Can our Landlady deduct €200 for this?

Annabananna

If you have a minute can you give your thoughts on a problem we have with our previous landlady she organised for us to view the house with her last Saturday then rang me on Friday night at 6.30pm and told me the below points. She then said she was going to calculate how much she would deduct from our deposit and drop it over to us. She came at 9pm gave us a cheque for 550 after deducting 200e and said I had to take it off you for cleaning and stuff. She didn’t give me a list of why she deducted this figure or how she came up with it. When I asked for it she said she would drop it over but hasnt. How do you think I should proceed? If you are mad busy and haven’t the time to reply I will understand.

Points
1 Toilet blocked
The landlord states that the downstairs toilet is blocked it wasn’t blocked when I left the property on Sunday night the 4th of December and when I visited on the 7th of December her handyman/ Uncle did not mention it to me although she listed this as something why she deducting money from my deposit. Can she do this?
2 A screw missing from a mirror I told her I buy a new one as they are 40e in local hardware place she said no she was taking it out of deposit this I accept so my deposit should have been deducted this €40.
3 Cleaning
I went over on the afternoon of the 7th of December to finish the last of the cleaning and get the last few pieces as my lease was up on that day only to discover her handyman and his wife had done the cleaning and now she deduced this of my rent according to a her few words Friday night. Since my lease was up the 7th am I right in believing that I have till midnight the 7th to finish the house and she should not have organised for this work until my lease was up and queried it with me.
4 Screws and knobs having to be reattached she got her handyman to do the few that had to be even though I had gone and got replacement screws and no more nails to do this on Wednesday.

not even wrong

Under the Residential Tenancies Act the landlord is only allowed deduct from your deposit in the following specific cases:

1. for unpaid rent
2. for damage beyond normal wear and tear

Cleaning (assuming it's normal vacuuming/dusting/sweeping/etc and you haven't trashed the place completely) comes under "normal wear and tear" so your deposit cannot be used for this.

Replacing the mirror is not "normal wear and tear" so you have to pay for this.

If I were you I would threaten her with the PRTB unless she refunds the cleaning costs.

Lantus

In relation to all of these points you should of been given fair hearing to be able to repsond and address them before she sent in workers to undertake this work.

They are very 'weak' points as well.

blocked toilets are very easily sorted but as you say it wasn't blocked.

was the screw missing to begin with? Why would a tenant remove a screw anyway. seems a bizzare thing to pick.

you are right on the cleaning aspect. You still had time to address this and I dont believe the landlord had any right to pre-empt this and undertake paid work. same with the door knobs.

You are well within your rights to fight this.

I have personally fallen foul of the 'skim off the deposit' scam several times and know for a fact they were cheating out of money. I am a meticuluse cleaner as I have a dust allergy. I have cleaned properties to a much higher standard than when I first moved in. Even so the inventory company (in the UK things get even more interesting) swore blind that the 'walls were a bit dusty' and that some pieces of delph were badly worn. (even though they were packed away in newspaper and never used.) They skimmed several hundred off and there was nothing I could do about it as they just refused to hand back the deposit. I have no doubt that the almost 10 page inventory report magically reverts back to 'perfect condition' for the next tenant. (The front door alone was almost half a page with every mark scuff and inflection clearly noted.)

Ray Palmer

Yeah that is over and obove anything she should take.
Nothing mentioned should have warranted any deduction.

Unless something is damaged or you owed rent nothing should be deducted.

Toilet blocked is general maintenance
Cleaning isn't a deductable thing unless beyond wear and tare.
A screw missing is a complete joke.

I don't get why people try to hang on to the deposit. At the same time tenants try to withold rent for rediculious things. I used to provide electric kettles,toasters and vacums. These commonly break and people would withold rent. I even didn't list them in the items and explained that they were a courtesy I would not replace if broken but expected them back.

Got sick of the hassle so just don't provide them now.

Victor

Screws cost €40?

Annabananna

Hi Victor no the screw doesnt cost 40e the whole mirror and stand is only 40e. Thanks for the replies i have got if there is anymore out there i would be grateful if you give me your thoughts and or your experiences in something like this if i dont get the list telling me exactly what she has used to come up with teh 200e deduction i am going to send a letter requesting it and see how that goes.

kildare.17hmr

i Wouldnt bother with the letter to explain the money i would send her a letter demanding the money back or your going to the prtb. asking her to explain it is just gonna drag it out

Victor

Annabananna wrote: »

Hi Victor no the screw doesnt cost 40e the whole mirror and stand is only 40e.

My guess is that the screw was always missing and she got a discount when she bought it.

If she takes the €40, you get to take the mirror.

Annabananna

Here an update on this a while ago i got the post and a letter from Landlady here is the gest of it the first paragraph tells me as a tenent i am responsible for any damage to furnishings above normal wear and tear. Second Paragraph goes i like to point out that we signed a lease for an agreed time and that you broke the terms of this agreement. It is in landlords rights to hold deposit in lieu of this and even look for outstanding rent even if you gave notice. But in this case i waive this right and just look for monies for cleaning and broken furnishings.

She then lists teh schedule of problems:

General cleaning (I was going to do this on the last day of my lease)

Two broken chairs (1 was broken in the house robbery we had in may last year and the other was broken when we moved in but just glued together when my husband sat on it fall from under him so we left it spare room since that day as per the advice of the then letting agent.)

Blocked Toilet Drain (it was working on Sunday and surely if she had a plumber see it she should of giving his invoice to support her claim)

Water stain on Kitchen ceiling needs to be repainted due to hairs in shower plug (Hello i was there for 2 year 5mths does she think i never cleaned out shower plug i didnt d it on sat as was going to do it wed when went over also surely you paint ceiling ever 2 to 3 yrs)

Fridge glass shelve broken and not replaced was reported to agent. ( i pointed it out to the agent just after we moving in there was a crack in this glass and told her i was taking it out as it would cut someone she said that was grand i didnt push for a replacement and she didnt tell me i had to replace it)

Put back 2 doors on cabinets a drawer front, one wardrobe door replace three door knobs (all the knobs were there to glue back on which i got glue on wed also putting back doors were a matter of putting screw in and tighting them back up i had to get 2 screws and a screwdriver to do thsi so that was on wed list too)

One broken mirror (a screw was missing from one side of the stand so hence mirror wasnt broken)

Can you please give honest feedback on what should be my next step

Can you please give honest feedback on what should be my next step

kildare.17hmr

Annabananna wrote: »

Can you please give honest feedback on what should be my next step

Re-write all the red highlighted items and send it back to her and the letting agent? Should the agent not be handling this though no?

Annabananna

The letting agent died a year into the lease and the landlady took over from her.

Victor

Anna - I've removed the multiple colours (default, black, red) - its very difficult to read.

rml508

Hi Anna, you can contact the Carmelite Community Centre on Aungier St, Dublin 2 for free legal advice or you can submit a letter into the Private Residential Tenancy Board. They should be able to clear this up for you.