Landlords - is this common, please?

sorella

Long one; need to vent please!! Thank you.

We left a rented house last October; it was the first letting of a family home; the landlord's parents house.

It was rented through an agency as the landlord has no idea re how to do all this legally etc.

When we viewed the house it was still full of clothes etc; this had almost all gone when we moved in, but in the aged gas cooker was a frying pan full of very old rancid fat. Everything was 20 yrs old; adequate, except the windows that fell out when we opened them and had rags stuffed in the cracks, but he got double glazing put in then, which he had already thankfully booked before his father died. Said he would make good the paintwork around the windows, but never did.

They had a collie that had belonged to their father; not knowing what to do with her, as the old man had never spent the night there since the mother died 5 years before, they had her chained up to a 56 lb weight 24/7 and half starved her. We asked to take her on and finally brought her away with us; he said how much they would miss her. ( they lived ten miles away and the house was way out in the boonies)
The wife had asked if we wanted a "new" suite;someone in the family was throwing one out. We said no, as if the old one was no good - and it wasn't - the dog could sleep there. It was not good to sit on that old suite.

When we moved, we cleaned and scoured the place. He said he was getting a skip so we could leave anything we did not want, so of course we did, and he also offered as he works for the council to get an old car taken away. Nice of him, we thought.

He complained re dog hairs on the ancient settee, so we reminded him what his wife had said; and we had cleaned them all off anyways.

They were fine re the deposit; the agent said that they had it, not her, and one day when the wife met me in Town, she took me to the cash point and withdrew part of it there in the street; said she would get the rest of it to me the next week; this was by then two months after we had left.

It was another two months before even the agent managed to get the money from them; they said it was just an oversight and by then the house was readvertised etc. So she had inspected it etc. Seen nothing amiss.

Last week, the new tenant accosted us in Town; we learned then that the landlord is telling folk we left the place in such a state they have had to completely refurbish the kitchen. Which we had noticed on daft; all the old stuff was gone and a fine new cooker and new units etc. Even tiles on the floor.
Of all we left in the open shed etc etc etc.

It is very upsetting; this is a small place. But looking back, it just seems that this kind of thing happens a lot? Unjust accusations.

The lease said he would cut the grass and see to the garden; he cut the "lawns" twice in two years, and we did the flower beds for him and restocked them. Also the spring well needs salt every three weeks which he always neglected to do. we took that over - as well as keeping an eye on his sheep which grazed up there. Putting them back in the field when they escaped, as mountainey sheep do.

In this case of course, had there been anything more than normal wear and tear, we would never have seen the deposit back.

And we would not have expected it back either.

The agent, through who we rented the new place, said absolutely nothing. Of course.

All we can think is that he is cranky as the place has been empty all winter and he has had to reduce the rent now.? Needs someone to blame?

Oh, and he is missing that dog he abused and clearly beat.
Had we complained to the animal rescue place we work alongside, he would have been prosecuted. We simply cared for her without making a fuss.

She is very happy now and a joy to us.

The new tenant is a young man in from the North; he is unemployed and come to find a job; in these times? We asked him how he was going to pay rent and he says he has no idea. .... Interesting...

Thank you for listening, if you have.

Our new landlord Please don't ask!

D3PO

ok so ive read this and I dont understand what your point is ? maybe im reading it wrong

You left rented accomadation and got your deposit back. so what exactly is the problem ?

RentDayBlues

Diddo! No idea what this is about but I think its:

The LL said they destroyed the place and he had to replace everything. I think the complaint it that he's bad mouthing them or is it that things were replaced?

Victor

If you haven't received all of your deposit, make a complaint to the PRTB.

Otherwise, just avoid the back-biting and small talk common in rural areas.

stepbar

I'm after reading the op's post and tbh I'm chuckling. Holy god why did you not move out? Clearly this guy is an amateur landlord. Lesson learned for you. Withholding rent usually sorts guys out like this. I mean what you had to put up with was unreal.

sorella

stepbar; thank you. I was beginning to wonder. I think that maybe this is a problem with rural landlords who are renting out family homes? This man clearly was still grieving and could not let go of the house.

