Price hiked for this month, help please, where do I stand?

D

For the last two months I have been living in a house in Beaumont, paying €280 for a box room. Last month some guys left and were replaced. Overall, all the rooms are occupied, but there are now only 4 people, when there used to be 5. When i took the room it was advertised on daft as a room for rent. Now however, I've just found out that the house is for rent as a unit. Now my rent that I'm expected to pay has jumped to €350 from €280. I can't afford this. There was no mention of this increase when the others moved out.
I assumed that the rent was by room as €280 is roughly the price of a box room.
I am planning to talk to the land lady about this, and plan to tell her:

"I'm sorry I can't afford to live here for €350, I will pay you the €280 for this month and move out at the end of it."

Does this sound reasonable? Do I have a leg to stand on? I only have a verbal aggreement, nothing in writing, and no deposit paid. I do not want to just cut and leave, I'd like to find a reasonable solution for both of us.

MorningStar

D wrote:

"I'm sorry I can't afford to live here for €350, I will pay you the €280 for this month and move out at the end of it."

Does this sound reasonable? Do I have a leg to stand on? I only have a verbal aggreement, nothing in writing, and no deposit paid. I do not want to just cut and leave, I'd like to find a reasonable solution for both of us.

No it does not sound reasonable from my view and I am a landlord. A house is normally rented as a whole. Even if a room is rented in a shared house it is as part of the shared house and tied to the whole unit. If the land lady rented the room to you you might have point but no deposit sounds very strange. No deposit mean little risk to you so you are in a good situation. Not sure of the rent everywhere but that sounds pretty decent at €350 for a room.

D

Well it up till now all of the houses that I have been living in have been rented out on a room basis and never more than €300 a month, yes they were all box rooms. I was not told that the rent was split between all the people, and I think that if the situation was made clear to me at the start then I would not have taken the room, as it is by far the smallest room and another room is ensuite and is still only charged at the same rate that I am.

Victor

D wrote:

I am planning to talk to the land lady about this, and plan to tell her:

"I'm sorry I can't afford to live here for €350, I will pay you the €280 for this month and move out at the end of it."

Does this sound reasonable? Do I have a leg to stand on? I only have a verbal aggreement, nothing in writing, and no deposit paid. I do not want to just cut and leave, I'd like to find a reasonable solution for both of us.

Sounds reasonable.

As I understand it, the landlord has very little comeback against you, with you not having signed anything.

Were the ones that moved out sharing a room? 4 or 5 rooms total?

D

Yes it was a strange setup, one of the guys was the ex of the girl that he was sharing with, so he moved out and she stayed. So it dropped from 5 people, one room shared, to 4 people, all in their own room.

MorningStar

Who rented the room to you?

Cork

It is a pretty steep hike.

I'd give treshold a ring or the citizens information centre.

Is he on the register of landlords at your local authority?

Victor

Ah, the old "I want a bedroom of my own and want you to pay more on rent and bills to subsidise me" routine. Tell her to pay.

Alternatively strike a balance where because you have the small room you pay less, because she has the big room, she pays more and the rest pay in the middle.

homeOwner

When i took the room it was advertised on daft as a room for rent.

I think this is totally wrong. You rented a ROOM for 280 per month. You did not agree to split the overall cost of the rent. The person who placed the ad did so under false pretences if they really meant that you were to pay a share of the overall rent. I assume what happened was that all was fine until the other person moved out. That is tough on the person who signed the lease. They are in charge of getting another person in to replace and if there are only 4 rooms then they have a problem. The landlord will expect to be paid the full price but if it is is he/she who placed the ad then they have to accept 280 from you. Its not your concern that they lost a tennant.


However, you have no lease and have paid no deposit. I dont know where you stand legally. I would think that as you are already occupying the room and have paid the rent, you have some sort of legal standing. I think you should call threshold to see what that your options are.

MorningStar

Victor wrote:

Ah, the old "I want a bedroom of my own and want you to pay more on rent and bills to subsidise me" routine. Tell her to pay.

Alternatively strike a balance where because you have the small room you pay less, because she has the big room, she pays more and the rest pay in the middle.

THe important thing to note here is both parties have made mistakes. Houses can't be rented like boarding houses with out have a resident landlord. Unless the room is self sufficent you are part of a complete rented household.
It is very important to ask who rented the room out. Because if he was taken a s replacement by the tennats the rent goes up as the house is rented whole. The tennats being at fault.
Either way it has not been stated what the conditions of rent were and people are assuming the tenant is right when he should also been aware of how rent works in a house legally. No rent book or deposit involved indicates a bit of either carelessness or ignorance.
One day people may have a balanced view instead of assuming the landlord actually does all wrong.

