Rental Nightmare - Advice please!

buswankers

Hi All....

I'm just looking for some advice in relation to what my rights are in a recent situation I've found myself in, hope this is the correct forum...will try & keep it brief but a lot went on so apologies if this ends up an extremely lengthy post!

Basically, myself & a friend moved into a 2 bed house back in November. Both female professionals, late twenties - have been renting for a couple of years now and never had any problems, always paid rent on time etc etc...

Rented the house through a letting agents, never had any contact with the landlord. We were advised on moving in that there was sufficient car parking for both our cars and that everything in the house was in full working order. Moved in on 1st November (remember how cold it was back then) & found that the boiler would not switch on. Gas fire in the living room would not work either. We immediately rang the letting agent who advised she would have someone go look at it that day. Got home that evening still no heat. Rang her again - no answer, left voicemail. This went on for the entire week, ringing to no response & she would eventually ring baack advising "it will be fixed by this evening". It was finally fixed on the Friday but we were an entire week without heat. The gas fire was never fixed despite numerous promises that it would be replaced.

We then noticed that the bins were all full from the previous tenants (should have checked before moving in). When we left them out forpick up they were never emptied. Contacted letting agents again who said they would sort the problem. Never heard anything more so I rang the council myself & found that there had been a stop put on the account as it was in arrears. Advised we were new tenants and they said they would arrange a new account. That meant we were paying for 3 bin pick ups that was not our rubbish. Then the snow happened so there were no collections. All in all we were the first 2 months without disposing of any rubbish. It was horrible. During this time the letting agency were completely unhelpful from start to finish.

We then started having problems with car parking in the estate. A disgruntled neighbour started slashing tyres etc - full garda investigation is being carried out. We were advised by the management company of the estate (not the letting agents) that each house was only entitled to one car parking space. Therefore we had been let the property under false pretences. We again tried to contact the letting agents. No response.

We did sign a lease a around mid-November, where i listed all our issues on it (we wanted a rent reduction for the month of Nov for no heat, the bins, the gas fire, also had been promised 2 sets of chests of drawers for the bedrooms) we never received a copy back from the letting agents signed by the landlord.
As we were getting so frustrated with the lack of response from the letting agents - who were also so rude if we ever did get through to them we decided to hold back the rent in the hope that the landlord would deal with our issues. We paid no rent in December and January. During January the issue with the car parking in the estate escalated into blatant harrassment by a neighbour & we felt we had no choice but to move out. We were never contact by the landlord or letting agents looking for the rent (i think they weren't actually aware we hadnt been paying it as we could never get through to them to tell them!)

We left the house in perfect condition but obviously owe 2 months rent to the landlord. Clearly we broke the lease by moving out early and by not meeting our obligations under the lease to pay rent monthly (something we never would have done had our issues been resolved or at least attempted to be resolved).
But my argument is that the landlord did not meet his obligations under the lease either as were completely ignored the entire duration of the rental period - the whole thing was basically a nightmare.

I am just wondering if anyone can tell me our rights in this situation. We have let the letting agents know that we have moved out via email & i'm sure once they realise the missing rent we will be hearing from them (much faster than when we were contacting them with our issues with the property!)
Have tried contacting Threshold but am having trouble getting through to them.

Sorry the above is so long - am grateful for any advice anyone may have, would just like to know if we have any grounds for what we did at all. If not we will just have to cough up the owed rent!

Thanks for reading!

Fiii

Oh dear, that does sound like a right nightmare!
Was the tenancy registered with the PRTB do you know?
The only advice I can give, is to try Threshold again. Myself and my housemates had a terrible time trying to get a deposit back 2 years ago, and Threshold were a huge help.
They are swamped, but they will get back to you (think it took 2 or 3 days for us), so leave all your details (email and call them if you can) and someone will be in touch.
Print all correspondence you have with the letting agents and make a timeline of events, so if it does go further, you have it all in a file and ready to go.
If it does go to the PRTB, it could be months before your case is seen (took 9months for us) and by then you might have forgotten details, so write it all down now while it is fresh in your mind.
Hope it all works out for you.

buswankers

Thanks for your reply Fiii.

Yes I think the tenancy was registered with the PRTB. Well we were given a PRTB form to sign but we never signed it as we were waiting to see the signed copy of the lease by the landlord as well as waiting for all the other issues to be rectified. But i am assuming they can register the tenancy with them regardless.

Will try calling Threshold again, have already emailed them but have heard nothing back. Will leave a message this time! Hopefully they will be able to tell us whether we have any leg to stand on.

Also will make an exact timeline of events as you have advised. Have a number of emails sent by us which prove how we were blatantly ignored time and time again.

Many thanks for the advice, much appreciated

Zamboni

Did you pay a deposit?

buswankers

Yes paid one months rent and a months deposit when we moved in. Then did not pay rent for Dec, Jan and Feb. Assume they will put the deposit towards one month leaving 2 months we now owe.

