Landlord doesn't respond to anything I say

ninjarambohd

Hi, my landlord doesn't respond to anything I say. Some parts of the house needs repair and I've said it so many times to the agent but the landlord doesn't seem to care. What should I do. I have no contact details of him at all.

Claw Hammer

You need to put your complaints in writing. If you put them in writing and they haven't been attended to complain to
1. The local authority environmental health officer.
2. The RTB.

Graham

Mod Note

Post hinting at withholding rent deleted.

Folks, withholding rent is not the solution here. It would likely result in the OP risking their tenancy so please don't suggest it.

Caliden

Send it registered post so there's no ambiguity around the letter being delivered or not.

10pennymixup

What are the repairs needed?

Catlady76

My landlord was like this but I did have her phone number but when you would call her she would moan that she had to send someone down in the end we just fixed things ourselves and told her we were taking it out of the rent which she moaned also about too. If you do fix the issues keep receipts for anything paid out and also any correspondence you have with the agents if all else fails report to the RTB and local council as they work in conjunction with each other.

Fol20

Catlady76 wrote: »

My landlord was like this but I did have her phone number but when you would call her she would moan that she had to send someone down in the end we just fixed things ourselves and told her we were taking it out of the rent which she moaned also about too. If you do fix the issues keep receipts for anything paid out and also any correspondence you have with the agents if all else fails report to the RTB and local council as they work in conjunction with each other.

Do not threaten to withhold rent as mod mentioned you may jeopardize your tenancy. I would also not repair anything with your own money without written express permission from your ll. Some may allow it, some may not. Personally from a ll point of view unless I know the tenant for year ands trust them, I would never allow them to buy anything as the system can be abused. Any problems that are not being dealt with in a time manor should be dealt with solely by RTB. If your building a case get everything in writing for proof

Catlady76

Fol20 wrote: »

Do not threaten to withhold rent as mod mentioned you may jeopardize your tenancy. I would also not repair anything with your own money without written express permission from your ll. Some may allow it, some may not. Personally from a ll point of view unless I know the tenant for year ands trust them, I would never allow them to buy anything as the system can be abused. Any problems that are not being dealt with in a time manor should be dealt with solely by RTB. If your building a case get everything in writing for proof

To me it depends on the repairs that need doing if you have something urgent and your LL is not responding then you need to sort it yourself ex. Back door lock broke, rang LL three times she said she will get someone down when she can but the door wont lock so you have to sleep in an unsecure house then I would fix it and that is exactly what I did, ex. 2 we had 2 leaks in the house one from the shower as it was not sealed correctly and one from washing machine not plumbed in right, called LL 2 times again I will send someone down when I can which generally meant 3-4 days all the while water all over the place so I got it done myself and gave her receipts and it was lucky I did as the water had built up in the bottom of the shower and the ceiling was curving down as it was full with water in one section.
I was a LL myself and also a renter and I think some LL in Ireland really need to buck up and cop on and realise you have a good tenant and cannot just let things build up and then have ppl go to the RTB.

Graham

Catlady76 wrote: »

To me it depends on the repairs that need doing

There is no ambiguity here, a tenant witholding rent puts their tenancy at risk.

Fol20

Catlady76 wrote: »

To me it depends on the repairs that need doing if you have something urgent and your LL is not responding then you need to sort it yourself ex. Back door lock broke, rang LL three times she said she will get someone down when she can but the door wont lock so you have to sleep in an unsecure house then I would fix it and that is exactly what I did, ex. 2 we had 2 leaks in the house one from the shower as it was not sealed correctly and one from washing machine not plumbed in right, called LL 2 times again I will send someone down when I can which generally meant 3-4 days all the while water all over the place so I got it done myself and gave her receipts and it was lucky I did as the water had built up in the bottom of the shower and the ceiling was curving down as it was full with water in one section.
I was a LL myself and also a renter and I think some LL in Ireland really need to buck up and cop on and realise you have a good tenant and cannot just let things build up and then have ppl go to the RTB.

