Business has been improving for Irish landlords recently. Rents are on a sharp upward trajectory in Dublin. The Department of Social Welfare recently announced an increase in rent supplements for families judged to be at risk of homelessness. A lack of housing supply has put unprecedented pressure on the rental sector and rented accommodation is now often taken off the market in hours.
When issues do arise, though, landlords are keen to help each other out. Among the organisations they can join are the Irish Property Owners’ Association and the Residential Landlords Association of Ireland. Both groups run seminars and advise landlords behind closed doors, in hotel conference rooms and swanky bars.
Though the inner workings of the Irish rentier class are still shrouded in mystery, online discussions threads now give us some insight into the dark world of equity, conveyancing and the rental accommodation scheme.
Enter IrishLandlord.com, a website run by landlords for landlords. Among the resources that landlords can avail of through the website is a support forum where landlords can air their grievances, discuss recent developments in the property market and seek advice on how best to evict tenants.
Trinity News presents you a selection of posts from some of the most frequent contributors to the forum:
Poll: How to evict tenants!
You want to evict your tenants. Do you:
(a) [Follow] PRTB procedures all the way, hoping they will go peacefully?
(b) Heavy-handed throw them out?
(c) Make the house unliveable?
(d) Keep calling in to collect rent?
Should I evict her before Christmas?
A week before Christmas, this landlord is thinking about evicting his pregnant tenant, but is worried about the effect this might have on his reputation. “She has until the 19th and I don’t know how well it would go down if I issued her a Notice of Termination before Christmas? I’d say the PRTB wouldn’t look too kindly on me doing that to a single mum of two, etc.”
Never rent to Africans.
“Never ever rent to Africans. Especially Nigerians.”
How do I kick pregnant mother out to free up equity?
When he is not complaining about Africans, A2B looks for advice on how to kick a heavily pregnant woman out of her home. He admits she has been an “ideal tenant” for the past three years, but is keen to sell the property to free up equity. “It would sound terrible,” he writes. “Pregnant mother getting thrown out by landlord. I just need some advice on best way to deal to solve this.”
A fellow landlord responds: “Your first mistake was getting her pregnant.”
Labour are communists.
In a thread on Labour calls for a rent cap, this outraged user writes that the party “always has, always will” be communists, determined to spend the money of hard-working landlords. “Look at what they did to England under Blair,” Shark Trager comments. “The place is an utter kip now overrun with the worst sort of immigrant, the scrounger. Was in Birmingham recently after a gap of 20 years. It was like Islamabad.”
Judge people on their handshake.
“A good solid, firm handshake bordering on a bone breaker is usually an indicator of a solid, reliable person.” More words of wisdom from Shark Trager. The one thing you need to avoid with this clever chap is a “wet, limp” handshake.
Why those lefty types hate us.
They hate “anyone who has got off their arses and made something of themselves,” and are conspiring to hand over landlords’ hard-earned money to “those who spent their days sitting on their holes, drinking Royal Dutch, buying bling and that from catalogues, pumping out 14 kids, going to the bookies and boozer, and living off the scratcher.” Shark Trager really does have a bone to pick those “lefty types”.
How to teach that “disgusting” woman a lesson.
Hand prints are left visible on the ceiling of a property recently vacated by a mother of four. “Some people are subhuman,” Shark Trager comments. “What a lazy, disgusting woman.”
Potential tenants are either decent people or scumbags.
“Scum” and “filth” are words regularly bandied about on IrishLandlord.com. According to this user, potential tenants can only fall into one of “two distinct camps”. “The trick is to ensure you do not rent to aforementioned filth,” Shark Trager writes. “Eventually you develop an immediate ability to size up an individual or couple within minutes.”
Read more here.
