Can you ask a potential tenant on HAP for a reference from HAP?

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PaxmanK

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Another question that came up the other day.

It is illegal to discriminate against someone on hap. But you need to figure out if they are going to be a good paying tenant.

So can you ask a potential tenant who will be using hap, to get provide you with a reference from the hap scheme stating how long they have been on hap and ha e there ever been instances where they hadn't laid their portion of the rent or have hap received any complaints about them from their landlord.

That seems like a reasonable request to me to figure out if hap deem the person reliable.
 
Very reasonable to ask for it but something tells me you will not get a full, clear, straightforward, response. There may be a few "to the best of our knowledge" type of reply, or that it's not for them to give references.
 
If they are moving from another premises could you ask for a landlord's reference from the previous landlord ?
 
The HAP scheme, it is not an organisation, is administered by the local authorities based on the rental property's address. The scheme and its operation from a landlord and tenant perspective is detailed on their website.

Giving financial references or acting as a clearing house for "good" tenants doesn't seem to be part of their remit.

http://hap.ie/howhapworks/
 
Thanks guys.
Asking as it came up during a meeting of a little discussion group of landlords and ex landlords that I belong to.
The reason for asking is that I wouldn't believe the word of their current landlord. They will write them a fantastic reference even when trying to get rid of them.

But with hap I would expect hap to know if they have had trouble with their tenants in the past and not to lie about it.
If you were going to let to someone on hap this would be essential. If someone on hap had a good record for a couple of years chances are they are good people but if they aren't I'm pretty sure hap would know about it and expect them to share that information as to whether they believe the person they are paying the rent for will be a good fit and has not screwed anyone in the past.

Don't care the reason, but if hap can't or won't fully stand behind their recipients then I wouldn't expect a potential landlord to loom favorably on that. Hap would possess the relevant knowledge of the tenant and if they won't share them so be it.
 
I get a monthly invoice from Hap, one assumes the tenant gets something similar, so ask for that.
 
It would also be good to know if hap ever got any complaints about the person.
 
If you are on HAP you get a statement yearly showing the amounts paid and when. Any defaults or late payments show on that, so you could ask to see it. They don't have to show you though.

Who would HAP get any complaints from? They wouldn't know anything about the tenant other than whether they paid their rent to the department in Limerick on time or not. They have no other responsibility for the tenant at all.
 
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