Complicated Rental Situation

Hiddden

The flat I rent is operated by the letting agency who also looks after the maintenance affairs of the apartments. They're quite alright given the Dublin housing market, and the maintenance guy used to be very nice and helpful, such that we got romantically involved very briefly, but he seems to be occupied elsewhere so it fell apart after a short while and he stopped communicating (other than a brief message that wasn't enough for him disappearing for a few days while we were supposed to meet), so I distanced myself, and I thought I don't need to mix this with our tenant-maintenance relationship. In fact right after this happened, I needed his assistance for something, so I contacted the agency and they said they'll get him to do it, but he never did. I had to ring the agency several times before he did the job (didn't need physical presence in the apartment) and passed on the details to the agency so that they pass it on to me, avoiding to contact me directly!

A while later something else broke in the apartment (wear and tear) so I contacted the agency again and they replied saying that he's on vacation and he'll do it once he's back. I gave it another week before following up with the agency and this time the agency didn't bother to reply either (they're busy I guess and sometimes they just ignore emails), I thought instead of pushing it and trying harder and harder to make them do it, I'll hold onto paying the rent so that they follow up with me and I tell them I won't pay until they fix the broken item. My rent was due a couple of weeks ago, and I thought they'll contact me once they notice I haven't transferred the rent, however up until now no one has contacted me.

I'm guessing that since it's a big agency renting a lot of apartments, they haven't noticed that I haven't paid the rent yet, as I've always paid the rent promptly on the day, but I'm also worried that they may put me in trouble by playing around this the way it suits them without contacting me.

Nonetheless I might need the maintenance guy again in the future, and I don't know how to solve this in a civilised way.

What could I do, and what could the agency do in this situation? Could I just move on and pay the rent from the next month onwards skipping this month that I haven't paid? (They'd registered me with RTB after I got my lease).

handlemaster

You cannot withhold rent this is.illegal. They will notice eventually. Your not been honest and this is in effect stealing.

ED E

Withholding is about the worst thing you could do.

Mrs OBumble

Phone them daily when you need something done.

whippet

As you are now in arrears .. things might get decidedly more difficult for you.

You can not with hold rent under any circumstance

FishOnABike

Withholding rent is the worst thing you could do.

As soon as the letting agency notice they can issue a 14 day notice of arrears. If fail to pay all arrears and bring your rent payments up to date in full within 14 days of the notice you can then be issued a 28 day notice of termination, ending your tenancy.

If you need something fixed contact the letting agency / management company. Look for a commitment when it will be done. If it is not done on schedule follow up by phone and writing / email for it to be rescheduled and keep following up until it is done.

If it can't wait until the regular maintenance person is back from holiday ask them to get someone else in to do it - they must have someone available to deal with emergencies.

Lux23

Just pay the rent. And keep calling them until it gets fixed.

Hiddden

FishOnABike wrote: »

Withholding rent is the worst thing you could do.

As soon as the letting agency notice they can issue a 14 day notice of arrears. If fail to pay all arrears and bring your rent payments up to date in full within 14 days of the notice you can then be issued a 28 day notice of termination, ending your tenancy.

If you need something fixed contact the letting agency / management company. Look for a commitment when it will be done. If it is not done on schedule follow up by phone and writing / email for it to be rescheduled and keep following up until it is done.

If it can't wait until the regular maintenance person is back from holiday ask them to get someone else in to do it - they must have someone available to deal with emergencies.

Hmm... so if/when they submit that, I can pay it within 14 days and all will be fine, right? I'm not intending not to pay the rent but I find it interesting that they're piling up so much money that they don't even notice this!

Dial Hard

Hiddden wrote:

Hmm... so if/when they submit that, I can pay it within 14 days and all will be fine, right? I'm not intending not to pay the rent but I find it interesting that they're piling up so much money that they don't even notice this!

You don't kmow that they haven't noticed, they could easily be giving you rope to hang yourself with.

Graham

Mod Note

if you want advice on how to ignore the residential tenancies act you will need to find it somewhere else.

Thread closed.