“Asked To Leave”

at

Thud.

Meanwhile, last Thursday, the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill was passed, ensuring, among other things, that landlords could not evict tenants or increase rents over the three-month Covid-19 emergency period.

Anyone?

Via Neasa Hourigan

UPDATE:

Yesterday.

Maria, in Dublin, tweeted:

Since last month, two of my housemates lost their job. They don’t have any savings. They both used to work in a hotel so there’s no way they’re going to get their jobs back anytime soon, not even after the lockdown is over. Naturally, they are unable to afford rent at the moment.

Given the situation, we asked our landlord to meet us halfway. We asked to pay half the rent as long as the emergency lasts. We didn’t ask to live in the house for free. We didn’t refuse to pay rent (though, I believe, this would be a legitimate action).

We simply told the truth: there is no money for him to take. He replied at first saying we all have responsibilities, i.e., he sees giving him money as our moral duty, and said we needed to discuss this.

We had a Skype call a few days after, in which he tried extremely hard to portray himself as a victim, said the mortgage is only temporarily frozen so he’ll need the money for it in the future, said he needs to send money to his daughter in Australia, said he’s also out of job. Ok.

This man rents three houses he inherited in Dublin, one house in Spain, one in Portugal (that we know of). He’s getting some more than €3,000 a month, tax-free, from our house alone, in which he’s trying to push in a fifth housemate to get even more.

He said each of us should “sort out our finances” and give him this month as MUCH AS WE COULD, and will we owe him the rest once this is over. My housemate has ZERO at the moment. She’s never going to get back the money she lost since her job shut down.

He thinks that in three months she will have €2,250 just for him. I don’t know if greediness makes these people delusional, I don’t know how this reasoning makes sense in their dried-up brains.

She had to explain again to him that she simply doesn’t know when and if she’ll ever have that money, at which point he lost it and shouted that she already owed him money from last month’s rent. Knowing all of us were there with her.

I said he should just keep our deposits … this month, being that is our money that he’s keeping for emergencies, to which he just replied ‘no’ and didn’t even want to discuss about it. He said we should know by now eviction is not something he does, which, coming from him, is already a threat in itself.

At this point, I don’t know how to go on. I’m sick of having to think and talk about money. I’m sick of having to explain why this greediness is irrational, impracticable, and destroying people’s lives. I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere but in Dublin.

This afternoon, Maria tweeted an update about her situation…

Previously: One Flu Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

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14 thoughts on ““Asked To Leave”

  1. scottser

    The landlord is obliged to issue a notice to quit, which should then be taken straight to the PTSB. Tenant should keep paying their rent while all this goes on.
    As the header above points out, there is a freeze on evictions and not only that, i doubt the lease outlines her work as a breach of tenancy.
    landlord should do one.

    1. V

      Landlord should be named and shamed

      If they’re bringing gobshytes into court coughing and acting the b0ll1x
      And featuring them on the news
      Then this landlord should face the same

    2. Brother Barnabas

      “looking for a room to rent” implies this is someone renting a room in someone else’s house maybe

      if so, the RTB doesnt have any role and tenancy regulations dont apply

      doesnt make it alright, of course

      1. :-Joe

        Ye if true then the landlord maybe receiving complaints from justifiably worried / hystericaly paranoid tenants forcing the hand etc.

        Otherwise, dig your heels in on principle and the law, if nothing else.

        :-J

  2. some old queen

    Government needs to clarify the new rules in relation to renting a room as technically you are a guest. And before we all rush to judgement, we don’t know the health or family circumstances of the owner- they may have existing health issues themselves or in close contact to someone who is elderly.

    Apart from it being the right thing to do, major PR potential for local hotels to step into the breach and offer health workers free accommodation of course. It’s not like they are booked out right now- is it?

  3. Broadbag

    ”We didn’t refuse to pay rent (though, I believe, this would be a legitimate action).” Why would you refuse to pay, huge sense of entitlement here, the update is they have only now applied for the emergency Covid payment so have they been sitting around smoking Gitanes and discussing Sartre for the last month rather than looking into the financial supports available?

    ”I don’t know if greediness makes these people delusional, I don’t know how this reasoning makes sense in their dried-up brains.” Indeed!

    Obviously the landlord sounds like a berk but his mortgage payments don’t just vanish after the freeze. Berks the lot of them!

    1. class wario

      who says he has any mortgage payments? sounds like he has a grand property portfolio from what she’s said. and if he does have mortgage payments, maybe he should get a proper job other than sitting around leeching rent off people.

      1. Broadbag

        The article says yer man said his mortgage has been temporarily frozen. Not sure why landlords are auto-demonised, they provide a very useful service and are the only currently viable private alternative to REITS. Just because he has 3 houses doesn’t mean people get to live in one of them indefintely for free, it’s a very strange rant she goes on.

        1. Termagant

          They’re not automatically demonised, they’re demonised when they demand money that doesn’t exist during a time when, through no fault of the tnant’s own, there’s no money to be had. And don’t give us this bullpoo about providing a useful service, it’s people like this hoarding properties and keeping them off the sales market that drive up prices and force so many more people to rent in the first place.

  4. Rob_G

    “He’s getting some more than €3,000 a month, tax-free, from our house alone…”

    No he isn’t. On what planet do people think that landlords earn €36k per annum from rent without paying any tax?

  5. Peter Dempsey

    The Left hate landlords and automatically demonise them. A minority of The Left actually hate people who own their own homes (not landlords) as they take Karl Marx literally. I am not a landlord or a leftie.

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