Tenant - dilemma/decision!

Here's a dilemma I need to make a quick decision on:

Am renting out a room in a nice 3 bed semi-d with 3 current tennants. Have had quite a bit of interest - good old Daft!

Couple A: just arrived in the country, visited the room and want it. However, no jobs yet (recent grads in business).

Couple B: Arriving in country today. Job in the local area, but only for next 8 months.

We are close to train so transport isn't a problem. 5 people in small 3-bed semi-D is not optimal.

I figure couple A may move out soon if they find jobs in the city or don't find work at all. However, couple B are sure to move in 8 months...

Should I go with A or B...or keep looking?

Re: Tennant - dilemma/decision!

While i'm not entirely sure regarding the legal issues, if I was an existing tenant in this situation, I would not like to hear that another couple were moving into a small 3 bed house (assuming there is already one couple since there are 3 tenants). 5 people in a small house is not even close to bearable, let alone optimal. How many bathrooms are there, sitting room space etc.? This sounds like a recipe for disaster and I would choose the Carlsberg option of C and specify No Couples on the Daft advert and keep looking.....(may be a harsh assessment but you don't want to lose existing tenants)

Thanks for the reply.

Well, the benefit to the existing tennants are that the rent remains low per person. They work long days and were originally part of a set of 5, 2 of whom left.

Yeah, I'd prefer to rent out to a young family, but I would have to evict the remaining tennants first, and there are no guarantees I will get who I'd prefer. It's a tricky one. I have to say the remaining 3 people are brilliant, the house is spotless.

chippengael said:

Thanks for the reply.

Well, the benefit to the existing tennants are that the rent remains low per person. They work long days and were originally part of a set of 5, 2 of whom left.

Yeah, I'd prefer to rent out to a young family, but I would have to evict the remaining tennants first, and there are no guarantees I will get who I'd prefer. It's a tricky one. I have to say the remaining 3 people are brilliant, the house is spotless.

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Hmm OK might not be so bad so if they are already used to 5 people.....do the couples pay double rent for the one room?

chippengael said:

Well, the benefit to the existing tennants are that the rent remains low per person. They work long days and were originally part of a set of 5, 2 of whom left.

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So presumably the 5 original tenants (there's only one 'n') all knew each other? I know a few households like that, and it works because the people already know each other and get along just fine. It's a different kettle of fish if you're bringing in a couple of strangers to share the house now. I would be inclined to discuss it with your existing tenants, and maybe even ask them if they know of someone who is looking to rent the available room.

Celtwytch said:

So presumably the 5 original tenants (there's only one 'n') all knew each other? I know a few households like that, and it works because the people already know each other and get along just fine. It's a different kettle of fish if you're bringing in a couple of strangers to share the house now. I would be inclined to discuss it with your existing tenants, and maybe even ask them if they know of someone who is looking to rent the available room.

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Yup I totally agree with the above

Hi,

Well, the original 5 weren't as friendly with each other as it seemed as personal tensions led 2 of them to leave.

The remaining three people tried and failed to find replacements from their own community. Now we may have issues of language & culture too. Or maybe they'll get on fine...we will see how long this lasts. I know it's unlikely to last, but I hadn't the heart to ask the remaining 3 tenants (with one 'n' - thanks!) to leave. This may change if I have to go through this loop again soon though.

I suppose this is just part of the learning curve towards becoming a bitter, hardened landlord.

chippengael said:

Hi,

Well, the original 5 weren't as friendly with each other as it seemed as personal tensions led 2 of them to leave.

The remaining three people tried and failed to find replacements from their own community. Now we may have issues of language & culture too. Or maybe they'll get on fine...we will see how long this lasts. I know it's unlikely to last, but I hadn't the heart to ask the remaining 3 tenants (with one 'n' - thanks!) to leave. This may change if I have to go through this loop again soon though.

I suppose this is just part of the learning curve towards becoming a bitter, hardened landlord.

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Have you considered this discomfort may have been (in some regard) caused by overcrowding and everyone standing on each others toes?

Language and culture clashes in rented accomodation are more and more common these days, and for this reason personally I would not rent with people whose primary language is not English, others may disagree but thats my take.

No one is being forced to do anything here. All parties understand the situation. The remaining 3 people in the house had said they could not afford the rent alone, so the only option was to find some more people. As it turns out, it happened to be another couple. As I say, not optimal, but also not forced upon them.

Dublin is very 'multi-culti' as they say. They will just have to learn to live with one another if they want to remain under the one roof.

chippengael said:

I suppose this is just part of the learning curve towards becoming a bitter, hardened landlord.

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Renting by the room is not a good idea and causes endless problems - far better to let the house as a unit.

Be very careful to make sure that the new people coming into the house are sub-letting from the other tenants and that they do not have a contract with you.
Make sure that everyone is aware of that fact. What you should do is write to the existing tenants saying that you will allow them to assign the contract to someone else or that you will allow them to sub-let - provided you are happy with the person to whom it is being sub-let/assigned.

Otherwise, if for example the two new tenants start paying you directly and separately to the others, you may end up with a situation where you are individually renting out the rooms (unbeknownst to yourself).
What this means is that if the first three people move on, you are stuck with the two tenants, and it will be your responsibility to replace the first three tenants and the two will not be responsible for paying rent if you can't find people etc.

It will be almost impossible to "reunite" the multiple contracts into a single contract since you'll be affected by the Tenants Rights Legislation allowing tenants to stay for 4 years etc.

Thanks for the information. I was pondering that issue last night. I opted to write an addendum to the existing lease, saying that the new tenants agree to the terms and conditions of the existing lease. The rent will be collected by one of the original three tenants, who signed the lease with me. Everyone was at the meeting, and everyone signed the PRTB update form. I hope this covers the legal technicalities.

I totally agree with you on the issues of having one set of people leave with others staying. In this case I made a choice to take on two new people. If this turns out to be problematic, I will be very reluctant to try it again. However, with the economy the way it is, getting people in fast was prioritised over getting a better balace of people with a view to long term stability.

Time will tell.