Landlord problem....,what else??

Bitsie

can we end it here folks please!!! start your own thread if you want

shoegirl

This is a common problem. Basically, unless you have an individual lease with the landlord, then the full rent will be payable. Generally landlords don't lease out rooms indivudually, they rent out the whole house and expect people to either stay the course on the lease or deal with moving in/moving out problems themselves. This is becoming pretty contenious these days as there is an increasing glut on the market of HMOs (houses in multiple occupation). You can try to negotiate with the landlord to see if he will reduce the rent or help in finding somebody to replace the old tenant. The demand to look for claim rent relief is usually an excellent move - it really does give you one over on your landlord and I find with Ireland's amateur landlord class paying tax is only about 50% likely. (Forget it if your landlord rents out multiple houses or flats - he/she is a lot more likely to be paying tax and so this won't work). Landlords don't mess around with tenants if they know their tenant knows or suspects they are not paying tax on the rental income.

However, really you need to be careful when renting that you rent with people who are likely to stay. I made this mistake 6 years ago and ended up leaving a flat after less than a year because 3 co-tenants moved out in the space of a year and I just got sick of having to find new tenants (and sometimes paying full whack rent in the meantime). It might seem more expensive to live alone or with just 1 person, but it will save you time and hassle. It may be worth being clear to prospective co-tenants that you want somebody who is likely to stay a year minimum - or even draw up a co-tenancy agreement. Also I find a lot of people are all to willing to jump ship at almost no notice and leave you to pick up the pieces.

Unfortunately you are probably going to have to find somebody else, or up your share of the rent. If the place is nice, not too expensive and the other tenant or tenants are good ones, I'd suggest you are better off staying put and paying more to share with fewer. Turn the spare room into an office or a gym or something.

LegacyUser

I think you are all being a little hard on this guy. He is looking for advise, thats all. I once moved into a shared house with strangers. A week after I moved in, the council stopped collecting the rubbish, because they had not been paid for 4 years (since wheelie bins were brought on the scene). The following week, the guy who had the ESB bill in his name moved out and a new person rang the ESB with a meter reading to transfer the account!! It appeared ESB had underestimated by over 300 euro! That was a total of 1200 euro and we were expected to pay.

Here are some questions you should ask before moving into a shared house.
See how far you get

1. Have you paid ESB (estimated or non-estimated bill)
2. Have you paid you bin charges
3. Are any of you moving out in the next few months
4. Is there a TV license
5. Can I see the lease
6. Smelly feet anyone?

In most cases .. they'd show you the door before you moved in with all those questions. Sometimes you walk into situations you would handle better on your own.

My point is sharing a house with strangers involves a LOT of give and take. In my case above, the landlord was good enough to cover the bin and ESB!

IMO, you should ask about the lease and where you stand when moving in. Easier said than done. I was once almost stung by a girl who said "You have to find someone to move in in order to get your deposit back". Not a mention of it when she took the deposit off me in the first place!!

B