The action is to get them out I hope, as that money is never going to be recovered
The system needs to be reformed. 3 months arrears with no contact and you’re out.
€20k is a good few years rent on a council house
So they evict them and they have to re-home them presumably?
“We now have approximately 56pc of all tenants in some level of arrears.”
That’s mental given the rent cap in these properties. Nobody should be in arrears.
I don’t understand why wage and welfare garnishing isn’t used.
Afaik council rents are capped at 15% or so of household income
For a bit of perspective, Apple alone owe the Irish state 13 Billion euros.
[deleted]
That’s more than €20k *each*, mind, and rents are capped at 10% of household income and average a couple hundred and change a month. Those couple dozen or so tenants in question are clearly taking the piss to have racked up that much in arrears without even attempting to work something out with the council. Then again, they are only a small fraction of the total council tenants (something like 10k overall), and while a majority are in some sort of arrears, most of those arrears are a lot lower.
The 10% of those tenants who are forcing the council to take legal action because they just won’t engage are certainly a problem, though I suppose there could be extenuating circumstances in at least some of those cases. It really is a difficult situation regardless, though, because kicking them out and forcing them to live (or die) on the streets is hardly a humane option, and many wouldn’t have wages to garnish or assets to seize. Seems like the sensible thing would be to take the rent money straight out of whatever benefit payments they’re receiving and just have that money go straight to the local council, but I suppose there might be administrative or legislative difficulties with that plan.
In the end the money is likely coming out of the social welfare system one way or another, so it seems a bit of a waste to spend a lot of time, effort, and money wrangling over which public body is ultimately paying for it. Seems like there ought to be a way to streamline the whole process and get folks what they need without so many different independent bureaucracies being involved.
They get charged 10% of the household income for rent. Average is 55 quid, there are literal children who contribute more to the household than this.
While anyone working is likely to pay 40 to 50% for rent easily even after working to get a degree
Until youre on 45 to 50k in this country, you just get shafted time after time.
10% of income on rent and they can’t be arsed to pay it. They’re in for a rude awakening.
Take 50% of their dole until it’s paid off.
FFS! Over 3 months and toss them out!! Should be taken from social welfare if they are incapable of paying! How many holidays a year are they taking???
Imagine just saying “ah fuck it” and not paying your rent for years and basically suffering no reprecussions for it. Fucking mental. An impossibility for your average tax-paying spa.
Would this serve as disincentive to build social homes?
Also is this essential people screaming for a social home and not paying a penny since?
Meanwhile there are thousands paying over almost 50% of their salary on rent and would literally go above and beyond for affordable rent, and have no issues paying either.. Go figure huh.. Lovely little country we live in..
Must be very “useful members” of society.
It’s ironic. You can choose not to work a day in your life yet nobody can dare to evict you for not paying…
This is why rent should be deducted at source from social welfare payments (and im sure a similar system could be introduced for those earning, who opt against paying). It should also come with an additional fee for admin time or such for having to deal with you in the first place.
And in any legal action the dcc will take each of the 22 tenants will probably have most of their legal fees covered by the state. My Instinct is that just taking 2 of the tenants to court will cost the state more than the 22,000 owed. But no one in the council cares, no one is accountable.
As usual, the lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank.
On a partly related note, the stacked legal system is one of the reasons why so many small landlords are exiting the market. If somebody is letting out one house and the tenant decides not to pay it is really hard to legally remove them. They get tied up for years in the legal system, racking up tens of thousands in legal bills and collecting no rent whilst still having to pay some fees, like insurance, property management, property tax et cetera related to the place.
Now I know this goes against the usual sentiment that all landlords are scumbags and all tenants are victims, but it has to be pointed out.
This is why the Government cant change legislation around evictions.
When given a choice,(no repercussions), lots of people will quite simply stop paying rent.
Wow… socialism, often championed by this sub, isn’t as straightforward in the real world.
Anybody considered how a single parent working minimum wage with a couple of kids could easily get into rent arrears ie deciding whether to eat or feed your kids? Not everyone in social housing is on welfare. Also considering the fact that most welfare payments are circa 200e p.w., so rent, electricity, gas, bins, broadband, phone, travel expenses have to come out of that before you even EAT, perhaps you can understand how deciding in winter to keep the heat on rather than pay the rent for a couple of weeks can lead to arrears. Try walking in someone else’s shoes before you judge.
€20,000 in arrears is multiple years worth of rent depending on the amount, subsidies, HAP, rent supplement etc.
As much the fault of the council for not being firmer on collections.
Very confusing… I’ve heard stories where council didn’t mention they’d upped the rent and it had led to a pretty penny, a couple hundred, building up, but ultimately they just talked it over; how much extra can you pay each week until it’s gone. They only care about intent and commitment, not how long till the lump sum. To build up that much arrears, I have to not only question the tenants but also the council; how did they let it get this far? Did they only just notice the last few years? That’s an obscene amount for so many people…
23 comments
The action is to get them out I hope, as that money is never going to be recovered
The system needs to be reformed. 3 months arrears with no contact and you’re out.
