Landlord Issues

Bijon

Hi,

I hope you can help! Landlord is messing us about. Myself and my partner are renting an apartment. Once we moved in we found out the bed was dodgy and needed to be replaced. After a few weeks chasing him , he replaced it with an even worse bed than before. Again after a few weeks, he sent another bed which is now also sagging on one side and impossible to sleep in.

Now he is saying that he has done what he has to do and legally does not have to do anymore! He does not get back to our mails/calls and now has the agent speaking to us as he refuses to speak to us, we cannot possibly sleep in the bed anymore, we thought we would replace the bed and then take it with us when we leave but we cannot trust him to return our deposit if we do so. Anyone have similar experience/advice on what to do? Thanks

collegegal

gosh the landlord seems like a bit of a headache....you could have a look at the website prtb.ie that might help you out a bit! Hope you get sorted.

Bijon

Many thanks for your reply, we are trying to conatct Threshold but they are very hard to get a hold of, I assume they are very busy, but we will keep trying throughout the day! The PRTB website directs you to call Threshold for advice, so fingers crossed we can get some advice, as too many landlords are getting away with this sort of thing and for too long :mad:

edellc

i had a similar problem with my landlord when we moved in earlier this year.....ended up sending him a registered letter stating all the problems with property including dodgy bed....rang threshold the one in cork or galway not dublin you never get through and they where very helpful emailed them my letter they rang him and within a two week time frame des kelly arrived with a new bed

Bijon

Hi edelec, that is a really good idea we will try to ring Threshold in another county, thanks for the tip :-)
It is just very frustrating and you start to feel that you are kicking up a fuss for no reason, but we are going to keep on it!
I just hope we don't have problems when we try to get our deposit back!
There have been other problems and he is just so slow replying and has excuse after excuse!!

edellc

it really sounds like we have the same landlord

do keep on at him as you are the one paying rent and are entitled to a decent nights sleep way too many landlords get away with overly priced sub standard rents and when your only option is to rent it can get very disheartening

what i always do at the end of a tenancy when i think landlord wont give deposit back is withhold last months rent but i always make sure the place is clean usually in better nick than when i moved in and give the allotted notice required usually we leave on good terms and the last months rent is my deposit back Dublin is full of money hungry dodgy landlords so you have to have your wits about you

keep a paper trail of everything

Bijon

I got through the Threshold and they are calling him as we speak, so fingers crossed he does not throw a hissy fit!!!
They were so nice and very helpful there!
I will keep you updated (with good news hopefully )

edellc

thats great news hope it all works out and a good nights sleep is in sight

Bijon

Threshold just called and suddenly he has turned all helpful and nice and even the agent is on to us as sweet as pie, unlike last night when she was very rude!!
Finally we have a resolution.
I would really urge anyone with Landlord problems to call Threshold they are brilliant

Bijon

Well still no word from the Landlord, may have to get back in touch with Threshold! I knew it wouldn't be that easy, may have to look into breaking our lease early as there are also some other issues that need to resolved, any ideas if we can break our lease and get our deposit back??!!!!!

Cathmandooo

If you break your lease you forfeit your deposit and risk being chased for the remainder of the rent.

Bijon

Yes but I assumed as he is not resolving these issues within a reasonable timeframe we can break the lease under section 68 of the Residential Tenancy Act as he has not complied with his obligations? But would we have to write to him first and give him a chance to fix the issues? Would the emails and calls not be sufficient? Thanks :-)

Cathmandooo

Well what did your landlord say when he was nice as pie yesterday? Did he say he's replacing the bed with a new one?

You'll have to give him a couple of days to go get a new bed.

He has replaced it twice, even if they weren't good beds he has acted on your requests. If you broke your lease I can't see the PRTB being on your side with the bed issue.

Put everything in writing.

Bijon

No he has refused to repalce the bed so we have to replace it ourselves, I am not expecting him to remove the old bed asap as we have been waiting on average two weeks to get replies and work sorted, we are not constantly harassing him we are giving him pleanty of time, he told Threshold that he would call us to make arrangements and that was yesterday, we are not expecting him to have it sorted asap but we were expecting him to at least call and try to sort out arrangements as he told Threshold he would do. We have not broken our lease but we we are looking for a legal "get out clause" I suppose as we really feel he is messing us around! He has replaced the two previous beds but it took him at least two weeks each time to get ot sorted so I think we were being reasonable and each bed was worse than before so he wasn;t really fulfilling his obligations! It is just very frustrating to have to try and sort this out and worry about our deposit return also when we leave.

Cathmandooo

I can imagine that's very frustrating.

I can't see why you'd lose your deposit at the end of the term if you got your own bed and he took the existing one, nothing wrong with it if he's willing to take it off your hands. It's yours to take at the end of the term. Keep the receipt for it til you're out of the place.

What I'd do is order the new bed, write the landlord a letter stating what date it will be delivered and that you require the bed to be gone by then, copy the letter to the agent and to the contact in Threshold. Either hand deliver the letter to the landlord or send it by registered post.

the_syco

Cathooo wrote: »

What I'd do is order the new bed, write the landlord a letter stating what date it will be delivered and that you require the bed to be gone by then, copy the letter to the agent and to the contact in Threshold. Either hand deliver the letter to the landlord or send it by registered post.

Bad idea. Say you want the bed gone AFTER you get the new bed, otherwise he could take the bed two days before you get the new bed, and then you'd be rightly up sh|t creek without a paddle bed.

And as he did what you asked of him, you'd have no comeback.

Bijon

Hi,

Well we are actually getting a bed from my partners parents, so therefore we will have no receipt, but there is no problem with him removing the bed as we can get the replacement bed the same day! But I don't think I should be making any plans yet as we have still not heard from him regarding removing the bed, so we will give him until Monday and will have to maybe try a different tack as we will then be waiting nearly 5 days which I think is plenty of time for him to at least get in touch to get the ball rolling!!

Cathmandooo

the_syco wrote: »

Bad idea. Say you want the bed gone AFTER you get the new bed, otherwise he could take the bed two days before you get the new bed, and then you'd be rightly up sh|t creek without a paddle bed.

And as he did what you asked of him, you'd have no comeback.

Bit of an overreaction? the landlord isn't allowed into the premises without the agreement of the tenant, he can't go in and just take the bed away any old day. I'm sure the op could have made do with something for a night or two if there was no bed delivered.

Bijon wrote: »

Hi,

Well we are actually getting a bed from my partners parents, so therefore we will have no receipt, but there is no problem with him removing the bed as we can get the replacement bed the same day! But I don't think I should be making any plans yet as we have still not heard from him regarding removing the bed, so we will give him until Monday and will have to maybe try a different tack as we will then be waiting nearly 5 days which I think is plenty of time for him to at least get in touch to get the ball rolling!!

That's good that you can get your own bed at any time.

Would you contact the person in Threshold today and say that nothing has happened yet?

Bijon

We would allow him in to remove the bed if he would just give us a date, but he always tells us he will be there on Monday, then he texts on Monday and says it will be the next day and so on. We will have to contact Threshold again but I think if we leave it until Monday we will have more of a leg to stand on so to speak as it will have been five days more than enough time just to call and make arrangements?? Or should we send him a registered letter and have it all in writting? As Threshold have said emails are not concrete evidence!