Is there such thing as verbal lease?

willienjg

i moved into apartment with girlfriend and agreed a 1 yr lease verbally with landlord and paid deposit in full. unfortunately, the relationship ended and i gave 1months notice(verbal) to landlord that both of us would be moving out. there was never an issue with paying rent and the apartment is spotless however i am now chasing my deposit.

Landlord says he will only return half of it becaue we broke the lease....can anyone tell me where i stand as a tenant..... not sure if he is registered, says he is and probably is.

any replies much appreciated
thanks

J-blk

I've never heard of a verbal lease and it just seems like a bad idea for both parties as any dispute would be his word against yours... And if there is no written lease, how does he expect to hold you (or any tenant) to the terms of that lease in regards to breaking it, etc?

On the other hand, breaking a lease would allow a landlord to keep the full deposit in most cases and the fact that he only wants to keep half makes him sound reasonable. It's not his fault after all that your circumstances changed though it is his fault that he didn't get a written lease signed from the onset, so I really can't see how he will hold you to anything...

Smcgie

Its a messy situation but IMO you should accept the 50% return on yout deposit and learn the lesson of the ' verbal lease '

Sesshoumaru

willienjg wrote: »

i moved into apartment with girlfriend and agreed a 1 yr lease verbally with landlord and paid deposit in full. unfortunately, the relationship ended and i gave 1months notice(verbal) to landlord that both of us would be moving out. there was never an issue with paying rent and the apartment is spotless however i am now chasing my deposit.

Landlord says he will only return half of it becaue we broke the lease....can anyone tell me where i stand as a tenant..... not sure if he is registered, says he is and probably is.

any replies much appreciated
thanks

You didn't sign anything and even if you did the deposit is to cover damage(beyond normal wear and tear) to the landlords property. The deposit is not there to cover non payment of rent or anything other than damage to property.

If you didn't sign anything then there is no lease! Just contact the PRTB for advise on how to recover your full deposit.

http://www.prtb.ie/

RentDayBlues

If you didn't sign a lease then you were considered to have part 4 tenancy which means that as long as you gave sufficient notice and the apartment was left in good condition then you are entitled to your full deposit.

Notice depends on how long you lived there for, see below

Duration of tenancy Notice by tenant
Less than 6 months 28 days
6 or more months but less than 1 year 35 days

If you gave full notice to the LL then I would definitely chase him for the deposit. Inform him that if you do not get your deposit back by the end of the week then you will be going to the PRTB to initiate a case against him, I'm sure you will see a result with that.

Remember that the deposit is not his money - it is legally yours, it does not matter if he is registered with the PRTB, as a tenant you can still use this service. Threshold will advice you of the same.

And under no circumstances should you agree to take just 50% of your deposit back!

willienjg

thanks for the advice....appreciated