Advice and Rage

trentv

The situation is like this, I gave 2 and a half months notice after 5 and a half months tenancy on my current 1 yr fixed lease, and I was informed by the letting agents that a) i would have to find a new tenant or be liable for the loss of rent and b) I would have to pay the charges relating to finding a new tenant.

Now a) I totally agree with, I was perfectly ok with finding a new tenant and understand this, but the charges they were asking me to pay caused me problems..... why should i pay €500 when they would have to pay it at the end of the lease anyway.

Then it turned out that we got a new tenant and he will be paying €100 a month more in rent than we are currently... this means that in 4 months they will be receiving €400 extra... also he has requested to move in a couple of weeks earlier than my notice... add another €50 bringing their profit to 450 for the years rent because of my terminating the lease early. Yet they still insist on charging my €490 for the costs incurred in changing tenants. Costs they would have had to pay in four months anyway.

Now legally I dont know where i stand, I have always felt that i am not liable for these charges, especially since they sent me a contract saying that I was liable.... and asked me to sign...

Legally I do know that if I request to sublet the house, and i am refused, that i can terminate the lease at no cost to me. But I do not know what is entailed in subletting, I dont know what arrangements I am responsible for... do i then need to draw up a lease between the sub-tenant and me? Do i have to register the sub-tenant with PTRB?

Anyway I had to type something because the anger of the agents greed annoyed me so much, on all the other posts about ending tenancies before the fixed term everyone says, if they are nice, or if they are agreeable it should be no problem etc, well this crowd are obviously neither and have caused me and my fiancee so much needless stress.

Any advice on subletting or whether you feel we are liable for costs would be appreciated, thanks!

(feel much better now)

Tv

Afuera

If you signed a contract saying that you would be liable for those charges then unfortunately you'll have to pay them. I'm under the impression though that they tried to get you to sign something to this effect after you gave notice (and that you didn't sign it?).

Did you find a new tenant for them on your own? If so then I fail to see how it cost them 490 euros to change tenants. I'd ask for receipts from them showing where these costs came from and explain that you will be reporting them to the PRTB.

Generally most leases do not allow you to sublet so I wouldn't say this would be an option. You might need to go through the fine print of your lease to see exactly what's covered.

Best of luck.

joejoem

As far as I know the Tennancy Act of 2004 allows any tenant to break a lease with one months notice without forfeiting your deposit. Ring the PRTB and explain your situation. They are a regulatory body set up to arbitrate situations like this. The law is more in the tenants favour than the landlord.

The_Conductor

Threshold will explain your rights to you. Their phone no. is: 01-6786097

trentv

Well unfortunately after holding out and refusing for 2 months i have given in and agreed to sign their new contract which says that we agree with the landlord to end the tenancy and that i am liable for the administration charges of finding a new tenant and the rent that could be lost..

I feel about two inches tall for not standing up to them all the way but decided that they were holding more cards than me, and in the end could make my life more miserable then i could make theirs.

I will be glad to be rid of them and just to get on with my life.

Regarding the point above about subletting not being allowed in alot of leases, i am not convinced a clause in a lease on this point is legally binding as the Act outlines the tenants rights and the lease can not detract from that, however in my case i was allowed to request to sublet but was afraid that they might say yes and then i'd have to live with being a landlord myself for four months and standing to lose alot more than that which they were asking.

Also regarding below, I dont think that just giving notice is enough to get out of a fixed term contract, i think the landlord must agree terms with you in order to break it, in my case these were their terms, that i must pay.

However i have lost the will to fight now, will pay them and waddle away two inches tall...........

Thanks for replying !

antoinolachtnai

where in the Act does it say that you are allowed sub-let?

The_Conductor

antoinolachtnai wrote:

where in the Act does it say that you are allowed sub-let?

I am about 99.99% sure that the act does not cover this. If there was a right to sublet it would be specifically covered and detailed in the lease. Under normal circumstances a tenant would under no circumstances have the right to sublet accomodation.

trentv

This is from the act:

186.—(1) This section has effect—
(a) despite the fact that the tenancy concerned is one for a fixed
period, and
(b) despite anything to the contrary in the lease or tenancy
agreement concerned.
(2) If a landlord of a dwelling refuses his or her consent to an
assignment or sub-letting of the tenancy concerned by the tenant,
the tenant may serve a notice of termination in respect of the tenancy
and terminate it accordingly.
(3) The period of notice to be given by that notice of termination
is—
(a) that specified in section 66, or
(b) such lesser period of notice as may be agreed between the
landlord and the tenant in accordance with section 69,
even if the lease or tenancy agreement provides for a greater period
of notice to be given.

To me this means that it is the tenants right to request to sublet, but i must be just misinterpretting. Though when i did suggest it to my current letting agents they agreed that if i requested and was refused i could break the lease.

antoinolachtnai

OK, I don't think you are misinterpreting it. But it they might be able to insist that you assign rather than sublet. It sort-of amounts to the same thing, but it could be different.

With an assignment, the new tenant would be responsible for paying the rent and the old tenant would be out of the picture. With a sublet, the old tenant would still be responsible (even if they couldn't be contacted). Also, a sublet tenant could be extremely difficult to evict if things got tricky.

Most landlords would rather have an assignment (in my opinion).

Antoin.