Key Post Who wants to be a landlord?

Good luck to you!

I would love to be able to retire to Spain and do what you're doing.

Another classic tenant in today's Irish Times.

Fortunately, the court has dealt firmly with him.


A handyman tenant, who put a woman and her family through “a living hell” after he cut away the rafters on her house in an effort to force her to sell him the property at a reduced price, has been given a week by a judge to come up with over €13,000 in compensation.

Denis O’Connor (67) pleaded guilty in February to causing criminal damage to a house belonging to Audrey O’Mahony at Duneen, Ballinvredig, [broken link removed], Co Cork by removing roof rafters and damaging floors and various fittings between December 5th 2015 and July 23rd 2018.

O’Connor from Hillside, Cappagh, Kinsale, Co Cork also pleaded guilty to the theft of a fitted kitchen worth €1,000, which he removed from the property to replace with his own kitchen, which he in turn removed when he left, leaving the house without a functioning kitchen.

Brendan Burgess said:

Another classic tenant in today's Irish Times.

Click to expand...

Hardly a “classic” tenant, certainly not in my understanding of the word.
I wouldn’t even describe Mr O’Connor as a classic bad tenant.

I’m the landlord on one (residential) property and I’d probably describe my tenants as “class act”. They’re now on HAP, have never paid late or done any damage.

Back when I was a tenant people would advise me to get my own house, don’t pay someone else’s mortgage.
Now I have class act tenants paying my mortgage and would recommend bricks and mortar as part of a diversified investment portfolio.

Landlording isn't low risk, but bank deposits offer 0% now.

People forget that you can get a gross yield of 10% on many properties in Ireland.

It's not an unreasonable mark-up for the risk involved IMHO.

I've rented a lot of property over the years. I hate the word Landlord and all that's associated with it especially in Ireland. Over the years I've had practically all of the above problems and others. From 1985 to 2000 it was easy enough to make it pay, not too many of the problems that are out there today. One exception I would make were 1st year Uni Students, I decided they were my biggest area of conflict. In later years, before letting to any of them I got their home addresses and parents telephone no and had pretty good success in further years. After inspecting a couple of houses in a west of Ireland University city, before giving back deposits, I found a good pair of Connemara sheep with ribbons and bows tied around them. Where or how they got them I never did find out but I can assure you they do make quite a mess. Needless to say no deposits were given back and I had no issues about it either. I'm a pensioner now, am not in the letting business anymore, my son and daughter are and from what they tell me there an awful lot of problems out there for people letting only a few properties. Seems like tenants have abused the latest Covid outbreak and feel they don't have to pay rent at all and boy do they know how to avoid everything. Anyone going into the letting business now with a single house to let and not living beside where the house is might be surprised at what they'll earn from it (or lack of) Get a tenant, a good one, rent collection, insurance, RTB registration and issues with same, TV licence, waste, property tax, tenants leaving before contract runs out, non payment, etc, etc. Good luck to anyone and I know some have great tenants and very few problems. I've let in Galway, Dublin, Small towns and I can safely say the small town gave me little hassle but small yields. The bigger city's might give a higher yield but the problems not worth it. In saying "problems" I'm being very conservative with my words. As I said in other posts, the big boys have taken over Irish rentals now, let the bad tenants play with those Honcho's and see how they get on. The more the Irish Goverment get involved in the rental game, the sooner they'll realise how many won't and never will pay anything. Somehow, I think they're well aware of it but It's not something anyone can debate in Ireland now. It's easier to just land it on the so called small so called Landlord.

Thanks for your post @noproblem, very interesting.

Any chance you’d be able to give a percentage of problem tenants? Just a ballpark figure for my own interest? Ta.

EasilyAmused said:

Thanks for your post @noproblem, very interesting.

Any chance you’d be able to give a percentage of problem tenants? Just a ballpark figure for my own interest? Ta.

Click to expand...

With 1st and 2nd year students we stopped renting to them completely, a bit embarrassing for some parents when told the reason why. As for %'ages of tenants who were acting the maggot? Towards 2015 when I was getting out of it I saw lots of excuses given for late payments, etc, and a new type of tenant coming on the scene who wanted everything about a week after moving in. If I was to give advice to anyone doing it now on a small scale, I would tell them to use an agent, pay the 10/15% they charge but know your agent and his reputation. Let no one tell you it's easy money today, it is not and that's if you make anything at all. The 90's were good to me with returns, but they were different times and we won't get into that. Those days are long gone.

When I compare my living conditions with my own first year in college (1990) with what it is like now (or seems to be like), it’s incomparable.
Damp, shared bedroom, no TV, etc. But it was GREAT!

EasilyAmused said:

When I compare my living conditions with my own first year in college (1990) with what it is like now (or seems to be like), it’s incomparable.
Damp, shared bedroom, no TV, etc. But it was GREAT!

Click to expand...

Indeed. Remember though that houses in that era hadn't cost big money and the rent in percentage terms of that cost was very good. I'll have to say that houses I had were all in good nick, always had oil central heating, etc. What students won't tell you is one of the 1st things they would do was to block up all air vents, only put on heat on rare occasions, seldom wash bedclothes, etc, have showers one after the other and never open a window for steam to escape, so dampness did happen. What they did with Mammy and Daddy's money plus their grant money and part time work money? I'll leave it to yourself to work out. Is it any wonder students find it difficult to find houses to rent? We never hear the real reasons why though. Against that, 3rd and final year students were wonderful to deal with and I never had a problem with them. I believe from my own children who have now taken over what I once did that this is the area they deal in, almost completely with no issues. Maybe there's a lesson there for other people who are thinking of letting out a house.

I am an accidental landlord as l had my own apt and then got hitched and moved into my wife's apt and let mine to a work colleague which is working out well, but will move when Covid ends so in quandary..

main concern is long term is it better to let to council for less money and less hassle, take plunge with tenants or sell up and put difference into pension,. as any upgrade is unaffordable even for 2 of us if we dont want to work till our late 60s !!

l wonder what the most failsafe way is to get a good tenant, get a solicitor involved, big deposit upfront,, on upside has own parking spot underground and 100m from Dart, DCC not permitting many car parking spaces now..

Marco 1972 said:

I am an accidental landlord as l had my own apt and then got hitched and moved into my wife's apt and let mine to a work colleague which is working out well, but will move when Covid ends so in quandary..

main concern is long term is it better to let to council for less money and less hassle, take plunge with tenants or sell up and put difference into pension,. as any upgrade is unaffordable even for 2 of us if we dont want to work till our late 60s !!

l wonder what the most failsafe way is to get a good tenant, get a solicitor involved, big deposit upfront,, on upside has own parking spot underground and 100m from Dart, DCC not permitting many car parking spaces now..

Click to expand...

If you're in the city centre with so called own parking space? A lot of tenants are having issues with others parking in their spaces. What are you going to do to shift them?

Marco 1972 said:

l wonder what the most failsafe way is to get a good tenant,

Click to expand...

Get an agent for letting and management.

noproblem said:

I hate the word Landlord and all that's associated with it

Click to expand...

Completely agree with you. I use the title very sparingly.

noproblem said:

A lot of tenants are having issues with others parking in their spaces

Click to expand...

This is down to good, and bad management of the complex.

In one Apt complex where I have a unit, the caretaker will clamp the vehicle, no iffs or butts, if your not parked in your specific allocated bay, even with parking disc displayed. Very clear signage will alert you to this misdemeanor, and it works great. It takes away the unnecessary conflicts.

In another Complex, the signs mean nothing, and the situation there is abused. There's nothing as frustrating as the owner/tenants allocated parking bay being hijacked, and there is constant agro regarding this.