Deposit and Month in advance query

tazman06

I moved into my current place last March, a double room in a large 4 bedroom detached. It was advertised through a letting agency on Daft. All was well and good, house was nice and so on. The agent wanted a deposit, a months rent in advance on the day I move in, and that months rent on the 17th of the month (which was about a week after I moved in). This would have meant I was nearly 1 grand down when I had just moved in. I was suspicious of this but I asked someone I knew about it and they said this is not unknown to be asked for. I did like the house and it was close to work so I took it.

Around September it was found that the agency owner skipped town (I'm not going to name names or locations) and left a few house owners in the area up the proverbial creek. This meant, according to the houses owner, that my deposit and months rent in advance was lost. Me and the others in the house were well annoyed, but what could be done we thought. Then there the other day, the owner says he is going to sell his other house (credit crunch and all that) and will be renovating up the house that i'm in in March and wants us out. He is giving two months notice, no problem there. (Hope everyone is still following)

Then he says the agency owner has been caught, with nearly no money left to cover his debts. The house owner has said that he has retrieved my deposit back, but not the months rent. Is this my problem or his? If I have paid all my rent to the agency (and directly to the owner after september) is it the owners problem that he didn't get the money back off the agency. I have all my receipts and bank statements showing payments etc. etc.

I think that I should get my deposit and months rent back in March before I leave, and its tough luck on the owner that he didn't get off the agency. Once it is paid it is up to him to get it.

Would I be right in saying this, and if I not what should do I do?

Victor

The letting agency is an agent of the landlord, nothing to do with you. Once you gave the money to the agent, legally it was as good as giving it ot the landlord.

If you want, talk to Threshold or the PRTB.

www.threshold.ie www.prtb.ie

mylittlepony

From what I can understand, you paid double rent in March to agent which means that your landlord/owner must have got it from agent asap after.
Your landlord would have been paid the 'double rent' for march rent by the agent.
The agent 'mind' the deposit.

Also cos your landlord is ending your lease short, you should get the advance/double rent back.
Or at least one month rent back in return 'for the missing deposit' just to sort out this mess and make a clean slate and cut your losses.

This mess has nothing to do with you.
Your landlord picked a bad agent to deal with his rent.
He can bring this agent to court to recover his losses, he must be able to get something out of him.

Best of luck.

Emerald Lass

mylittlepony wrote: »

From what I can understand, you paid double rent in March to agent which means that your landlord/owner must have got it from agent asap after.
Your landlord would have been paid the 'double rent' for march rent by the agent.
The agent 'mind' the deposit.

Also cos your landlord is ending your lease short, you should get the advance/double rent back.
Or at least one month rent back in return 'for the missing deposit' just to sort out this mess and make a clean slate and cut your losses.

This mess has nothing to do with you.
Your landlord picked a bad agent to deal with his rent.
He can bring this agent to court to recover his losses, he must be able to get something out of him.

Best of luck.

some of this is not necessarily true - the 'double rent' as you call it is probably taken by the agent to cover their own fees. Most agents charge at least 1 mths rent as a letting fee. From mine and plenty of other peoples experiences with letting agents, the vast majority of them can't be trusted and don't actually know very much about the legalities of renting houses! Scary but true. I am not in the least bit surprised to hear that an agency has gone belly up owing LL's and tenants money and leaving behind a whole load of problems.

My advice is to talk fairly with your LL - by the looks of it both of you have been given the run around because of this agent. I am assuming that you have proof of all monies you paid to the agent and can back it up - this being the case, unless your LL is a total bugger they will see you right, as others have said, it is not your fault the agent skipped town - you paid your money to your LL via the agent, if the LL did not get this money then they need to take it up with the bogie agent, and not penalise you.

mylittlepony wrote: »

He can bring this agent to court to recover his losses, he must be able to get something out of him

if only it were that simple mylittlepony! I have fallen foul of a rouge agent in the past, and it is not a simple matter to get back what you are owed. Unfortunately for this LL he will be out of pocket thanks to them, and it will be a long road to get some justice, if any from this. I know - I've been there, and I did not purposely choose a bad agent no one does, but with the current climate the agents who had it too esy for too long are now getting caught out and running off. AS they say, until the sh!t hits the fan you really have no way of knowing if an agent is any good or will do their job - it is very easy to look like a good agent, when there are more renters than properties, and you can make money hand over fist and have good tenants. But when teh market changes, or bad tenants are in the property that is when you will see just how good/honest/knowledgeable/ trustworthy your agent is - unfortunately it can be too late by then.

Good luck to OP with getting back your money - if you approach the LL in a reasonable manner, and he is a decent guy I am sure you will be able to come to some amicable conclusion.

havana

I know you can't use a deposit in lieu of final months rent but surely you can use the fact that you have paid an extra month and not give your landlord anything for your last month? Amd i wonder is it possible to get something in writing saying he will be giving you the deposit back. Though what sort of legal standing something like that has i don't know?

cooperguy

Its the landlords tough luck in my opinion. Dont give him a penny more than you think you should. There isnt much he can do about it either as it is next to impossible to (legally) kick somebody out of a house within a month (or 2 for that matter). I know this from personal experience.

3DataModem

cooperguy wrote: »

Its the landlords tough luck in my opinion. Dont give him a penny more than you think you should. There isnt much he can do about it either as it is next to impossible to (legally) kick somebody out of a house within a month (or 2 for that matter). I know this from personal experience.

Correct on all points. Tell him your brother is a Garda or a Tax Inspector.

Silverfish

Victor wrote: »

The letting agency is an agent of the landlord, nothing to do with you. Once you gave the money to the agent, legally it was as good as giving it ot the landlord.

If you want, talk to Threshold or the PRTB.

www.threshold.ie www.prtb.ie

Correct.

Once upon a time (way back when) we paid rent weekly in cash, to our rent collector acting on behalf of the landlord.

The rent collector did not come for 4 weeks, and whenever she was phoned said 'Leave it on the table, I'll be around for it'.

The house was broken into, and my 4 weeks rent was stolen. The rent collector was around straight away demanding I pay up the 4 weeks rent immediately.
The Gardai said once the date the rent was due had passed, the money was legally hers and not mine, so it was actually stolen from her and not me, therefore I would not have to repay the rent.

Fortunately, the landlords of the establishment got in touch to say this was correct, my rent had been 'on the table' (literally) on the day it was due, and should have been collected, and the fault lay with the agent hired by them.

So in short, no, the agent is responsible, not you.

tazman06

Thanks for all the help guys, it is much appreciated. I have been talking to Threshold and they have given me good advice regarding this. My first cousin is a garda in the area so i'll be taking that advice on board as well , I'm due to meet the landlord at the start of next week so hopefully it will be sorted by then. Cheers