Opinions on RTB video of attempted eviction by a landlord

Sister Sara said:
I agree, unless supply issues are addressed.
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The only increase to supply will be the Funds. But they, if they re-enter the market at all, will only be interested in Dublin, and Cork to some extent.

They will be building A rated top quality expensive product. A two bed apartment costs at least 500k to build in Dublin. Rents will be high and they will be extremely choosy about their tenants.

Supply will decline everywhere else. Landlords of my ilk (aged 60 plus) are leaving. We've had enough at this stage. Very few new young landlords will come in. Young people struggle to get a mortgage for their own home. None of them are thinking of a buy to let.

It does all come down to supply. If we had plenty of supply, landlords would be competing for tenants. That is what I spent my first two decades as a landlord doing up until 2015 or so.
 
Well that's all pretty ominous @Greenbook. My reading of that, and I have argued this for a long time, that the Irish property market is a failed market.
Boom-bust-boom...and now civil disorder is emerging with increased racist attacks against immigrants and an increase in nationalism.
 
Greenbook said:
It does all come down to supply. If we had plenty of supply, landlords would be competing for tenants. That is what I spent my first two decades as a landlord doing up until 2015 or so.
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Right, that is the best protection for tenants. Normally landlords wouldn't want the hassle, and expense, of finding new tenants.

With the current (and incoming) rules, many landlords would be happy if their tenants left, since the rent is below market. This creates the wrong incentives for the landlord. There is no incentive to helpful to the tenant.

Bad landlords are rewarded with shorter tenancies.
 
Greenbook said:
A two bed apartment costs at least 500k to build in Dublin
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10% gross yield on an investment of 500k would be 4166eur per month. For the investor's POV, that would be a starting point for a "fair" rent for a such a property. If there will be a restriction on rents that brings it well below that level, what investor would want to go into the market?

Conversely, if a new commercial landlord would be allowed to charge such rent, as a small existing landlord with a similar property with no mortgage etc, why should I not be allowed to charge the same? I am not, due to RPZ. So it really is a broken supply and demand model. Even when there may be short term emergency reasons for a government to intervene in the natural market supply and demand, it is rarely if ever a good in the long term. Which is where we are, and digging a deeper hole bit by bit.
 
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Yes, fair criticism.

Here is another RTB video on their Facebook page.

Same dim, dodgy, middle aged landlord turns up unannounced at his rental, occupied by three young girls, just walks in and wanders around. Then he asks for a cup of tea.
 
In today’s Irish Times: Tenancies board posts portrayed landlords as ‘unscrupulous’, claims representative group

‘In response to the letter, Steen said the purpose of the campaign was to inform landlords and tenants about their rights and responsibilities under the law.

She said the campaign had used a “new approach to drive greater engagement with the campaign’s younger student audience” and had used “light humour to make important rental issues relatable for a younger audience” in some of the videos.

This new approach delivered a significant increase in traffic to our campaign landing page this year,” she said, noting the RTB would take the feedback “into consideration when planning future campaigns”.‘
 
As the Article says

"Conway said that landlords look to work collaboratively with the RTB, partly funding its operations through registration fees, but that the concerns raised were not taken seriously by the agency."

We are paying for these campaigns which portray us as dodgy and shady and, to be honest, a bit sleazy too - a middle aged landlord wandering around unannounced in a rental occupied by three young girls.

RTB head Rosemary Steen said it was light humour. Maybe she should put up some funny posts of a tenant with a sledgehammer destroying a kitchen or a landlord chasing an overholding and non-paying tenant through the RTB for two years or more (Terry Gorry could advise on that one, but I doubt he found it funny at all).
 
From the article again, Mary Conway is entirely correct here. We're portrayed as bad actors that tenants need to be wary of. That is the message from these posts.

"The videos, said Conway, portray landlords in a “highly unfavourable – almost comical or farcical – light, suggesting they are all, by definition, bad actors that tenants should be wary of, in contrast to the landlords’ adverts, which are factual information."

All the information for landlords is factual and actually tenant orientated.

As well as the false figures showing tenancy and landlord numbers increasing, these social media posts very clearly show whose side the RTB is on
 
FWIW I took a closer look. https://www.facebook.com/RTBInfo/ https://www.instagram.com/rtbinfo I didn't look at TikTok or X because my life is too short to use these SM.

The RTB fb account has 1.5k followers, the insta account 389. They post irregularly, a few posts one month, then nothing for longer periods. Most posts have zero or almost zero comments. There are a few "pro landlord" comments on the videos mentioned in this thread which are visible (so not hidden). Pretty much no comments at all on anything else. Later I will post a couple more comments using some old testing accounts I still have access to.

I note they advertised for a Content Editor position (https://web.archive.org/web/2026010...tent-Editor-Candidate-Information-Booklet.pdf) in December, and Media and Campaigns Manager (cannot find info) in January.
So clearly they want to up their SM presence.
 
patfert1 said:
So clearly they want to up their SM presence.
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That would seem to be correct. No reason to hire content editors and media campaigns managers if that is not the plan.

Steen was completely unapologetic about the posts, so expect more of these in their campaigns when they up their social media presence.

Barr a few notable exceptions, I've always gotten on fine with my tenants. I have noticed more recently with Irish tenants in particular an undercurrent of distrust and nearly dislike starting to develop.

Campaigns like these feed into that; landlords portrayed as dodgy and sleazy.
 
What I object to is the caricature portrayal of the property owner.

They are shown as dim-witted, unaware of the law re rental properties, with a certain sleazy demeanour, and, so far as I can see, are all white men.

Now folks, think about other elements of racial, ethnic or sexual orientation stereotypes & ask yourself if any other state supported organisation would stand over these types of videos.

What about Dublin Bus portraying all fare dodgers as black thugs for example?

Or the RTA with accidents involving only women drivers.

The IT would be shouting about it from the roof tops; but hey property owners are the scum of the earth so who cares.
 
DannyBoyD said:
They are shown as dim-witted, unaware of the law re rental properties, with a certain sleazy demeanour, and, so far as I can see, are all white men.
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Constantly portraying us as sleazy and dodgy also makes it much more difficult for male landlords to interact with young female tenants. Tenants are fed this constant diet that male landlords especially are up to something and can't be trusted.

The last video where he walks into the house unannounced with the dodgy story that he is collecting the post just reinforces that
 
Greenbook said:
. I have noticed more recently with Irish tenants in particular an undercurrent of distrust and nearly dislike starting to develop
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I do feel that too, despite the fact that our rent is currently at least 65 per cent under market rent.
Greenbook said:
Constantly portraying us as sleazy and dodgy also makes it much more difficult for male landlords to interact with young female tenants. Tenants are fed this constant diet that male landlords especially are up to something and can't be trusted.
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Yep, my husband doesn't do any screening on his own.
 
This has now been picked up by the Journal.ie as well - here

The landlord really does look shifty in the Journal's picture!
 
DannyBoyD said:
Now folks, think about other elements of racial, ethnic or sexual orientation stereotypes & ask yourself if any other state supported organisation would stand over these types of videos.
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Your comments are really spot on. This is very stereotyped. Imagine if the landlord in the video was a dodgy-looking immigrant rather than a dodgy-looking white man with an Irish accent.
 
The male/female sterotyping is clear as well.

The female tenants are smart, savvy and articulate.

The male landlord is dim, dodgy and just a little bit sleazy.

It shows what the RTB's view of tenants and landlords is.
 
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