From top: a Daft vacancy; Daft owners Eamonn and Brian Fallon
In January, Sinn Féin introduced the Property Services (Advertisement of Unfit Lettings) (Amendment) Bill 2019. It aimed to stop poor quality accommodation – including overcrowded properties – from being advertised online.
eoin writes;
We’ll be seeing crying chair-type ads from Daft.ie for some time to come as FF gang up with FG to cynically delay legislation to force Daft to vet ads for legality.
The Shinners tried to introduce their Property Services (Advertisement of Unfit Lettings) (Amendment) Bill 2019. It makes total sense and this was accepted by all, FG and FF included.
But, while FG and FF voted to approve the progress of the Bill, they both voted to delay any further consideration of the Bill for six months.
Meantime, looks like we might have to continue moral suasion on the Fallon brothers, Eamonn and Brian.
Maybe have a polite word with them if you come across them, I’m sure they’re decent people and would be aghast if they knew what sort of ads they’re hosting, and even the €8m dividends wouldn’t merit such despicable standards.
Previously: The Crying Chair on Broadsheet
civilwarshirts and property – screwing the state since it’s foundation..
#civilwarshirts
LOL; for the vast majority of the 20th Century FF & FG have has 85-70% of the popular vote, with Labour taking another 6-20%. So basically “civilwarshirts” is just a synonym for “most Irish people”.
Only the PDs in 1987, and Clann na Talmhan and Clann na Poblachtain the 1940s every broke 10% 1st preference in the Dail.
FG scum.
FG have had an average of 30% of the public vote since 1937.
Maybe so. Still doesn’t negate what Mezcal wrote.
Good idea. Corporate social responsibility is everywhere – it’s time Daft started being Sensible.
[I’ll help with the marketing.]
+ 1
+1
When you think about it. Buying a house in Ireland at a reasonable price and living a relatively comfortable middle class working life with a family, had a window of opportunity for 3 or so generations. The window has been shut for almost 20 years. Something is very wrong and deeply troubling with that.
According to CSO between 2010 and 2018 there were over 800,000 houses sold in Ireland. Over 550,000 were to owner-occupiers.
191,702 Household Buyer – First-Time Buyer Owner-Occupier 24%
361,411 Household Buyer – Former Owner-Occupier 45%
156,142 Household Buyer – Non-Occupier 19%
92,685 Non-Household Buyer 12%
I said buying a house at a reasonable price. Everyone knows houses were sold. Ireland has a massive hard on for buying houses compared to European renting culture, but thousands of home owners struggle to make ends meet with good jobs. You don’t agree that the middle class have been squeezed almost out of existence?
I disagree.
House ownership is (often) cheaper than renting. There is a problem that someone paying 2000/month in rent won’t be given a mortgage that would cost them 1600/month.
The 500,000 houses sold over the last 8 years weren’t all sold to the upper classes? So someone outside the upper class is buying – I’d suggest this is the middle class.
I disagree Cian. They are not middle class as we knew it. They have way less money to save, they have insecure pensions, their children may rely on their parents money to get their first home.
Didn’t AIB and BOI have ads during the boom encouraging parents of adults to remortgage their homes for their children to compete in the Ultra-madness that is the Irish Housing market?
It was sick and predatory.
The fact that house ownership is often cheaper than renting does not mean that houses are being sold for reasonable prices. Rent is bananas at the moment, especially in Dublin.
Mortgages can be cheaper than renting but there’s more upfront cost in needing to have 10% of a mortgages saved for it in the first place. The difference with renting here compared to the rest of Europe is the lack of decent security of tenure and rent controls.12 month leases are a joke. The 4% rent increase limit may have helped a little but also essentially guaranteed a 4% rent increase every year.
