartment for own children attending college, but neither of those materialised - so he's had to hold and rent for a miserly increase on the E900. At least three other apartments have sold in the block (including my own) at market value but all had rents in the region of E1300 - E1400 per month.

So just be aware if you do choose not to increase rents you could be opening up a similar problem for yourself down the line...
 
I am no longer a landlord. It does seem like a lot of effort for a tiny amount. We paid an agency to do all the work, find tenants, collect rent, organise repairs etc. Our choice but it worked for us, kids and demanding jobs already. We had enough on. We were accidental landlords when a property market crash left us with negative equity and zero chance of covering the outstanding mortgage.

When we rented here I preferred to deal with a professional agency so I could get stuff done quickly. We had one hobby landlord and it was a nightmare, we could never get hold of him, he shopped around endlessly for cheaper repairs etc. Left us with a bucket catching drips for months while his mate was supposedly going to fix the roof. Eventually we got it fixed and deducted it from the rent. He grumbled but we argued the case well.

I don’t know why more people don’t use agencies, but I do know the margins are tight.
 
Annieindublin said:
We had one hobby landlord and it was a nightmare, we could never get hold of him, he shopped around endlessly for cheaper repairs etc. Left us with a bucket catching drips for months while his mate was supposedly going to fix the roof.
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Guarantee you this guy is pretty much useless at anything he turns his hands to.
An intelligent landlord would have it seem to immediately.
 
Its head wrecking, we too are in this trap; house is rented for €2 per month and others in the area are €3; now my tenants never give a minutes hassle and have stayed put for years. I think if we wanted to sell it would be ftb more than likely that would be interested.
Does the government never look at the amount of taxed income they are foregoing by persisting with RPZ caps? If I was able to rent my house for even €2500, that is €6k extra per year in rental income and over €3k in tax for the Government/Economy.
Like the OP, I couldn't be bothered increasing the rent by such a miserly amount.
 
Is the 3% based on cost of living or what?
Just as an e.g. In the last 2 months I have spend quite a bit on our rental.
New sink for the bathroom, new fridge freezer, got the house insurance quote today and its 45% dearer than last year. I know the sink/fridge are items that need to be replaced regardless of rent caps etc but these items defiantly cost more than 3% of what they cost last year... (am feeling sorry for myself here)
there is now a two-tier rental market, those of us stuck in the RPZ and new rentals/ build to let (vulture)
 
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