Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Tenant/Neighbour Problem

Options
  • 20-02-2006 9:32pm
    #1
    Kenny_D
    Registered Users Posts: 3,204 ✭✭✭


    Was wondering if anyone knew the legalities regarding this issue:

    Last year the tenant in my rented house crashed her car into the garden pillar which is also shared by the next door neighbour. This caused the neighbours gate to stop closing properly. A year later the neighbour is trying to claim I am liable to pay to repair the damage to the wall and gate. I have since sold the house but he managed to find my number and ring my wife today at home. I would have thought the tenant was responsible to pay the damages and that it would have been payed through her insurance as she broke it by driving into it. The tenant at the time got someone out to fix it but they didnt do a proper job so now I am trying to be made pay for it. By agreeing to fix it first time round, did the tenant not accept liability for the damage? I cant see how I am liable to pay quite a lot of money for the wall since I have since sold the house and also since it was the tenants issue for breaking the pillar in the first place

    Any info on this issue would be much appreciated. I am ringing my solicitor tomorrow but would just like to find out as much as possible on the issue

    Thanks


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Macker1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,879 ✭✭✭Macker1


    GStormcrow wrote:
    Was wondering if anyone knew the legalities regarding this issue:

    Last year the tenant in my rented house crashed her car into the garden pillar which is also shared by the next door neighbour. This caused the neighbours gate to stop closing properly. A year later the neighbour is trying to claim I am liable to pay to repair the damage to the wall and gate. I have since sold the house but he managed to find my number and ring my wife today at home. I would have thought the tenant was responsible to pay the damages and that it would have been payed through her insurance as she broke it by driving into it. The tenant at the time got someone out to fix it but they didnt do a proper job so now I am trying to be made pay for it. By agreeing to fix it first time round, did the tenant not accept liability for the damage? I cant see how I am liable to pay quite a lot of money for the wall since I have since sold the house and also since it was the tenants issue for breaking the pillar in the first place

    Any info on this issue would be much appreciated. I am ringing my solicitor tomorrow but would just like to find out as much as possible on the issue

    Thanks


    Not a legal expert but common sense would suggest that as the landlord at the time you had a responsibility to ensure that the work was carried out correctly. It certainly isn't the neighbours fault and they have everyright to expect that the damage is recitified. Having said that I expect the fact that you are no longer the owner will negate any legal responsibility. When did you sell the property. Was the new owner aware of this issue.

    It would appear to be a case of hard luck for your former neighbour.


  • Options
    #3
    Kenny_D
    Registered Users Posts: 3,204 ✭✭✭Kenny_D


    Ah yeah I know its not the neighbours fault and he has a right to get it fixed. The tenant had been in the house for a few years so when she got it fixed we assumed it was done and dusted. I just need to know from a legal point of view where I stand. Hopefully the solicitor can sort it out tomorrow but I need to know if the old tenant assumed liability when she got it fixed the first time. In which case it is and issue for my neighbour and my old tenant. My neighbour should have went through my tenants insurance I presume. It's going to cost close to a thousand euro to have the damage repaired in a house I no longer own


  • Options
    #4
    MorningStar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,031 ✭✭✭MorningStar


    Common sense to me would say the tenant is liable for all costs as the landlord however you are responsible to make sure your tenant pays up. Once you sold the property I think all responsibility regarding shared boundaries would be trasfered to the new owner. You sold a broken piller the new owner owns it.

    You are not liable for it now or then. If the tenant had crashed into his car he wouldn't be looking for you


  • Options
    #5
    JimmySmith
    Closed Accounts Posts: 558 ✭✭✭JimmySmith


    Normally i would say that a landlord is responsiblie for anything that happens in a house they have let. But in your case a person insured (presumably) in a car crashed her car into a gatepost.
    I don't see how this can be your problem. The tenant did the damage with their car. They or their insurance company should pay. If she had gone in and murdered the mans wife next door would you be responsible because she lived in your house?


Advertisement