If me and my wife went on the scratch we could still afford of mortgage of 700 a month for a 3 bedroom house in the leafy suburbs .But If we were renting, we would have to cough up at least 1200 a month for the same place. Yet if someone paying rent of 1200 to 1500 a month to a landlord without incident for ten years tried to get a mortgage for a 300k house whos payment would be 800-900 a month ,the banks would turn them down citing “stress test” failure. Its a crock . And shame on any second property owner gouging a young family rent that is double the mortgage they are paying. its bad enough the banks wont trust mortgage applicants but how the hell can a couple save a deposit if there greedy landlord is getting their mortgage paid on their second house for free AND have an extra 500 quid or so profit every month? (and still claim they are barely keeping their own head above water despite swaning around in a 4×4 to keep up appearances) . And that’s just the second property owners with second mortgages, there’s some SCUMBAGS landlords out there with mortgage free second houses that are renting out the 2nd house for the same rental rate , where’s the motivation to ever sell them? There’s half your housing shortage right there, and then you have some clowns that rent out a shed in the back garden. I mean I could do that , quit my day job build a prefab out back and exploit some sap , but never would because I have a huge moral problem with it. There a culture of absolute scumbaggery with mortgage brokers and financial advisers too . they advise all these miserable baby boomers types to buy second properties and rent out every spare room and granny flat for $$$$ . so they can borrow more to buy yet another property. I’m thankfully blessed with a reasonable mortgage in a good area. If I ever came into a stake of a second property through inheritance of anything like that, my siblings can buy me out if they want to get into the scummy landlord game . there’s no way in hell id be a landlord and id do everything in my power to sell the damn property and be done with it, . best case scenario you’d make a litter earner on the side but I couldn’t live with the guilt of exploiting family after family for decades. There more to life than money. I have it relatively easy and I’m not greedy. Oh , did I mention I hate landlords?
+1 postmanpat
Local and Euro elections on the way. Ask your FFGLAB boyos to explain themselves. Housing situation hits all, be that property tax, water, mortgages, evictions, student accommodation costs, travel.
Ask especially your local councilors who are seeking re-election.
Don’t forget to ask your SF/PBP/Independent councillor the same questions for the those issues that are under local control. Water, property tax, homelessness, parking, planning, etc..
Of course. But the majority in power in the councils are the FFGLAB boyos. And it’s Government (FFGLAB) policies and decisions over the years that is to blame. Not SF/PBP. How many real independents are in the current government (as in untarnished by membership of FFG in their past)?
FG Silly Boo Boos.
I recently reported an ad on Daft, because it violated so many tenancy laws and rights, was an incredibly unsafe place to live, for a shockingly high price. You could tell this from looking at the photos of small box rooms with single “loft beds” made from cobbled together bits of wood, with no head room above. The kitchen was alarmingly close to one of these loft beds, and the bathroom was minute.
The ad was taken down (which is why I cannot share it with you), but Daft did not even bother to recognise my report or let me know they had acted upon it. I find it incredible that they do not have their own internal team focused on the standard of properties – they should be ashamed that legislation has to be brought in to make sure that people are not moving into dangerous/illegal properties. I find it hard to believe that the owners of Daft are unaware of the quality of some of the ads.
+ €175 (featured rental ad)
or + €95 (premium, high priority)
or + €45 (standard rental listing), whatever, great comment Orla.
We’re seeing today how the FAI sponsors are reacting to a situation which no-one is suggesting is criminal. And ditto for the Fallon brothers, people just expect them to do the decent thing when their business is making so much money.
Like the majority of modern Apps and websites. They are only concerned with more hits, more ads, more money. They push for employees to be hired as freelancers with no labour rights, no safety nets, everything that workers fought for in the 20th century, when society generally agreed that these were good things that helped people, families, quality of life. They have no ethos other than profit.
All daft employees are contractors?
I was talking about the culture of modern apps and huge website brands like Uber, Deliveroo etc… Not specifically Daft.ie.
Change will never happen from those with an interest in the Status-quo (not the band), it comes from scaring the poo out of politicians, marching, civil disobedience, you know, all the tried and tested ways of affecting change we’re all too distracted from doing because we’re afraid of losing our jobs..and that’s how they like it.
How about investing in the resources to curb this behavior?
like more inspectors and perhaps a dedicated Revenue department for the rental sector?
Or perhaps a root and branch overhaul of all the rental sector?
nail on head, scumbag landlords will always be there, if daft had tougher controls, they would just use fake pics. It is unreasonable to expect daft to do a job a government should do. Also, what about gumtree, myhome, de herald etc?
jaysus cian is fairly spinning to defend the landed civilwarshirts..
