House flooded - where to go from here?

ethernet

Hoping to get an idea of where to go with this messy and stressful situation. It's a bit long-winded but want to give an accurate picture.


Background:

Living in a large houseshare for less than half a year but just renting a room.

Did not sign a lease (part 4 tenancy?).

Not registered with the PRTB.

Only deal with an (independent?) agent though email and text messages.

Have no idea who the landlord is or how s/he can be contacted.


What happened:

House flooded badly last week and a ceiling leaked on another floor.

Agent was on holidays.

Attempted, pointlessly, to clear up the mess at it gushed in.

Attempted to contact the agent within minutes of this happening but got no reply to several calls.

Eventually made contact and those affected were instructed to move to temporary accommodation a few kilometers away - another property managed by this agent, going days with a single key between several people.

We had reported a leaking roof to the agent several times in the past few weeks and were told it would be fixed.

A "handyman" came to assess the problem but failed on two separate occasions to show for the times we had been told to expect him, including the day the ceiling leaked and caused significant damage to a tenant's property.

Problems:


The agent was informed the repair person had not turned up.

When the flooding occurred, the agent was informed a plumber would be called to drain the flood water and make no objection but later sent a scathing email to another tenant for availing of the services and, in doing so, making the situation 'much worse'.

The plumbers explained the rooms would not be safe to live in again for at least 2-3 months. Moving in before this would result in the insurer refusing to pay out.

The agent, however, eventually claimed they would be "liveable" after just 2-3 weeks.

The same "handyman" who was to repair the roof is also to repair the damaged rooms.

The agent outright refuses to meet us to discuss our frustrations at not having the roof repair previously and at the slow responses in dealing with damaged property, claiming there is "nothing to discuss".

The agent has requested rent while in the substandard, smaller emergency accommodation with a slight discount.

The agent has listed rooms in the house online as being available to rent in the next few weeks even though all rooms are occupied.

The agent fails to supply information about the landlord.

The agent enters the house and shows rooms to perspective tenants without prior notice to current tenants.

A neighbour informed me that flooding happened in that house before and that basement bedrooms were not to be rented in future. This leads me to believe the agent may be secretly renting the rooms unbeknownst to the landlord.



TL;DR

It's very frustrating, even for those who were not directly affected by the damage.
Agent is not being professional or cooperating as required.

Ideally we could make contact with the landlord to cut out the bureaucracy and get answers.

Where to go from here?

Needless to say, alternative accommodation is being sought by most of the tenants in the flooded house.

edanto

I don't think the agent is giving you the service that you could reasonably expect.

I would not pay rent in the temporary place and start looking for a new place immediately. Move out as soon as possible and demand your deposit back. Communicate by email.

When you say it's not registered with the PRTB - I presume you've checked the database - http://public.prtb.ie/pubregister.htm

That's a fairly big stick you can beat the agent with when you are saying "Give me back my deposit now."

the_syco

ethernet wrote: »

A neighbour informed me that flooding happened in that house before and that basement bedrooms were not to be rented in future. This leads me to believe the agent may be secretly renting the rooms unbeknownst to the landlord.

If you live in said basement, maybe try to find out the reason, and use it to get out of the house? I'm thinking both the LL and agent don't care if the basement is rented out once they get their money.

Victor

Talk to the PRTB. See if they have any details on the landlord.

Potentially, you need to write to the agent saying that if things aren't sorted within (say) 7 days, you will be treating the contract as frustrated and will be moving out. Demand a face to face meeting with the landlord and agent. Send a copy by registered post.

ethernet

Thanks for all the replies. It's always good to get a fresh external view.

Many tenants in the house have requested to meet face-to-face on a number of occasions with the agent but he still claims there is nothing to discuss, despite us conveying our disappointment at how the situation is being handled. We're just told flooding happened all over Dublin and we should be grateful it wasn't worse. The rooms are just stinking up the rest of the house at this stage with nothing being done since the emergency plumbers came to drain the mess on three occasions.

Hope to be out of there very soon!