Question - Defaulting on rental payment?

TelePaul

Hi guys, I'm raising this on behalf of someone I work with so bear with me. Just curious as to how this might pan out in practice.

X is renting an apartment in the city centre and has one month left on her lease. The landlord has proved quite difficult to deal with throughout the course of the rental agreement - making promises she didn't deliver on (for instance, receiving payment for a spare keyfob and not providing it, things like that), being generally uncooperative when it came to discussing the possibility rent relief, and providing very little explanation when the tenants were contacted by a solicitor - seemingly, the landlord's financial standing is pretty dire, and X was required to provide solicitors with a copy of the contract, seemingly to prevent the possibility of eviction. As you can see, I'm pretty sketchy on the specifics, but it sounds like the landlord may be insolvent.

Anyways, in light of the above, my colleague is reluctant to pay the last months rent, as she is concerned that she wont be getting her deposit back (seemingly the place is in immaculate condition). She went so far as to say this to the landlord in an email, but was told very politely but firmly that she would have to pay the rent and was assured that she would receive her deposit in full.

Now, I have very little insight into these things but I'm wondering if anyone knows the legal position on this sort of thing, or whether you've experienced it from the point-of-view of a landlord or tenant. On the face of things, I would imagine that the tenant is required to pay and seek any re-course for the withholding of a deposit via the Private Residential Tenancies Board.

Any insights would be most helpful.

Zoundz

In her case the PRTB are likely to be the best route - and the most helpful. Is the landlord registered with them do you know?

I was in a similar(ish) situation, where my landlord would not return my deposit (and actually two weeks rent owed to me) - and I opened a dispute with the PRTB. It took a very long time, but had a satisfactory outcome (well, still waiting, but adjudication was passed at our meeting, and we were awarded all the money owed to us and €100 damages - whether we get it remains to be seen... may have to go further yet!) - but as far as I can make out, he'd be very silly now to go back on that, as we could actually get far more.

Anyhoo - I digress - I think her best effort would be sit out the rest of the tenancy normally, demand the deposit back at the end, and if/when it's not given, immediately open a dispute with the PRTB. Keep a diary, keep all receipts and copies of letters/other correspondence sent to the PRTB and the landlord and make sure all costs for the dispute whatever they may be are noted in the amount she wishes to claim

Hope that's of some help?

xx

Zoundz

The main thing also, if you are opening up a PRTB dispute, just *do* it. Don't phone them, because they are absolutely hopeless on the phone in my experience

xx

the_syco

Zoundz wrote: »

whether we get it remains to be seen... may have to go further yet!

AFAIK, the PTRB has little power in making the landlord pay... I think you'll need to get some sheriff to get the money for you, or something.

Graces7

This has come up several times here in the past and the consensus has sometimes been that although it is not "legal",there are circumstances when it is understandable to use the last month rent free to get the
deposit.
Given that it is often very, very hard if not impossible to get that deposit returned.

We did this before our last move for just that reason. Else we could not have taken the lease here.

If the house is being left with no damage, clean etc, then fine. And until and unless Ireland gets a realistic way of dealing with this? Threshold are trying to effect this.