€20k is a good few years rent on a council house
So they evict them and they have to re-home them presumably?
“We now have approximately 56pc of all tenants in some level of arrears.”
That’s mental given the rent cap in these properties. Nobody should be in arrears.
I don’t understand why wage and welfare garnishing isn’t used.
Afaik council rents are capped at 15% or so of household income
For a bit of perspective, Apple alone owe the Irish state 13 Billion euros.
[deleted]
That’s more than €20k *each*, mind, and rents are capped at 10% of household income and average a couple hundred and change a month. Those couple dozen or so tenants in question are clearly taking the piss to have racked up that much in arrears without even attempting to work something out with the council. Then again, they are only a small fraction of the total council tenants (something like 10k overall), and while a majority are in some sort of arrears, most of those arrears are a lot lower.
The 10% of those tenants who are forcing the council to take legal action because they just won’t engage are certainly a problem, though I suppose there could be extenuating circumstances in at least some of those cases. It really is a difficult situation regardless, though, because kicking them out and forcing them to live (or die) on the streets is hardly a humane option, and many wouldn’t have wages to garnish or assets to seize. Seems like the sensible thing would be to take the rent money straight out of whatever benefit payments they’re receiving and just have that money go straight to the local council, but I suppose there might be administrative or legislative difficulties with that plan.
In the end the money is likely coming out of the social welfare system one way or another, so it seems a bit of a waste to spend a lot of time, effort, and money wrangling over which public body is ultimately paying for it. Seems like there ought to be a way to streamline the whole process and get folks what they need without so many different independent bureaucracies being involved.
They get charged 10% of the household income for rent. Average is 55 quid, there are literal children who contribute more to the household than this.
While anyone working is likely to pay 40 to 50% for rent easily even after working to get a degree
Until youre on 45 to 50k in this country, you just get shafted time after time.
10% of income on rent and they can’t be arsed to pay it. They’re in for a rude awakening.
Take 50% of their dole until it’s paid off.
FFS! Over 3 months and toss them out!! Should be taken from social welfare if they are incapable of paying! How many holidays a year are they taking???
Imagine just saying “ah fuck it” and not paying your rent for years and basically suffering no reprecussions for it. Fucking mental. An impossibility for your average tax-paying spa.
Would this serve as disincentive to build social homes?
Also is this essential people screaming for a social home and not paying a penny since?
Meanwhile there are thousands paying over almost 50% of their salary on rent and would literally go above and beyond for affordable rent, and have no issues paying either.. Go figure huh.. Lovely little country we live in..
Must be very “useful members” of society.
It’s ironic. You can choose not to work a day in your life yet nobody can dare to evict you for not paying…
This is why rent should be deducted at source from social welfare payments (and im sure a similar system could be introduced for those earning, who opt against paying). It should also come with an additional fee for admin time or such for having to deal with you in the first place.
And in any legal action the dcc will take each of the 22 tenants will probably have most of their legal fees covered by the state. My Instinct is that just taking 2 of the tenants to court will cost the state more than the 22,000 owed. But no one in the council cares, no one is accountable.
As usual, the lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank.
On a partly related note, the stacked legal system is one of the reasons why so many small landlords are exiting the market. If somebody is letting out one house and the tenant decides not to pay it is really hard to legally remove them. They get tied up for years in the legal system, racking up tens of thousands in legal bills and collecting no rent whilst still having to pay some fees, like insurance, property management, property tax et cetera related to the place.
Now I know this goes against the usual sentiment that all landlords are scumbags and all tenants are victims, but it has to be pointed out.
This is why the Government cant change legislation around evictions.
When given a choice,(no repercussions), lots of people will quite simply stop paying rent.
Wow… socialism, often championed by this sub, isn’t as straightforward in the real world.
Anybody considered how a single parent working minimum wage with a couple of kids could easily get into rent arrears ie deciding whether to eat or feed your kids? Not everyone in social housing is on welfare. Also considering the fact that most welfare payments are circa 200e p.w., so rent, electricity, gas, bins, broadband, phone, travel expenses have to come out of that before you even EAT, perhaps you can understand how deciding in winter to keep the heat on rather than pay the rent for a couple of weeks can lead to arrears. Try walking in someone else’s shoes before you judge.
€20,000 in arrears is multiple years worth of rent depending on the amount, subsidies, HAP, rent supplement etc.
As much the fault of the council for not being firmer on collections.
Very confusing… I’ve heard stories where council didn’t mention they’d upped the rent and it had led to a pretty penny, a couple hundred, building up, but ultimately they just talked it over; how much extra can you pay each week until it’s gone. They only care about intent and commitment, not how long till the lump sum. To build up that much arrears, I have to not only question the tenants but also the council; how did they let it get this far? Did they only just notice the last few years? That’s an obscene amount for so many people…