… again.
More deflection than spinning.
C-ontrar-ian.
Daft isn’t owned by the Fallons any more it’s owned by a Norwegian media conglomerate
You can read Wednesday’s debate of the Shinners’ Bill in the Seanad here
https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/2019-04-10/30/
Neither FF nor FG have problems with the Bill, in fact they have signalled support, but in the end they both voted “the Bill be read a second time this day six month”
Lynch mob Eoin should target Norway
https://fora.ie/who-owns-irelands-media-3382010-May2017/
“Brian and Eamonn Fallon, who also founded Distilled Media – the firm behind the Daft.ie property site. Distilled Media merged with Oslo-based Schibsted Media Group in 2015 to create the Distilled Sch joint venture. The combined company also controls classifieds site DoneDeal and online marketplace Adverts.ie.”
Absolutely correct. Brian and Eamonn set up Daft.ie and remain significant shareholders after the merger with the Norwegian listings company. The link embedded in the BS article above, from the Indo last November 2018, shows them sharing in €8m in dividends in 2017 and 2018.
You’ll probably have more opportunity to influence – not target, no-one’s inciting unpleasantness at all, just maybe have a word with them – the Fallons because they’re local.
Gibberish Eoin
The Norwegians invested a lot of capital and will expect Fallons to increase ROI, not reduce it. What you said makes no sense to anyone other than pitchfork wielding mob.
Ok Eoin, you have a word with the Fallons, Who will have a word with myhome? Gumtree? Facebook?
I’m walking past the herald, Ill tell them not be advertising bedsits anymore. So you can scratch that off your list.
They could pay people to monitor the ads. They are pooing cash. Pure greed.
Exactly.
The begrudgery is strong in this one
My Man, they can make loads of money and keep total kips off their site. We get them sent to us most days. Beds beside cookers, studio apartments in corridors, garden sheds as small flats and the all too frequent offers of queen-size double bed ‘sharing’
from where I write to you this evening.So what? It’s a free market. Many people don’t need or can’t afford to spend a huge amount of their money on renting a place. A large part of the homeless problem has been occasioned by the removal of traditional bedsit accommodation. Personally in the past I lived in tents or places I could afford as circumstances demanded. I never felt hard done by having a roof over my head. Dublin Rental Investigator would be better off trying to help those people find a roof over their heads
Exactly what?
Capitalists in we want to make profits shocker.
It’s not the job of publishers to regulate private enterprise.
People such as @DublinRentalInvestigator and our readers are monitoring their ads every day for nothing. Even if Daft (and Myhome, etc) employed someone to check the photos. The absolute state of these places.
Monitoring their content is the very least they should be doing
Fit for purpose
Compliant with Regulation
Honest description
Genuine Advertiser
Even the latter item – genuine Advertisers
If they host on behalf of scammers and con artists posing as landlords whose only intent is to trap people’s banking details, personal data, as well as their yoyos
Then they could be liable for Money Laundering
At the very least
How are they liable for money laundering?
This is laughable
The job of law enforcement is the job of law enforcement
How can publishers be responsible for the enforcement of planning or money laundering legislation? Are you having a laugh at our expense?
when you post an ad on Daft, it takes a day or so before it goes ‘live’. so i think they do have people checking them – checking for what, though
checking for crying chairs obviously
@Bodge, every ad on daft has a report ad hyperlink. People choosing to send them to broadsheet may have less altruistic reasons.
I do accept they should do some high level check, but vetting of rentals should be council led. Why on earth do we pay LPT for?
@tonylette
Hosting criminal activity
Not having ample procedures to prevent same
Being a party to Tax Evasion
Not having accurate identities for Account Holders
And taking money from Criminals
Are all AML/CTF breeches and now criminal offences
+ 1
I am at a loss to why people can’t fupping see this.
No idea what an “AML/CTF breech” is, and how it applies specifically to publishers, please clarify
What evidence do you have (if any) that there is a tax offence being committed here, or that DAFT do not have accurate identities for account holders> or that they are taking money from criminals for that matter? Specifically, are criminals not allowed to get on with their lives and earn a living when they have done their time?