Deposit

SJD1982

Hi,

I'm new to boards but looking for advice on the return of my deposit from a property I rented.

Myself & My partner rented an apt in April on a Fixed term (12 Month Lease) through a letting agent (A) on Behalf of the Landlord (B). Whilst we were living there, there was an awful lot of anti social behaviour which we reported to the management company (C) and kept the letting agent in the loop as they were acting on behalf of the landlord. There is a lot of drug dealing from staff & tenants in this complex and it got to the point where someone knocked on our door looking for drug money for a debt that was owed. From then on we didnt feel safe and reported it to the guards and also A + C. Neither were very helpful until we decided we could no longer live there due to safety reasons. As such we were 3 months into our lease and gave the 28 days notice required and gave (A) plenty of time to re rent the property on behalf of (B) whilst we were still living there. We paid up our outstanding rent to cover the 28 days as we thought it was the right thing to do.

Today I found out we are not getting the deposit back at all with no reason as top why except we broke our lease. The property has been viewed already and surely will be rented quite quickly. I am assuming we would be enitled to all if not some back taking a daily/weekly charge (loss of rent) from deposit until it is rented?

I have since found out the landlord on our lease(B) does not own the property at all and it is legally owned by his wife. Surley if he is acting on her behalf we should have been notified as we were when the letting agents were acting on his behalf?

Can someone clarify the points of the deposit and who is the landlord?

Thanks
Simon

athtrasna

The landlord should be listed on your rent book and on the PRTB registration for the property.

Regarding breaking a fixed term lease, you can re-assign the lease (with the landlord's agreement) but until the unit is re-let you are responsible for paying the rent as you agreed to when you sign the contract. In keeping with this you should have sought new tenants to take over the lease. By moving out and now waiting for the agent to re-let, it would be eating into your deposit. Depending on whether or not the agent charges a re-letting fee you may not see a cent, though it's unlikely the landlord will pursue you for any extra costs.

Anti-social behaviour is not grounds for breaking a fixed term lease unless you can prove that the landlord contributed or failed to solve the issue if it was something he had control of (such as evicting trouble makers if they lived in another property he owned)

Grolschevik

On a sort-of-related note, my partner had serious issues with antisocial behaviour and intimidation in a place she rented a few years ago, through a letting agent.

As far as I remember, the letting agent was kept in the loop about all the issues.
After the last incident, the guards were around again and (informally) advised her to move out as soon as she could -- that night, in fact -- so that may have carried some weight.

In the end, she broke the lease, and she got her deposit back. Don't know on what basis, apart from a decent agent and landlord, but I suppose an argument could be made on the grounds of 'peaceful enjoyment' and the agent/landlord's prior knowledge of complaints about previous antisocial behaviour.

athtrasna

Grolschevik wrote: »

In the end, she broke the lease, and she got her deposit back. Don't know on what basis, apart from a decent agent and landlord, but I suppose an argument could be made on the grounds of 'peaceful enjoyment' and the agent/landlord's prior knowledge of complaints about previous antisocial behaviour.

How is a landlord responsible for the behaviour of others? If I rent an apartment, and some troublemakers rent next door (not owned by my landlord) how is my landlord responsible for those tenants?? Same way as if I own my own place and scumbags move in next door, their landlord is responsible for them, not me?

Grolschevik

athtrasna wrote: »

How is a landlord responsible for the behaviour of others? If I rent an apartment, and some troublemakers rent next door (not owned by my landlord) how is my landlord responsible for those tenants?? Same way as if I own my own place and scumbags move in next door, their landlord is responsible for them, not me?

I don't know. But she did get her deposit back via the letting agent, along with an apology and recommendations for where to rent next. She was only a couple of months into her lease, This was about six or seven years ago.

odds_on

Before renting (or buying) any property, you should check out the area thoroughly.

Visit the area at different times of the day (and night), check with local residents, potential neighbours etc. Get a "feel" for the area and if necessary, a complex or estate. Sometimes the price will reflect the quality of the area.

Originally Posted by Grolschevik
On a sort-of-related note, my partner had serious issues with antisocial behaviour and intimidation in a place she rented a few years ago, through a letting agent.

As far as I remember, the letting agent was kept in the loop about all the issues.
After the last incident, the guards were around again and (informally) advised her to move out as soon as she could -- that night, in fact -- so that may have carried some weight.

Originally Posted by Grolschevik
In the end, she broke the lease, and she got her deposit back. Don't know on what basis, apart from a decent agent and landlord, but I suppose an argument could be made on the grounds of 'peaceful enjoyment' and the agent/landlord's prior knowledge of complaints about previous antisocial behaviour.

Grolschevik, you have given a result but as you say, you don't know the details of the situation. Thus, the OP cannot expect to rely on getting the same result.

Grolschevik

odds_on wrote: »

Grolschevik, you have given a result but as you say, you don't know the details of the situation. Thus, the OP cannot expect to rely on getting the same result.

Granted, all situations are different. Maybe me saying "she broke the lease" was a bit strong. The letting agency refunded the deposit after she explained to them that the gardai had told her to get out as the neighbour was a known dangerous criminal.

That's a pretty specific set of circumstances...

djimi

SJD1982 wrote: »

As such we were 3 months into our lease and gave the 28 days notice required and gave (A) plenty of time to re rent the property on behalf of (B) whilst we were still living there. We paid up our outstanding rent to cover the 28 days as we thought it was the right thing to do.

The problem you have is that there is no notice period that you can give in order to break a fixed term lease. The 28 days only applies to a part 4 tenancy (ie where there is no agreed term or written lease).

If you had looked to reassign the lease then the landlord either had the option of agreeing and allowing you to find a suitable tenant to take over, or to disagree with the reassignment in which case you would have been entitled to your deposit back.

As it stands now you simply broke a fixed term lease, which by the letter of the law means you forfeit your deposit. I can sympathise with your situation, and honestly had it been me I would have done exactly the same thing. It might be worth contacting Threshold to see if there is any course of action that you can take to recover your deposit, but if Im honest I dont think the antisocial behaviour of others in the complex is going to be seen as the fault/responsibility of the landlord.

movingsucks

Same thing happened to us,
We left when the place was broken into with one month left on the lease. Estate agent acting on behalf of the landlord said it was fine and we'd get the deposit back.
She even said she'd be keeping 100 quid of it for cleaning.
Anyway a few weeks later we got a letter from the landlord (whom we'd never had any contact with) ranting and raving that we'd cost him so much money by moving out early and how dare we, we shouldve sub let the remainder of the lease (for a month!) etc So he kept the deposit.
I showed a solititor friend the letter and lease and he said while the estate agent was careless to tell us it was ok to go we broke the lease and it was as black and white as that.
Lesson learned for us