Landlord keeping some of the deposit. Anything I can do??

elvis2002

Here's the story guys.

1 - Moved into a place on 21st July, payed 800 deposit & first month down.
2 - Realised within 2nd week that I hate the place.
3 - Was given no lease.
4 - Was given a rent book which stated the start date as 21st July and no
end date specified.
5 - The rent book was given to me by landlords brother who signed his
brothers name down on the book.
6 - First week of August, tried ringing landlord saying I want to leave. Couldnt
get him since he was on holidays somewhere.
7 - Got the landlord on the 7th. Told him I wanted out.
8 - Rang to today to organise moving out. Says to me he will keep 400 euro
of the deposit and just give me 400. I was complaining and he said would
you rather I give you zero.

Anyways, Is he perfectly within grounds to keep some of the deposit and its
just my fault for being a stupid fcuk?

aniascor

If you are in the accommodation less than 6 months, you are obliged to give 28 days notice (assuming you didn't sign a lease for longer than that - and you said there was no lease, so you should be fine there).

If you give adequate notice, the only reason that a landlord can withhold all or part of your deposit is if you have damaged something in the property or for rent arrears.

If you didn't give sufficient notice, the landlord may argue that he is keeping half the deposit as "rent arrears." Contact threshold.ie for more details on your rights here. If all else fails you may have to take him to the small claims court to get your deposit back. (I had to do this once before, and it was well worth the nominal fee as I got all of my deposit back.)

Good luck!

elvis2002

I've only given him 14 days notice so I suppose he is entitled to keep half of my deposit is he?

aniascor

Talk to Threshold - they will be able to advise you what your legal entitlements are.

EKRIUQ

The hassle of finding a tennant, then organising things then for the landlord to have to turn around to do it again 3 weeks later. I think he deserves the €400 for loss of rent and expense and having to have to clean the property.

Supercell

I think you're doing well to get anything back at all tbh (I'm a long term renter but do have to side on the landlord on this one)

Victor

Live out the notice period and insist on getting your money back.

Sure, that's partly what the deposit is *for*, making sure you don't feck off, leaving the landlord to sort out a new tenant, so why would you get it back? I'd be happy I even had half if I were you. I had to move flat last year and had the option of losing all the deposit or finding someone to take over the lease. I found someone and it was a pain in the arse to sort out. Seems fair enough for the landlord to keep the money if he has to do it all.

daveg

If he is keeping 400 Euro you might as well stay in the place to give the notice period required to get your full deposit back.

bullrunner

The landlord is not entitled to any of the deposit because he has to re-advertise the apartment (regardless of how long you have lived there).

He is entitled to be paid rent up to the end of the 28 day notice period...so if you have to pay rent you might as well still live there.