Rent Deposit return

bluesandtwos

Hi All

Quick question, hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction or someone has shared a similar experience....

My girlfriend and I have been renting a room in a shared house for the last 3 months.
We have no formal written contract with the landlord but we expected to be in the house for 6months to a year.

The house has had shared bills - esb, gas, TV, Bins etc, which we always pay on time.
When we moved in there was no internet. Myself and one of the others in the house (who moved in the same day) wanted to get in internet.

The landlord agreed to get it and organised it with UPC and she signed up to a one year contract with them in her own name and we paid for it each month on top of our rent.

In the mean time there has been constant issues (rowing/shouting/bullying amung other housemates) within the house, which has made living there unbarable for us and we have made the landlord aware of this on numerous occasions.

We decided we had had enough of the rowing and gave the landlord our notice of intention to move out.
The landlord sympathised with the fact that there is ongoing issues and apologised and said they intends on evicting the other tenants now as a result of this.

The landlord made reference to the fact she has taken out a one year contract for the UPC internet and said they will not pay for it.

The landlord wants to take the value of the UPC bill for the rest of the year from our deposit. For all I know the next tenants will subscribe to the internet and we will have been done out of the money.
I feel this is very unfair and under the circumstances.
Do we have to take the hit, as it was her choice of tennants that caused the issue. We had absolutly no involvement in the rowing, we were just present and it was making our lives miserable.

Should I take this up with a solicitor?
Does anyone have any advise?

Thanks

StillWaters

My reading of it is you are liable, it was installed at your request, when to the landlords knowledge you were staying for the year. The landlord is now out of pocket. The behaviour of the other tenants has no bearing at all.
I am open to correction though.

Xeyn

UPC have a early cancellation charge of €100. That is the maximum the landlord can charge you, not the cost of the remaining months on the contract if that is more.

An alternative is with the landlords permission you find suitable occupants who are willing to pay for Internet (most renters are)

Otherwise it does seem fair that you pay the €100 charge if it indeed was your request to get it installed in the first place.

djimi

Surely anything the landlord installs into a shared house where people rent by the room with no lease is done so with the understanding that the tenant might move out at any time and the landlord could be left to foot the bill? If he signed up for the internet knowing that it was a year contract, yet had no fixed term lease with the tenant for that time, then I dont see how anyone other than the landlord is responsible for the contract. Its in their name, they signed it; the tenant would only be liable to pay for it for the time they were there, same as any other utility in the house.

djimi

Xeyn wrote: »

UPC have a early cancellation charge of €100. That is the maximum the landlord can charge you, not the cost of the remaining months on the contract if that is more.

An alternative is with the landlords permission you find suitable occupants who are willing to pay for Internet (most renters are)

Otherwise it does seem fair that you pay the €100 charge if it indeed was your request to get it installed in the first place.

I dont know why the landlord would want to cancel it at all to be honest. In this day and age who wouldnt want an internet connection in the place where they live? And considering UPC are by far the cheapest and quickest internet available, it would be a good selling point for when he goes to rent the room/house again. Worry about cancelling if the next tenant point blank refuses to pay for it, but Id be surprised if that turned out to be the case.

Xeyn

djimi wrote: »

I dont know why the landlord would want to cancel it at all to be honest. In this day and age who wouldnt want an internet connection in the place where they live? And considering UPC are by far the cheapest and quickest internet available, it would be a good selling point for when he goes to rent the room/house again. Worry about cancelling if the next tenant point blank refuses to pay for it, but Id be surprised if that turned out to be the case.

Very true. Id agree with this. Like I said, most renters want internet so I cant see why the LL would want to cancel. Possibly he is chancing his arm since he wants you to pay fort the rest of the year but has no intention of cancelling.
Like I said though, if he insists that the internet is not going to be used and wants you to pay I dont think he can legally force you to, but if you want to leave on good terms the most I would pay is €100.

bluesandtwos

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I really appreciate the advise. I think I will have to put these things to the landlord and explain it is unacceptable.

If the landlord takes more than €100 what can I do? Small claims court?

djimi

If the landlord is not an owner occupier in this accomodation then get onto Threshold and see what they advise. My feeling is that you are not liable for any cost here whatsoever (unless you have a signed agreement with the landlord to the contrary), but Threshold will be able to advise if you have any case to take to the PRTB.

MariMel

I understand that UPC is the quickest etc available for people in certain areas and it having a connection would be favourable for tenants, however surely the tenants could have gotten the connection in their own names or used mobile broadband, then making only them liable for the internet charges.
It was the LL who installed this so why would the tenants have to pay? Just curious about this.

djimi

MariMel wrote: »

surely the tenants could have gotten the connection in their own names or used mobile broadband, then making only them liable for the internet charges.

The OP only rents a room, not the entire accomodation, so it wouldnt really make any sense to take out the UPC contract in their own name. Also, UPC want a year contract minimum, so again it wouldnt make much sense to take out a contract with them unless you are absolutely certain that you will be there a full year (which by the sound of it the OP wasnt).

It sounds to me like the landlord agreed to this arrangement without actually thinking it through, and is now trying to pass on responsibility to someone else. Its my attitude that he made his bed so now let him sleep in it!

bluesandtwos

Hi All

Thanks for the responses so far. I will be moving out next week.
I have been in touch with the landlord and she is insisting we must pay the cancellation fee of €100. There are the 3 of us who use it so split it will cost myself and my girlfriend €66.

I have also learned the landlord is advertising the room on daft.ie and it states internet is one of the facilities in the house.

Any ideas what I can do on this?

Thanks

ABajaninCork

Is the service to be cancelled or not? You need to clarify and get proof of the same. If it is, then I'm afraid you'll have to eat the charge as you left before the end of the minimum term.

If not, then tell the landlady to sing for the money. Why should she make a profit from the service once you've left?