We were amazed that we weren't once contacted by anyone looking for the missing rent - we genuinely were only trying to get them to actually rectify the problems we were having but in the end we couldn't take it anymore! It clearly went unnoticed by the landlord, how I have absolutely no idea!

SteoL

I have also had to call Threshold in the past and they are very good but as someone else said they do take a while to get back to you. Once they are on the case though they are very efficient.

Zamboni

buswankers wrote: »

We left the house in perfect condition but obviously owe 2 months rent to the landlord.

We have let the letting agents know that we have moved out via email & i'm sure once they realise the missing rent we will be hearing from them (much faster than when we were contacting them with our issues with the property!)

Did you take dated photos of the property upon leaving?

What did you do with the keys?

buswankers

Zamboni wrote: »

Did you take dated photos of the property upon leaving?

What did you do with the keys?

No we didn't take any photo's. We did take photo's of the meter readings and called to cancel both and request a final bill.

We put the keys back in through the letterbox once we were happy that it was fully clean etc.

edellc

I dont know what advise you are looking for you have your months rent and deposit and are out of there I had a similiar experience in my last house your post sounds so familiar to my situation and we did the same as you
the only thing that happened was LL rang and started ranting about rent not getting paid to which i pointed out that we had no heating for months and nothing was done so therefore he broke out lease and it was null and void he wanted to know where i had gone LMFAO like im going to tell him and be penpals ? so what can he do nothing at the time I was living there i did report to threshold and nothing happened
so all in all be grateful your outta there with your deposit and months rent so no money lost and if they ring tell them why you left but realistically without a forwarding address for you what are they going to do they broke the lease not you

the_syco

buswankers wrote: »

No we didn't take any photo's. We did take photo's of the meter readings and called to cancel both and request a final bill.

We put the keys back in through the letterbox once we were happy that it was fully clean etc.

Photos are to show that when you left, the place was clean. As it happens, they could "find" it in a state of disrepair, and come after you for damages...

Ciara22

I dont understand why you would lodge a complaint with Threshold or the PRTB to be honest, what would you be seeking from it?

As you pointed out, they will use your deposit in place of unpaid rent and if they do decide to pursue you through the PRTB for the remaining rent, I have no doubt that they will lose the case based on their lack of performance.

I would advise that you dont waste your time or money by lodging a complaint to the PRTB as you will gain nothing from it but do keep a record of every incident just in case.

If the letting agents are as incompetent as they sound, then they wont even bother pursuing it. I mean, what letting agent or landlord doesnt notice unpaid rent in this day and age??!!

moving_home

i had to break a lease early the landlord was a large property management company in dublin. we rang, emailed and posted a letter to say we were leaving giving 2mths notice but heard nothing back. eventually we moved out and posted the keys back to them but no one contacted us for the last month's rent (we assume the deposit covered these) but we were afraid of getting caught for the rent for the balance of the lease. it was so strange but nothing ever came of it so i think you should just move on and don't be lodging the problem with Threshold etc as nothing may come of it.

zom

buswankers wrote: »

Yes paid one months rent and a months deposit when we moved in. Then did not pay rent for Dec, Jan and Feb. Assume they will put the deposit towards one month leaving 2 months we now owe.

Can you please state agency name? I cant believe such incompetency.
Why didn't you contact them personally? I mean get a bus/car and go to the office? Ask about person you dealt with for first rent+deposit?

Baralis1

OP I really don't think you have much to worry about and if I were you, I would put this bad experience behind you. I'd be very surprised if you hear anything more from the letting agents.

Even if you do, I think you have a very strong case. I don't think the lease was valid from the very start when they didn't give you a signed copy. It sounds like that the letting agent blatently lied to you to get you to take the house in the hope that you would keep paying rent and put up with their failures. I'm sure they realise all this and I really can't see them following up.

3DataModem

Speaking as a landlord, I would say just walk away. You did everything you could at the time... there is little or nothing they can do to persue you.

What I would do - just in case - is make a list of dates / times you attenpted to call the agency etc etc. File it away somewhere, in case you get contacted.

But in reality you have the balance of power (ie you are not out of pocket). I would very seldom advocate non-payment of rent but sh1t agents and sh1t landlords need to be weeded out somehow

sf80

Just some general advice for anybody: keep a note of everything like this that happens and take pictures. Mail/email the notes and pictures to the letting agencies for the record. Do all this as standard practice, not just after you start getting the idea that they're being slack.

Letting agencies get money from the rent each month and like nothing more than to do nothing and get free money. You need to push them and let them know they're not going to get away with being lazy.

buswankers

Thanks to everyone for their replies - really appreciate it.