I understand what your saying and it most cases it can be genuine however from my own perspective Iv had some tenants that are quite demanding for the smallest of things and if I allowed them open ended cheque book to fix stuff. It could cost me a fortune. Secondly I would always use the same trademens so I know what they are like and what their costs are like. If an unknown tradesman comes into the mix or some cowboy they could do more damage than good to something and since you don’t own it, they could actually come after you for damages. Lastly I would check out threshold or small/medium and large issues and expected timeframes to fix an issue. If more damage is caused to the property to their lack of speed to fix something it’s completely on them to fix that as well as you have already brought it to their attention.i have personally declined receipts tenants have given me as they didn’t get my permission first. I would actually be insulted if they came to me retaining money from deposit or expecting me to pay for something without my permission. It like a child taking 50 out of your wallet. Buying some sweats and then coming to the parent later telling them I thought you would be ok

the_syco

ninjarambohd; Your post doesn't make much sense. You say "I have no contact details of him at all", but you also state that "my landlord doesn't respond to anything I say".

Because of this, I assume that you are telling the agent the issues, and the agent is saying that they are referring the issue to the landlord? I'm assuming from lack of contact details, that you paid the deposit and rent to the agent, thus perhaps inform the agent that unless they either fix the issues, or give you the landlords contact details, that you will bring an PRTB case against them.

Catlady76 wrote: »

told her we were taking it out of the rent

A professional landlord will demand full rent, or give you 14 days notice to pay it, and perhaps bring you to the PTRB to reclaim any costs to correctly fix the property if the person you got to do the job didn't do it correctly.

Catlady76 wrote: »

called LL 2 times again I will send someone down when I can which generally meant 3-4 days

You mention a few days; it can depend on when the trades-person that the LL uses is available to do the work. You can pay for it yourself, but don't think that this somehow gives you any right to withhold rent.

Browney7

the_syco wrote: »

ninjarambohd; Your post doesn't make much sense. You say "I have no contact details of him at all", but you also state that "my landlord doesn't respond to anything I say".

Because of this, I assume that you are telling the agent the issues, and the agent is saying that they are referring the issue to the landlord? I'm assuming from lack of contact details, that you paid the deposit and rent to the agent, thus perhaps inform the agent that unless they either fix the issues, or give you the landlords contact details, that you will bring an PRTB case against them.


A professional landlord will demand full rent, or give you 14 days notice to pay it, and perhaps bring you to the PTRB to reclaim any costs to correctly fix the property if the person you got to do the job didn't do it correctly.


You mention a few days; it can depend on when the trades-person that the LL uses is available to do the work. You can pay for it yourself, but don't think that this somehow gives you any right to withhold rent.

A professional landlord would organise necessary repairs and maintenance in a timely manner too.

If the repair is the heating in the middle of winter or a water pump or shower or oven, if it wasn't assessed within a few days it's taking the piss and the tenant would be well placed to take action to remedy the situation.

This forum is hilarious sometimes. You have people saying if you have "cheap" rent to not bother the landlord and do every repair yet if it's not perfect expect a bill from the LL to remedy it

Fol20

Browney7 wrote: »

A professional landlord would organise necessary repairs and maintenance in a timely manner too.

If the repair is the heating in the middle of winter or a water pump or shower or oven, if it wasn't assessed within a few days it's taking the piss and the tenant would be well placed to take action to remedy the situation.

This forum is hilarious sometimes. You have people saying if you have "cheap" rent to not bother the landlord and do every repair yet if it's not perfect expect a bill from the LL to remedy it

If you have cheap rent. Their not saying not to bother. They are just taking a pragmatic approach. You don’t want to rock the bus if your getting a good deal. The minute you start calling the ll often, they may have second thoughts of giving you a good deal and may find a way to make it worth their while for the work your forcing them to do. In my case I have tenants that are 40pc under market rent but have been nice and easy to deal with so I’m ok with it while another has been calling me constantly every month about something. You better believe I will increase the second tenants rent to market rate once the 2 year mark expires since their outside the rpz. If the heating is broken in winter, yes call your tenant, if a light bulb needs to be change or if you expect someone to get a trademen on a Sunday the same day you informed him of the problem, especially if it’s not serious, that’s a different story

the_syco

Browney7 wrote: »

A professional landlord would organise necessary repairs and maintenance in a timely manner too.

Timely manner is usually within a week. OP has said that it it'd be under a week before the LL would get someone.

Browney7 wrote: »

within a few days

It really comes down to what people call "timely".

Browney7 wrote: »

it's not perfect expect a bill from the LL to remedy it

If a cowboy f**ks up your house with a quick fix that'll cause issues later on; would you ignore it and continue on?

