tenant dies - what are his representatives rights?

MILF

Hi there,

A relative of mine passed away last month. His landlord is holding the deposit. He states that it cost more than the deposit to get the condition of the apartment back to the way it was when he rented it first. However, he is wrong on a lot of what he is saying.
He states various appliances did not work. However, they actually never worked but my relative put up with it as he was elderly and did not need to use them, or be a fuss.
Anyway, what are our rights now to get the deposit back. I am not sure if he even registered the tenancy under the PRTB. Am I right in saying you need to re-register the same tenancy every 4 years? He therefore definitely did not do it the second time around.

athtrasna

Lodge a prtb complaint immediately. Whether the tenancy was registered or not doesn't affect your rights as the representatives of the deceased.

MILF

What I should have said was, we are just looking for the deposit back. It is traumatic enough dealing with the death, now we have to deal with a landlord who is using various excuses why he wont refund the deposit. He entered the house before the tenancy should have technically ended also. Is this against lease rules?

ted1

Sorry for your loss, it might be best to leave it as is you could bring heartache on yourselves trying to chase it. The landlord could argue that no notice was giving

MILF

can you argue that no notice was given when the tenant dies? Honestly?

godtabh

MILF wrote: »

can you argue that no notice was given when the tenant dies? Honestly?

Its still a contact that needs to be honored. Would his estate take care of it?

MILF

It was honoured? His lease was up on 1 September and he passed on 19 August. we used the couple of days to clean but he said it was still left in an unrentable condition. Utter B****X to be honest.

RasTa

godtabh wrote: »

Its still a contact that needs to be honored. Would his estate take care of it?

lol not when the person in question is deceased. Jesus...

Tell him you will be taking a case up with the PrTB, should get it sorted asap.

Michael D Not Higgins

RasTa wrote: »

lol not when the person in question is deceased. Jesus...

Tell him you will be taking a case up with the PrTB, should get it sorted asap.

I'd hope the relative kept details of communication with the landlord. Had the appliances broke during the tenancy and there's no record of telling the landlord, it could be considered negligent by the tenant and awarded to the landlord.

handlemaster

OP. Do you actually have proof about what was working etc I would think as you werent party to the contract it will be difficult to prove anything. I take it your relative was in the property for a long period of time. How do you know if the tenancy was registered or not ? As a side note was the landlord charging full market rent ? Its often the case the landlord would have over looked issues with the place which were the tenants issue to resolve if they were there for a long time.

ted1

MILF wrote: »

can you argue that no notice was given when the tenant dies? Honestly?

A landlord can,that's why it might be better off left alone

antoinolachtnai

ted1 wrote: »

A landlord can,that's why it might be better off left alone

I am very sorry to hear of your sad loss.

You have a lot of problems with taking a case. There is a shortage of evidence for one thing, because your main witness cannot appear and your opinion obviously knows this. Even if you had the evidence you needed you might not have a happy outcome. In the worst case you could actually end up owing more money to the landlord.

Even if you did get an order I think you would have difficulty collecting upon it. It would certainly be legally possible, but it would not be cost effective. I don't think the landlord would be entitled to just pay out even if he wanted to. There would be a legal rigmarole to confirm that you were entitled to claim the money on behalf of his estate.

This could well entail legal expenses that would not be cost effective.

You would need to consider the wishes of allthe beneficiaries of the will at some level if there are other people involved. After all, they would be taking part of the risk in any litigation.

Finally it might be relevant to consider whether the deceased would have been in favour of this course of action.

There is a lot to think about and no doubt there are many other issues with the deceased' estate and they may be more worthy of time and attention.

As far as I know, there is no legal time limit on PRTB action so this is something you can take your time to decide upon. (But it would be sensible to check on this for yourself.)

Again I am very sorry for your loss.

ted1

Has the will bring sorted , who is the executer of the will ? Can the landlord even entertain a conversation with you