I was more looking for an idea of what exactly our rights are in this situation rather than advice as I had a feeling that it wouldnt be the last we heard from them once they realised we hadnt paid rent etc..... & i was proven right....had a voicemail from the letting agent last night requesting our forwarding address to send a PRTB Tribunal Letter!! She said she knows there were unresolved issues with the property but none warranted us not paying rent. Is she having a laugh?! Anyway, haven't rang her back yet, will do so later today. All I can do is once again re-iterate why we held back on the rent (although she knows as we have emailed on numerous occassions). I will not be giving her our forwarding address but she does have both our workplace addresses so guess she can send this Tribunal letter there (if she's not just trying to scare us into paying the money owed)
Suppose i'll just have to wait & see how it pans out.

& in future yes I will always take dated photo's upon leaving a tenancy.

zom wrote: »

Can you please state agency name? I cant believe such incompetency.
Why didn't you contact them personally? I mean get a bus/car and go to the office? Ask about person you dealt with for first rent+deposit?

We both work full-time busy jobs and to be honest had no interest in taking time off to trek out to their office. Felt that it was they had a responsibility to deal with all our issues without us having to put ourselves out. In the end we just gave up. Happy to state their name but not sure it's appropriate??
To be honest we could not believe their incompetency either - & they would be pretty well known too. The way they acted they are certainly not feeling the economic downturn most people are feeling!

sf80 wrote: »

You need to push them and let them know they're not going to get away with being lazy.

We tried and tried but its very disheartening when your blatantly being ignored!

Thanks again for everyone that took the time to have a read and respond - it has made me feel a bit better about the situation. Will just wait and see now if this 'Tribunal Letter' ever arrives.

Fiii

I think she might be trying to scare you, as it takes A LOT longer to set up a PRTB tribunal.
The first stage of the process is to register that there is a dispute. You can then opt to have mediation, or adjudication - mediation is when someone from the PRTB sits down with both parties to see if things can be resolved, adjudication is when you send in all info from both sides and someone from the PRTB decides what need to be done.
A tribunal only takes place when a decision has been made, and one of the parties involved wants to appeal the decision.
But all of this takes a long time (9 months in my case).
Perhaps she just meant she has registered a dispute, and needs to forward the info to you. If so, maybe she is correct.

I def think you need to get in touch with Threshold now. If this does go as far as a PRTB hearing, they will represent you, and help you prepare.
You had no heat for one of the coldest months I can remember in my life time, and were being harassed by neighbours.
You listed your issues on the lease, and the letting agent refused to address them.

I think they are trying to scare you - they know they are in the wrong.
We brought our previous landlord to the PRTB for deposit return, and for the whole process he was sending us abusive emails, threatening us with a 'robust defense' and a legal dispute for 'lost rent' etc.
He was all talk. When it came time to actually go in to the PRTB for our hearing, a file was sent out to both parties with all info sent in for the case from everyone involved. We had sent in a massive file of emails, photos, timeline etc, he had sent in.....NOTHING. He had no intention of fighting it, as he knew he was wrong, he just hoped we would get scared and give up.
Little did he know who he was messing with

Contact Threshold and ask them what your next move should be.
Best of luck!

zom

buswankers wrote: »

We both work full-time busy jobs and to be honest had no interest in taking time off to trek out to their office. Felt that it was they had a responsibility to deal with all our issues without us having to put ourselves out. In the end we just gave up. Happy to state their name but not sure it's appropriate??

I asked for name because it's hard to believe your story. I don't think it might be inappropriate - just tell us company name, not a person name. It's appropriate to praise good companies and to criticise bad.
And in my opinion, dealing with my own place to live - whatever it's rent, buy or just own house - is a serious deal. I would rather go to agency than go for renting next gaff.

buswankers

I know it's hard to believe - sure we couldn't believe it ourselves, you'd think the way things are at the moment these people would be bending over backwards to help keep tenants happy - & not just in area's that are pretty much to maintain normal level of living standards.
Anyway, I wont name the company here as I'm not sure whether or not it's against the forum rules? But will PM you the name now.

Still haven't been able to get through to Threshold but will keep trying. Have advised the letting agents we were contacting them for advice and would be in touch shortly - got no response from them.

SteoL

buswankers wrote: »

I know it's hard to believe - sure we couldn't believe it ourselves, you'd think the way things are at the moment these people would be bending over backwards to help keep tenants happy - & not just in area's that are pretty much to maintain normal level of living standards.
Anyway, I wont name the company here as I'm not sure whether or not it's against the forum rules? But will PM you the name now.

Still haven't been able to get through to Threshold but will keep trying. Have advised the letting agents we were contacting them for advice and would be in touch shortly - got no response from them.

I emailed Treshold including my number and they called me back within 48 hours

the_syco

buswankers wrote: »

Anyway, I wont name the company here as I'm not sure whether or not it's against the forum rules? But will PM you the name now.

IIRC, it's against forum rules.