A Landlord's experience

Update Feb 2025

So here we are approx 4 months on… money wise not far off €10k spent on getting the house up to liveable/sellable state… to be fair any property of this age would have required some investment but fixing literally every light switch smashed and most sockets over and above. Anyhow aside from the money the sheer work of physically clearing mountains of belongings both indoor and outdoor casually discarded has been monumental. But end almost in sight and all going well be on the market within next couple of months.

Part of me tempted to retain and let eldest move in but think at this stage just going to sell…. We will make significant profit that makes early retirement or at least a step back from high stress albeit well paid professions a realistic possibility. Interesting that watching rte and discussion on housing crisis and while change to landlord rights not sole solution my own experience of being a landlord has been eye opening. Again not anti tenant and no doubt a lot of positive experiences but my lesson is learned and glad to be at the end of what has been a challenging journey to say the least!!!

@Sarenco funny how in post 3 you point out the only mistake the landlord made, and try to justify it. Tenant does not have to do anything, even pay the rent, which is a legal requirement under a tenancy, however no comeback whatsoever, good luck to any landlord trying to get their rent back..
This is the problem with the situation, ppl's perception - everything is on the landlord.. tenants have all the rights, landlords have limited rights if they follow a load of very specific rules..
Why is this acceptable in a modern society?

Huh?

I’m not trying to justify anything.

The procedure for terminating a tenancy is set out in legislation. The OP didn’t follow the relevant procedure and the RTB, correctly, ruled that the notice of termination was invalid.

If you have a problem with the legislation, I suggest you lobby your local TDs.

@aido71

You have certainly been through it. The place must have been in bits. I know you said you are happy to be done with the tenants but €10k and counting, plus unpaid rent, is a lot to not try and recoup. As you know where they live, you could have some fun with them, even if you never want payment. It would be nice to have them see what the shoe on the other foot feels like.

Believe me not the type you want to engage with! Just glad to have got the house back! The point of this whole thread was to outline how everything weighed towards the tenant…. I absolutely believe in processes being followed correctly…. My profession is ruled by this .. and hands up we made an error but does that justify a tenant allowed behave however they want? Some may argue yes but in my humble opinion and it is only that… the whole process is designed to set the landlord up for failure…. it shouldn’t be about winning and losing but a fair system that gives tenants security and landlords security in the knowledge that their asset .. because that is what it is…is being looked after and can be reclaimed in a fair manner if and when that need arises

June 2025 update!

So here we are some 6 months plus on from original post:
So after finally getting possession as outlined we have spent probably 4/5 months and approx 10k getting to the stage of the house now on the market and after just one week already offers 20k over asking price.....a lot of hard graft basically gutting it and putting it back in decent order. Whilst it would have needed a refurb in any event given the age a lot of work was simply down to the state it was left in. When it was in good order gave thought to maybe holding on to it and letting eldest move in and possibly rent out rooms. It may have been a good idea given house prices and lack of rental for them further down the road but ultimately decided to just sell. We will come out of it with a serious lump sum (i haven't done the total sums on what we may have made given our initial investment supplementing the mortgage etc over the years) but in any event we would have made some profit but probably more importantly we would not have saved that sum of money...life would have eaten it up in some way!
At least now we will be mortgage free on our own place and a significant sum in the bank....we both have well paying jobs with excellent pensions to come so this will allow us to maybe step back a little from our current roles (both in pretty high pressured managerial roles) or even look at retiring earlier than planned. While we no longer will have a property to possibly help our kids we still have our own place and we will be in the really fortunate position of being able to help them financially if it is needed.
So no more landlord for me! Yes it can work out but overall not sure worth the hassle.......it is unfortunate that the system does not make it attractive (IMHO) for anyone to get into this business (unless a large institution).......hopefully things may change that would benefit both landlord and tenant but my experience....and that is all it is....is that Landlords are viewed as the baddie and very little if any protection for them.....as i said earlier good and bad on both sides and unfair to paint either with the one brush but glad to be out of it all....
As i said at the outset this was just a post on one personal experience......never looked for pity or scorn......am sure there are lots of positive stories out there but think it worth telling these stories as it may help people wondering whether or not to become a landlord.