Deposit on rented property and just got council house.

seagull

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

He could have done it during the notice - granted I'm playing devils advocate a bit here.

Would you want people wandering around painting the place while you were still living there? It was enough of a hassle having painters in our own house. If I were renting, I'd need to be on extremely good terms with the landlord to allow the place to be repainted during the notice period, and I suspect that's the view most people will take. While I'm living there, it's my home. It may be your house, and your business, but it's my home. Redecoration and vacant periods between lets should be part of the landlord's business model.

ShaShaBear

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

He could have done it during the notice - granted I'm playing devils advocate a bit here.



Not even hold the house - just compensate the LL accordingly. This HAP scheme is a total disaster anyway so throwing a few more quid at it isn't going to make much difference.

Well he was informed four, almost five weeks ago that she was moving out as soon as the council gave her the keys so he could have started the ball rolling straight away. She's working 9-1 daily, so he would have had the house empty for painting and showing for the past month if he needed it.
But still not debating that the landlord is suffering the most - and the council should be doing something in instances like this. Realistically, I'd say the vast majority of those on rental schemes are in private housing and will have this issue when they move. Perhaps the council or the CWO giving you 75% of your deposit back if you have a letter from the landlord stating how much you gave?

ShaShaBear

seagull wrote: »

Would you want people wandering around painting the place while you were still living there? It was enough of a hassle having painters in our own house. If I were renting, I'd need to be on extremely good terms with the landlord to allow the place to be repainted during the notice period, and I suspect that's the view most people will take. While I'm living there, it's my home. It may be your house, and your business, but it's my home. Redecoration and vacant periods between lets should be part of the landlord's business model.

While I personally agree with you, I know my friend would happily have facilitated this if it guaranteed her deposit back, or at least most of it for that matter!

Samuel T. Cogley

ShaShaBear wrote: »

Well he was informed four, almost five weeks ago that she was moving out as soon as the council gave her the keys so he could have started the ball rolling straight away. She's working 9-1 daily, so he would have had the house empty for painting and showing for the past month if he needed it.
But still not debating that the landlord is suffering the most - and the council should be doing something in instances like this. Realistically, I'd say the vast majority of those on rental schemes are in private housing and will have this issue when they move. Perhaps the council or the CWO giving you 75% of your deposit back if you have a letter from the landlord stating how much you gave?

Dont get me wrong your friend is in an impossible position and I think the LL is being a bit of an asshat but I can see multiple points of view here. As for painting when the tenant is in place, the LL is allowed to do routine maintenance, now doing the whole place, okay I accept that's not routine, but one room if it's in a situation where it's going to (potentially) put people off - that's colourable - if you'll excuse the terrible pun.

ShaShaBear

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Dont get me wrong your friend is in an impossible position and I think the LL is being a bit of an asshat but I can see multiple points of view here. As for painting when the tenant is in place, the LL is allowed to do routine maintenance, now doing the whole place, okay I accept that's not routine, but one room if it's in a situation where it's going to (potentially) put people off - that's colourable - if you'll excuse the terrible pun.

:pac:
Again, we agree 100% here. I do agree the landlord is being left in the lurch. I think the moral of the story is that the council really needs to put something in place to protect landlords. Be it that they take a look at the application and see how much notice to be given (eg in this case, they would know my friend needed to give 56 days) and ensure the move-in date is after that. Or compensate the landlord financially, or perhaps in this particular case, the council could have contacted the landlord to re-assign the lease with another HAP tenant.
But sending letters to private renters relying on a subsidy to pay their rent to say "move on X day, and we're cutting your subsidy" leaves everyone in a pickle!

Meeoow

The LL doesn't sound greedy.
He has a decent house in an in demand area. And even with a 300 euro increase it's still below rent allowance limits.
That sounds very reasonable.

pilly

Meeoow wrote: »

The LL doesn't sound greedy.
He has a decent house in an in demand area. And even with a 300 euro increase it's still below rent allowance limits.
That sounds very reasonable.

Ah sure don't you know now Meeoow, on boards all LL's are thieving scumbags.

ShaShaBear

pilly wrote: »

Ah sure don't you know now Meeoow, on boards all LL's are thieving scumbags.

My landlord is an absolute darling. In fact, we had the opportunity to move twice to a house that met our family's needs in a way this place never will, but we love our landlord so much we didn't want to tell him we were leaving!

ShaShaBear

Just in case anyone was interested, the landlord made the decision not to return any of the deposit on the grounds that people were discouraged from taking the house due to

• Patchy paintwork in the living room
• An issue with the gas (that my friend has documented proof was brought to the attention of the landlord last year)
• And moss growing on the outside decking.

I helped her compile a return email (telling her only to deal in email in case it went to the PRTB), and without any apology or explanation, the full deposit was returned to her last week

Pkiernan

Fantastic country to be on the dole in.

You get to walk away from all your responsibility.

rawn

Pkiernan wrote: »

Fantastic country to be on the dole in.

You get to walk away from all your responsibility.

How does relate to the OP?

Samuel T. Cogley

ShaShaBear wrote: »

Just in case anyone was interested, the landlord made the decision not to return any of the deposit on the grounds that people were discouraged from taking the house due to

• Patchy paintwork in the living room
• An issue with the gas (that my friend has documented proof was brought to the attention of the landlord last year)
• And moss growing on the outside decking.

I helped her compile a return email (telling her only to deal in email in case it went to the PRTB), and without any apology or explanation, the full deposit was returned to her last week

Thanks for the update OP.