Wexford couple living in a tent feel they have been let down by system – Independent.ie

28 comments
  1. Being in arrears with your rent because you spent 4 grand doing up the back garden is probably not the smartest decision ever made.

  2. Him blaming the council for his being in arrears because he had to do work on the house is, quite frankly, bullshit. The landlord signed a contract with the council and was getting paid by the council, it’s the landlord’s job to complete those works. If you don’t want your children to be homeless, pay your bills.

  3. I think the RAS is the same as any council housing agreement, first fix is free and everything after that is up to you.

    Your oil burner wrecks the pump, council fixes it and after that, yearly maintenance and repairs are your responsibility.
    The council always insist you get insurance.

    Spending 10k on a garden and replacement oil burner that is never going to be yours is fucking stupid. With some really hard work at weekends, a planned layout and minimal planting plus shed, you can have a decent garden for less than 1000euro. It’s rare that most oil burners need full replacing, it’s usually a pump, clogged up filter or insulation that needs replacing, about 100euro to fix. It may have been an older oil burner but usually they’re upgraded before an agreement takes place.

    The council pays the rent to the landlord, the tenant is supposed to pay their share to the council. Going 6k in arrears sounds like somebody can’t budget, or someone that is so fucking disgusting that they won’t pay rent, live in a tent with their children and blame everyone else until the council gets them a nice house in their desired area.

  4. We need to start shaming these people who so happily get on the paper with their kids to either make us feel bad that they never paid any rent or we should somehow feel sorry for the other lot living in a cul de sac stopping a new estate because “Social Housing”.

    We’re all stuck in the middle with no way out.

  5. How much roughly they were expected to pay with RAS?

    How many years you need to get to 6k?

  6. For everyone who didn’t read it they are €6000 in arrears, after spending €10000 on maintaining the house after both the owner and the council refused to deal with the problems.

  7. Is it me or is that picture taken in a garden not some random wood? There looks like a house in the top right of the image?

  8. I feel terrible for the kids. You think the Indo editor would use a photo without the kids to spare them some embarrassment.

  9. Its your responsibility to house yourself and your kids, nobody else’s, get out and work for it like the rest of us. Sick of this handout mentality.

  10. I feel like this article is supposed to make people look at the couple in a sympathetic light but all I can think is why on earth would they invest their own money into a rented property? They Mention they put 10,000 euros worth into the house? Why would anyone do that. I rented in Dublin for 8 years city centre scrimped and saved in some shit hole apartment no way was I putting my mortgage deposit / savings into fixing up the apartment. I’m not saying this is right btw but they also have to be accountable for bad decision making.

  11. I don’t have much sympathy for landlords but it sure as hell looks like they should be posing with the shirt off their back rather than the tenant in this instance the amount of rent that is owing.

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