Earlier this month, we covered a story about the difficulties students face when it comes to renting in Dublin.
Students (and ex-students) will agree that finding a place to rent is almost impossible if you’re under the age of 24.
You will either not be considered by landlords or you will find yourself with a set of rules and regulations that are completely made up on the spot, made only to deter you.
JOE spoke to James, a student from Wicklow, whose story will be relatable to many young people in this country struggling to find a place to live.
He told JOE about looking for a place in north Dublin and finding a rude landlord whose terms were outrageous from the start.
“My friend and I knocked on the door and the landlord refused to show us the house without a parent present, so without kicking up a fuss, we asked my friend’s mam, who had driven us up, to come in with us,” he said.
The landlord was less than concerned for the privacy of the people already living in the house.
“When we went into the house, we were greeted by two Korean girls, who looked very stressed,” James explained.
“The landlord proceeded to show us upstairs, and the rooms there; he opened the door to the first room without knocking on it and once he did a girl leapt off the bed. He never apologised to the girl, just asked her to leave the room, which we thought was really rude.”
There was worse to follow, as the landlord began to explain the conditions of the lease that James and his friend were expected to sign.
“He told us it was a 12 month lease, but we had to make 13 payments for rent. My friend’s mam then asked him ‘is that including the deposit?’ and the landlord told us there were ’13 business months’ in the year, so we had to make 13 payments for rent.
“I then questioned him about this, and he basically insulted our intelligence by telling us to get a calculator out and do some division to work out that there were 13 months in his business year.
“He told us that if we took the house, he would have keys and would come to the house without warning to check if it was clean.”
The next demand was particularly invasive.
“(He also said) that he would come into our rooms for ‘insurance reasons’ to make sure we had nothing dodgy in our rooms.”
Unsurprisingly James and his friend decided not to take the house.
“We left after this, shocked at how rude this man was with us, and how much he intruded on his tenants’ lives,” he added.
“I had minor issues here and there with landlords before but nothing as bad as that. This was actually the worst landlord I’ve ever come across, and God help the students living in that house at the moment.”
Have you had a similar experience while trying to rent in Ireland? Tell us your story by emailing [email protected] and we’ll consider it for publication…
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
