Landlord Trouble, pls help!!

Scorpio22

Hi,
Myself and 2 other girls (lets call them A & have been renting rooms in a 3 bed duplex, the tenancy agreement we had was give a month in advance, a deposit and give a months notice.

After being there for almost a year and the recession had just began we asked for a rent decrease and when we did landlord wanted us to sign 6 month lease.

We agreed, all was ok until the lease ended and two of the girls moved out.

A week before the girls were all moved out I got a call from landlord asking me about a burn in the carpet and a hole in one of the kitchen presses (communial area). I didnt know anything about it and thought it was strange as I only was cleaning there two night previous and never noticed anything.

Landlord said it must have been one of the girls who moved out. I asked Girl A and told her what the landlord said and she didnt know anything about it.

Anyhoo...when Girl A went to get her deposit back the landlord gave 100 instead of 450 with a bills of things which were some the following:

-€50 for grout that had come off in the shower
-€100 for having a cat (the girl had gotten a cat, and myself and the other girl didnt have a problem with it)
-€100 for burn hole in carpet and kitchen cabinet

And she told Girl A she would charge myself and Girl B as well. Girl A was gonna contact the PRTB about this.

Before all this happened I had a chat with landlord about what was happening with the free rooms and my lease. She wanted me to sign a 6month least which I declined not knowing who i was gonna live with but agreed to a 3month (which I havent signed yet). She assured me that she would make an effort to get someone in who I would feel comfortable with and I could give my input if I liked/disliked someone viewing the rooms.

This never happenend I got one text saying some guy was coming over sat morning to view the place on a friday night at 930. And for the second guy i got a text that he was moving in.

Basically Im a female in her mid twenties now living with two russian blokes in there late 30ties/early 40ties which I dont have anything in common with and am feeling very uncomfortable living with.

So after a combination of things, I decided to hand in my notice. The landlord is due to come over to collect rent but I told her she can use my deposit for this months rent. Obvisouly I dont trust she will give me my full if any deposit back.

She is refusing to accept this and said that this months rent is for the previous month and my month in advance is for this month and I will get my deposit back provided all is order.

Anyone have any adivice? thanks

az2wp0sye65487

My advice is to look for somewhere else. Don't even attempt to give her any more rent, as you know you're not going to get your deposit back. Let your deposit be your last month's rent.

Your lease has ended, so you're under no obligation to renew, and by the sounds of it you'd be more comfortable with other housemates.

hobochris

Sounds Dodgy. I would contact the prtb.

Agent J

Techinically she is right with regard to the not letting you use the deposit as rent.
From the landlords POV it provides no security for them if you move out and leave things in a bad state(Nothing peronal intended).

Have you signed a new lease at all though? Beyond verbally agreement?
If you havent then you can leave with a months notice(defaults back to the 2004 residency act).

The other things sound like BS to me. Take it to the PRTB tbh.

convert

I assume with the 2 new tenants that Girl B has moved out? What happened regarding her deposit?

As far as I know, a deposit cannot be held for normal wear and tear, which I would assume grout is. And €50 sounds quite expensive for the replacement of grout, let alone €150! If the landlord is witholding your deposit or part thereof for repairing that and the burn mark in the carpet and kitchen (the repair of which also seems expensive), they should furnish you with a receipt for the work done and just take that amount out of the deposit.

Did the lease stipulate that as tenants you were not permitted to keep animals in the house? If it did, then the landlord may be within their rights to penalise you for that, but perhaps they should just have penalised the person who owned the cat?

Regarding using the deposit to pay the last month's rent: quite a few landlord and most estate agents require payment of the rent and then, after the tenant has moved out, they will return the deposit paid. As a previous poster mentioned, they have no security incase something should happen before you move out.

Your best bet would be to contact the prtb and they will be able to give you proper legal advice on the matter.

meglome

I've heard so many stories about landlords keeping large chunks of deposits. In my case she kept our entire deposit of €1200 without any real justification. I'm in the PRTB now trying to get it back.

You need to go on to Daft and share with people you have more in common with, or at least other females around your age.

I had pondered not paying my last months rent as I didn't trust my landlord, I did the right thing and am now suffering a financial loss for that. Would I do the right thing again? probably but it's still very frustrating.

bSlick

Dont pay the rent if there is any chance of her keeping the deposit, which it sounds like there definitely is. She can't kick you out or she could end up in court paying you thousands. She can literally do nothing, if you wanted you could actually keep living there for the next 6 months and she could not kick you out or she could end up paying you compensation in court. That's the way the law regarding rented accomodation works in Ireland these days.

techdiver

Scorpio22 wrote: »

-€50 for grout that had come off in the shower

The landlord cannot charge for this.

Borderfox

A tub of ready made grout costs around 7-8 euro and takes about 10 to replace, give your notice and find yourself somewhere new..

Xiney

Also you are entitled to a receipt of the costs of repair - she can't charge more than it cost.