NinetyTwoTeam

Graham wrote: »

There is no ambiguity here, a tenant witholding rent puts their tenancy at risk.

Sure, although any time I've had a useless landlord who wouldn't make requested repairs, it was the only thing that ever worked to get them to pull the finger out, because all they care about is money. Some of them don't pass any heed until the check doesn't come in.

Not advising anyone to do this, just reporting my own experience.

Sending a letter saying you want the repairs completed and if they're not done then you will get them done yourself and subtract the amount from the rent may seem like a better option but I also have done this and sometimes it's fine but another time I had the agent give out to me that I didn't ring enough different p
eople to price compare and didn't advise him of the cost before booking the repair man - he wanted me to do his job for him! And this was a plumbing issue that needed to be done quickly as we couldn't use the toilet until it was done.

Claw Hammer

Was the toilet working when you moved into the house?

Diemos

Fol20 wrote: »

If you have cheap rent. Their not saying not to bother. They are just taking a pragmatic approach. You don’t want to rock the bus if your getting a good deal. The minute you start calling the ll often, they may have second thoughts of giving you a good deal and may find a way to make it worth their while for the work your forcing them to do. In my case I have tenants that are 40pc under market rent but have been nice and easy to deal with so I’m ok with it while another has been calling me constantly every month about something. You better believe I will increase the second tenants rent to market rate once the 2 year mark expires since their outside the rpz. If the heating is broken in winter, yes call your tenant, if a light bulb needs to be change or if you expect someone to get a trademen on a Sunday the same day you informed him of the problem, especially if it’s not serious, that’s a different story

Basic cop on.
If every landlord was like you and every tenant was like your first group. Things would be so much easier.

We had a landlord like you some years ago, during the boom and bust. At first as rents rose, we had below market rate but when the market fell ours did not, we were pretty much at market rate by the time we moved out. We paid over 100k in rent over 7 years, in that time the landlord replaced the washing machine. Other than that he never heard from us, got his rent in full every time.

Fol20

Diemos wrote: »

Basic cop on.
If every landlord was like you and every tenant was like your first group. Things would be so much easier.

We had a landlord like you some years ago, during the boom and bust. At first as rents rose, we had below market rate but when the market fell ours did not, we were pretty much at market rate by the time we moved out. We paid over 100k in rent over 7 years, in that time the landlord replaced the washing machine. Other than that he never heard from us, got his rent in full every time.

Exactly. The way i view it is i dont really do inspections either unless one of the neighbours is bringing something like anti social behaviour to my attention. Besides that its the tenants place and for some i may not even talk to them in years as long as rent is being paid on time. This way they have quiet enjoyment of the place, im not stressing doing inspections when tbh i cant really do much until they leave anyway if something is broken and both parties are happy. Some people dont realise it and want everything but dont expect anything in retaliation. Its always a give and take and after learning the hard way, if i dont have a good feeling of a person after they have moved in, i would never give them any lea-way. While the opposite can be given to decent people. Now for example with tenant 2, i will decline everything they are looking for unless it is not meeting minimum standards. The sooner they are gone the better but they still call about new small stuff every month. Its really like playing russian roulette with tenants(same can more than likely be said for ll) 9/10 are decent people but theres always that 1 person that give them a bad name. The one key difference though between ll and tenant though is that tenants have the choice to move out after a year and give the ll the metaphorical middle finger while ll need to bide their time and either wait for them to leave on their own accord or pray they will leave without any hassle after part 4 cycle renews

Claw Hammer

If you do not carry out inspections every 3 months, the RTB will take the view that you are responsible for any damage the tenant has ignored. If a tenant ignores a leak which is causing damage and you try to take the cost of repair from the deposit, forget it.

Fol20

Claw Hammer wrote: »

If you do not carry out inspections every 3 months, the RTB will take the view that you are responsible for any damage the tenant has ignored. If a tenant ignores a leak which is causing damage and you try to take the cost of repair from the deposit, forget it.

Where does it specifically state that in legislation?

Claw Hammer

Fol20 wrote: »

Where does it specifically state that in legislation?

It doesn't specifically say that in legislation. The RTB infer it from the landlord's duty to keep the premises in good repair and the fact that the landlord has a right of inspection with which the tenant must cooperate.