Vulture Shock

at

St Helen’s Court, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin

Residents of 17 apartments in Dún Laoghaire in Dublin have been told by their landlords – two global investment funds – that they have to vacate the property within weeks.

The tenants of Saint Helen’s Court received letters from a receiver acting on the owners’ behalf, telling them to move out on various dates to allow for major refurbishments.

…It says residents will have the chance to re-rent the apartment once work is completed under certain conditions.

However, residents are sceptical. They say last year attempts were made to substantially increase the rent, just two days before the enactment of legislation only allowing rent rises of 4% a year in designated rent pressure zones.

Call for Govt to intervene as residents told to vacate 17 Dún Laoghaire apartments (RTÉ)

Pic; RTÉ

46 thoughts on “Vulture Shock

  1. dav

    Bravo blushirts, more homeless grist to the vulture fund mill, eh? A great little country to do evictions in….

    1. GiggidyGoo

      And affordable housing….. the definition in Cherrywood is €400k+ for a three bedroomed unit. 10% deposit, and a income of 110k required.

      1. Cian

        How could the government change this? Cherrywood is a private development.

        Once built it will provide 1000s of homes (as well as schools, offices and shops). This will reduce the demand across (south) Dublin, and this will help lower rents.

        1. Yep

          To be fair, it could be the most successful development in the history of the State. Functionally speaking.

  2. Diddy

    The faceless corporation will have its way here. Refurb then jack up the rents (2 months deposit in advance) of course. The peasants will be tossed to the Kirb. Capitalism lovely capitalism…

    1. ahjayzis

      Rentier capitalism meets corporate socialism. The state probably sold the properties to them for cents in the euro.

  3. ahjayzis

    Everyone hold off on judgement!!!!!

    I’m SURE Fine Gael will get around to explaining to us why it’s actually a social GOOD that these vermin have been allowed to buy our country and make our citizens homeless. JUST GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN IT TO US!

    1. Cian

      um. they aren’t removing these properties from the rental pool (except for a few weeks/months during the actual renovation – its in their interest the get them renovated ASAP).
      There will be the same number of properties available to rent.
      These 17 will be refurbished and attract a higher rent.

      1. realPolithicks

        um. And what happens to the current occupants of these properties who have been given two weeks to get out?

        1. Cian

          Who said 2 weeks?

          Under current legislation landlords *need* to provide at *least* 4 weeks:
          Less than 6 months 4 weeks (28 days)
          6 months or longer but less than 1 year 5 weeks (35 days)
          1 year or longer but less than 2 years 6 weeks (42 days)
          2 years or longer but less than 3 years 8 weeks (56 days)
          3 years or longer but less than 4 years 12 weeks (84 days)
          4 years or longer but less than 5 years 16 weeks (112 days)
          5 years or longer but less than 6 years 20 weeks (140 days)
          6 years or longer but less than 7 years 24 weeks (168 days)
          7 years or longer but less than 8 years 28 weeks (196 days)
          8 years or longer 32 weeks (224 days)
          http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/renting_a_home/if_your_landlord_wants_you_to_leave.html

          1. realPolithicks

            Yeah, the two weeks was a mistake on my part, I misread the article. However that doesn’t take away from the point of where are these people supposed to live?

      2. ahjayzis

        Renovation my hoop, it’s textbook rentier profiteering.

        I’ll bet you anything they do no more than paint the landing before doubling the rent for the next poor mug.

        1. Cian

          They need to provide the current tenants notice of what the refurbishments are and, if they re-let within 6 months, they must give the old tenants first refusal.

          If they were to “just paint the landing” the old tenants could bring a case to the RTB and get either damages from the landlord and/or could be allowed to continue their tenancy at the old rates (+4% uplift)

    2. anne

      well now baldy noonan told us vultures do a good service in cleaning off the carcasses in society..

  4. pedeyw

    “Neither PWC, Apollo Global Management or Deutche Bank would comment on the matter.” Of course they wouldn’t. Cowards as well as thieves.

    1. Kolmo

      As one US Vulture on RTE said recently when asked about the obvious social consequences of his business practices in Ireland, he simply said “it is what is is” fully in the knowledge that he has the full force of the law, a very thatcherite government behind him and backed up by private muscle against any objection, and then in the next breath objected to the term vulture to describe his very destructive business model..
      This only happens, just like 170 years ago, because their are local agents only too willing to do their bidding for a dirty shilling..I’d say name and shame, but it wouldn’t work with that dirty little mindset..they’d be as brazen as burglars.

  5. $hifty

    The thin end of the wedge, I’m afraid, when it comes to ‘professional’ landlords. Same with the 2 months rent as deposit becoming the norm. People will rue the day that the small, independent landlord was squeezed from the market.

    1. Cian

      If you go onto boards.ie to the various legal/landlord/tenant boards you’ll see a rake of people complaining about ‘independent’ landlords – and how they are making people’s lives hell.

      I’m not saying that the professionals will not cause complaints too – they are “faceless corporations” and have their own issues. But you’re kidding yourself if you think that the independents are great.

      As an aside, the same boards have an equal number of landlords complaining about tenants.

      …and both landlords and tenants swear blind that RTB is totally on the other’s side… so RTB are probably balanced in the middle.

    1. anne

      you’re either an idiot or purposely acting stupid. did you ever make yourself homeless when you needed to redo your own house? no thought not.

      1. Sheik Yahbouti

        There speaks a young fella who is still living with Dad and Mum in their modest 4bed detached in a nice superb. You should know by now that this is all academic and a source of point scoring “debate” to this person.

      2. Cian

        as I mentioned above, there are laws that protect tenants. If the landlords break these laws the RTB does enforce them (albeit they need the tenants to take a case).

        1. Tabloid Rag

          It’s hard to tell sometimes if you are just incredibly naïve or a really annoying troll sub species
          I’m tending to the latter

      3. I'm "alright" Jack. Mad Jack is on annual leave.

        He’s another guy on here Anne who trolls for FG

  6. darren

    if we are so easy picking from afar, it will have to be that uncomfortable contact is made sooner or later with those who manage people’s homes as though they are merely a business while the rest of us who call such a place home are merely doing the simple things well, like living in it. Of course everyone reading this agrees wholeheartedly with this view but then it remains worth asking why it is that we appear so easy to disrupt, control and detach from the sorts of things which matter to all, no matter what sort of income or investment opportunities are made available. It is obvious that some few people very much closer to home are enacting these seemingly indiscriminate judgements on behalf of our presumed interests. Perhaps it should be made more clear if at all possible that we in Ireland do not only care about our house prices, that we recognise how those mistakes have been made and those stories have been shared. Now we have returned to caring about value, not increase as a standard, but value. What is a home worth when it can be taken away in such a short space of time? Is it worth 40-50 hour weeks? Is it worth caring about the community in which it was built. Probably these issues are all relevant but it is a terrible situation for each of the tenants. Hopefully they can screw the system which has failed to protect them from faceless speculative interests and claim some sort of insurable damages for the abrupt nature of the change to their very lives. Fingers crossed it matters that much.

  7. dav

    Can anyone please tell me when the Irish government stopped building homes? Was it the late 1990’s early 2000’s??

  8. Murtles

    Noonan couldn’t court enough of these foreign investors and offload NAMA properties at a fraction of what they were worth. He was only interested in getting in the “millins” which didn’t really happen but he was blinded such was his love for vultures. And now real people and real families be damned, he’ll have his mansion and his golden parachute pension.

    1. ahjayzis

      He’ll always be the grim little house-elf who rolled out the red carpet and dancers and tweetle-doodled Donald Trump on behalf of us all at Shannon.

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