Tenants evicted under Part 4, can I now rent again

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smalltimetrader

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I recently got my tenants out of a rental property, when I completed the 'notice of termination' which was sent to the RTB and to the former tenant, I selected as the reason for serving the notice of termination as "landlord intends to end the tenancy before a further Part 4 tenancy commences". This option was selected on my solicitors advice and as it so happens they moved out bang on the 6th anniversary of when they moved in.
My questions are; am I now free to rent out the property again to another tenant? and if so, can I wait until after March 1st and increase to market rent?
 
You can of course re-let, but you may not be able to increase the rent. We haven't seen the draft legislation yet, but it seems pretty clear that there is no increase to market rent if there was a previous no-fault eviction.

As @Brendan Burgess correctly says couldn't you sell and avoid all this. Have you looked at the other threads here on how risky the new regime is for ordinary landlords?
 
Im making a decent profit as well but still selling...
My biggest fear is not being able to sell when I retire and being lumbered with managing a rental property....
 
Greenbook said:
We haven't seen the draft legislation yet, but it seems pretty clear that there is no increase to market rent if there was a previous no-fault eviction.
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And this would be the case for the new owner also. So if the rent is currently below market value, then it's almost certain this house will leave the rental market. It won't be of interest to investors if rent is very subdued.
 
DannyBoyD said:
I'm making a healthy profit from my investments
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I'm very curious, was your real income able to keep pace with inflation over the past 5 years? Both inflation and national wages are up 24%. Depending on when you did you rent reviews, rent might only have been able up go up by 8% (but no more than 10%).

It's more for my own understanding. I don't want to sell either, but I feel I'm being forced into it. I estimate my real terms income from some units is down 20% over the last 5 years (as costs increased with inflation). My rents in some units are now less than half the market rate (despite annual rent reviews).
 
stormy said:
It's more for my own understanding. I don't want to sell either, but I feel I'm being forced into it. I estimate my real terms income from some units is down 20% over the last 5 years (as costs increased with inflation).
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Plus the risk of increasing and expensive upgrades and improvements via inspections further eroding profits.
 
Greenbook said:
upgrades and improvements via inspections
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I've had inspections done - whilst some of the items were, in my opinion, bonkers (carbon monoxide alarm in all electric property) none of them were expensive to remediate; and all bar one, I did myself.

So, as long as I'm making money, I'll stay in the business.

To answer the previous question, I'm willing to do things that others might not, e.g. refurbs, extensions, change my PPR, leave a property vacant for 2 years, rent a room etc. Not necessarily all at once!
 
Listening to the item on RTE this morning, in my opinion didn't get to the bottom of the problem at all except,surprisingly, from the tenants guy. He admitted that there is an increase in landlords exiting. It was a useless description of the actual position in general from a biased RTE. Pity they wouldn't investigate why so many small landlords are exiting.
 
DannyBoyD said:
I've had inspections done - whilst some of the items were, in my opinion, bonkers (carbon monoxide alarm in all electric property)
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Same here - I had to weed a garden, but I am worried about expensive BER improvements etc. I think that previous inspections weren't too difficult because of the risk the landlord would sell if the requirements were too onerous. That'll change with the 6 year tenancy. You won't be able to offload with the tenant in situ easily either - any potential purchasers will look for the last inspection report.

Another fear is a combination of a fixed tenant and an SF government or even the current FF/FG government. They'll be able to bring in any rules they want and you're 100% stuck - can't evict and no one will buy with the tenant in situ. That's one of my nightmares with this. I have a number of others as well!!
 
DannyBoyD said:
I've had inspections done - whilst some of the items were, in my opinion, bonkers (carbon monoxide alarm in all electric property)
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Could be to cover the possibility of the tenant providing their own "Calor Kosangas" style gas heater for example?
 
ClubMan said:
Could be to cover the possibility of the tenant providing their own "Calor Kosangas" style gas heater for example?
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Seems to be quite a bit of that going on all right and it will likely get worse with fixed tenancies. A landlord I know who rents exclusively to students had to child proof a stairs in case a child visited the house. So, I think a lot of that will be going on, all sorts of changes and improvements at the landlord's cost on the off chance that x or y will happen.
 
Greenbook said:
A landlord I know who rents exclusively to students had to child proof a stairs in case a child visited the house. So, I think a lot of that will be going on, all sorts of changes and improvements at the landlord's cost on the off chance that x or y will happen.
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Had to put window catches on ground floor windows.
 
DannyBoyD said:
You can challenge these - just ask for the specific legislation item & they back off.
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The legislation was followed, they were just above 1.4m from the ground. (note: I had not noticed and the previous inspection had not notice either). However, to fall from the window, you would have to climb on something nearly as high, probably a piece of furniture. One would have as much chance of falling and hurting themselves from that piece of furniture as falling from the window.
Window catches were added, tenants were happy as they felt more comfortable opening the windows.
 
Hi all, thanks for all the replies to my post, just to address a few comments.
I don't want to sell because continuing to rent this property is part of my retire early plan and I intend to use rental income to use up my tax free allowances, credits etc to fill the gap until I access my pension. Also a potential large CGT bill is another deterrent to selling.

As was mentioned also, I feel rental inflation hasn't kept up with costs and now if I rent again Id like to get market value.

I was a good landlord to these tenants for six years but a change in a relationship of the main tenant brought in an undesirable which caused issues with elderly homeowner neighbours. Out of respect for my neighbours, I had to evict.
I didn't go down the anti social behaviour route to evict because the part 4 eviction just happened to work on this occasion, we also felt the antisocial route could get very troublesome for us as the landlord and for my neighbours who would have been put in an awkward position.
I am also very aware of the risks involved in this business as I have other rentals, and as others have referenced, not having the draft legislation is another issue and this is forcing me to wait before I can decide what to do.
Thanks again everyone.
 
My main aim if I stay in the rental market is that I will try to choose tenants very carefully and by doing so would hopefully have some opportunities to sell along the way if they moved out before the 6 year term.
And in the worst case scenario I could hopefully sit out the 6 years and just wait for vacant possession.

But I am worried about the 6 year term in case your circumstances change drastically and for some reason or other you cant wait out the 6 years.
Im not sure in exactly what cases the bankruptcy clause kicks in that allows you to take your property back before the six years.

I am also aware about inheritance issues into the future and any complications and implications if the tenant is in situ and your family cant wait the 6 year term and would be forced to sell quickly with the tenant in situ to settle any inheritance tax payments.
There may not be much of a market at all for these types of properties .
 
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