Rent allowance tenants. yes or no.

Just make sure that you don't get sucked into the myth that Eastern Health Board/Social Welfare pay for any damage, bills outstanding etc if the tenant does a runner. You are basically in a contract with the tennant and as with any tennant that ups and leaves with no forwarding address you pay the costs of all outstanding damages/bills. Outstanding Gas & ESB remain in their name but unless your new tennant has accounts previously with these companies hefty deposits are required by them so you can have problems when re-renting.

With lots of 'professionals' being laid off at the moment I'm guessing the sterotypical profile of the rentallowance candidate is changing. I'd say look for lots of references and make your choice on your own judgement.

With regards rent allowance is it paid directly to the landlord's account or to the tenant first.Does this vary in different parts of the country.Was wondering what applied to Clare area?

Hopefully you'll get an RA tenant like my sister. She was receiving RA and when she left the house, it was in a better condition than when she first moved in. I wouldn't totally disregard RA tenants, check that all is ok with them first before just totally saying no. They may turn out to be rather good ones, like my sis.

With RA, you are fairly safe in terms of "ability" to pay the rent, given that the RA part of the rent is as good a guaranteed income as the tenant is likely to have.

"Willingness" to pay the rent is another story. I have been through two RAs and on both occasions, RA was paid to the tenant, not to me, and in both cases, the RA was NOT passed on to me. Needless to say, both tenancies were short lived.

I spoke to the HSE CWO, and their position is that in any new RA contracts, the payment will go to the tenant in full. The only payments direct to landlord are for agreements already in place.

My general advice would be to ring the local HSE CWO to get a reference regarding payment behaviour for the proposed tenant.

For any tenant, ring the local Gardai for a character reference.

The above seem logical, but I did neither in the last two tenancies and have paid the price.

Can never get my head around the concept of the HSE paying rent allowance. Surely this is a Social Welfare issue?

csirl said:

Can never get my head around the concept of the HSE paying rent allowance. Surely this is a Social Welfare issue?

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Agreed, especially when the HSE have such difficulties trying to keep their core responsibilities in order.
Perhaps it dates from the days of the old health boards, where local politicians would have liked to have input into getting rent allowance for their constituents?

I think it is merely a logical way of handling the distribution of funds. I suspect it is indeed Dept of Social ... funds but administered from HSE local offices by the CWO.

The Supplementary Welfare Allowance Scheme (of which Rent Supplement is a part) is administered by Community Welfare Officers employed by the HSE on behalf of the Dept of Social & Family Affairs. All SWA paid, plus staff and admin costs are paid from DSFA budget, not the HSE.

Historically, the Community Welfare Service is "descended" from Home Assistance Officers, who were employed by Local Authorities and transferred to Health Boards when they were established in 1970. When SWA was introduced in 1977, the Assistance Officers became CWOs and remained within the health boards (because in many areas they carry out health-related duties), but the service was funded from the Dept.

There are plans to transfer the Community Welfare Service into DSFA, with all staff transferring from the public to civil service.

Rent allowance tenants. yes or no.

yes