We are folk who take care of properties; and all was simply trying to be kind to others. So they took advantage. Just felt sorry for the man is all.

So much was not told to us; eg that the power and water were shared with the old farm buildings they still used. We had it built into the lease that he had to give notice of entering the property, but there was no gate.

We were about to move when his wife reduced the rent drastically to get us to stay; we are pensioners and that was something we could not refuse for many months:)

BUT this is four times we have met this kind of thing in Ireland.

We now have a tiny old cottage that is, to say the least, basic. We discovered, too late, that the landlord has given himself somewhat of a problem in that he rents the fields on either side and behind to a farmer; who runs cattle up the drive and through the garden. Of course we simply padlocked the gates. It is his first registered tenancy and he thought that as long as he did not enter the actual cottage it was OK. Hard words have been spoken ( we saw one rental advert on daft with a cow on the front lawn so we are not alone in this!)

We had made it very clear that we could not have stock - or men- running loose here and that we were going to grow food in the garden and they said that that was fine when we viewed the place .

As in the Tenancy Act of course, which states that the gardens are part of the dwelling.

The farmer still uses the lands for stock; if they leak we call the Dept of Ag now:) No proper fencing. Want to put a sign up" Stray livestock will be frozen and eaten"!

I think that we have sorted this one; we have a complaint registered with Threshhold in case we need them; they were very good about it.
So things have settled now.

But what should be a simple business arrangement? This man simply wants his money - period. What will happen when the lease comes up for renewal remains to be seen; this place is private and peaceful which is what we seek; and the gate is great.

A large STRICTLY PRIVATE sign and a Beware of the dog also... and a padlock.

Although the landlord did manage to get in once through the padlocked gate, which Threhshold agreed was per se breaking and entering. Also we came home once to find the front door wide open as seemingly there were still keys around.

He will not do that again.

But this is rural Ireland.. I Just wonder how much of this goes on.

Interesting that his new tenant will not be able to keep up with the rent though! They maybe deserve each other.

Houses that we seek, low rental, with quiet and privacy are not easy to find. So we shall see now.

Again, thank you.

bushy...

A good few photos of the place taken just as you move in / out could help next time.

Use an "ordinary" camera ( non-digital ) - will stop the " ah sure you can do all sorts with a computer " that people are so fond of when it suits them.

( i know you can do similar with a darkroom but anyway )

sorella

bushy; thank you.

I was so upset it took me days to realise that had there been any real damage, the agency would not have pursued them for the deposit as they did. We are decent people and not used to being treated like this.

Wiser now than heretofore!!!

But at the time housing was very thin on the ground. It was not the house we would have chosen if there had been anywhere else.

We live and learn.

dlambirl

Sorry, but i still dont get the point of the thread??

shoegirl

I think I understand what the OP means - basically he rented a really substandard property in a rural area where gossip is King, and now the former landlord who is clearly an amateur is badmouthing him.

To answer the question - do landlords let out shabby properties and not remove the filth of previous residents - yes.

However generally most landlords forget their tenants and don't go around trying to blame them for the appalling conditions their properties are now in. This is unusual.

In my own experience of renting at the lower rungs of the Victorian conversion market I have to say that poor conditions are often the result of neglect by tenants as much as landlords, however, up until recently there was a perception that you could let out any old slum and afterwards victimise the tenant by charging them cleaning fees for the place which was never in a great state in the first place. Unfortunately the absence of proper standards and routine inspections encourages these practices. Until they are the norm this is likely to be a problem in at least some parts of the market.

But yes its not common to find landlords badmouthing former tenants unless they really did wreck the place. And sadly, there is a large army of transient tenants out there who are a menace not only to landlords, but to co-tenants, neighbours etc.