THe rent never hikesd it stayed the same the number of people it was broken down to reduced. NOt the landlords fault or issue it is the tennants if thehouse was rented as a whole. If the rooms were rented invidually by the landlord then yes the rent does not go up for this guy

D

Having read all the posts, Morning Star seems to be correct. It was one of the tenants, that rented out the room to me, it is my own fault for not making sure of the rent arrangements, it was also a mistake for him to not make that clear to me. Note to self, always be sure of this in the future. I suppose I will just have to talk to the other housemates and see if they are willing for a redistribution of rent because of the major difference in room sizes. But once again Morning Star is right, the land lady still deserves to get the full rent. If they are not willing then I will have to find another place.

MorningStar

D wrote:

Having read all the posts, Morning Star seems to be correct.

Do you think Victor and Homeowner will also say the same:D
The only person not at fault is the land lady in this case yet everybody was assuming that she was at fault maybe you should consider this in the future on all posts.

I hope you sort out the rent to suit all.

copacetic

MorningStar wrote:

Do you think Victor and Homeowner will also say the same:D
The only person not at fault is the land lady in this case yet everybody was assuming that she was at fault maybe you should consider this in the future on all posts.

I hope you sort out the rent to suit all.

I don't know about that, the landlady clearly has no clue what is going on in her house and has various people living there with no control. Presumably you don't think the situation the OP is in with no deposit, no rent book, no records is one that the landlady has no reponsibility for?
i.e it is the tenant being careless and ignorant as you put it? What about the landlady and her carelessness and ignorance?
She is clearly not entirely repsponsible for the OPs direct problem but it should never have come about.

Anyway on the original topic, the OP sublet from someone in the house, I would make the case for him staying on at his original rent and let whoever he rented from deal with the landlady, if no result move out and give them another room to worry about..

JimmySmith

The house rent is x euro a month to the landlord. That cant be changed. Someone has a lease and they are not telling you about it. They subletted it to you so its not your problem or your landlords.

You rented a room for €280 a month. You should still pay €280 for that room. I agree you should not have to pay. Its up to whoever subletted it to you to pay. If you want to be really nice to them you can discuss basing the rent on room size with the rest of the house.

MorningStar

daveym wrote:

I don't know about that, the landlady clearly has no clue what is going on in her house and has various people living there with no control. Presumably you don't think the situation the OP is in with no deposit, no rent book, no records is one that the landlady has no reponsibility for?
i.e it is the tenant being careless and ignorant as you put it? What about the landlady and her carelessness and ignorance?
She is clearly not entirely repsponsible for the OPs direct problem but it should never have come about.

The bit you missed then was where I said it is important who rented the room. As I suspected this was an important factor that people didn't ask. It is impossible to check on exactly all details of who is in the property. What control to use suggest landlords do, spot checks on who is there? The guy didn't rent from the landlay and the landlady never requested any extra money. The rent remained the same and the lease holder I persume has the rent book. We only know the tenant did have a rent book. The landlady is the only person innocent here

daveym wrote:

Anyway on the original topic, the OP sublet from someone in the house, I would make the case for him staying on at his original rent and let whoever he rented from deal with the landlady, if no result move out and give them another room to worry about..

Yes that should be the case but highly unlikely.

copacetic

MorningStar wrote:

The rent remained the same and the lease holder I persume has the rent book. We only know the tenant did have a rent book.

Lets be realistic the way this house is being run i doubt anybody has a rent book, I'd expect the landlady to take some kind of interest in what's going on in her house and look after people who are subletting. It's a classic landlord not wanting the hassle of knowing what is going on so can't be blamed.

How do we know the tenant did have a rent book? I missed this and don't see it in any of the posts.

Tazz T

I agree.

But the biggest problem here is there is no contract, so basically you OP has to pay or move out.

the_syco

D wrote:

Yes it was a strange setup, one of the guys was the ex of the girl that he was sharing with, so he moved out and she stayed. So it dropped from 5 people, one room shared, to 4 people, all in their own room.

Seems she wants her cake, and eat it. Not only does she wnat to keep the large bedroom, but also doesn't want to pay for it. Keep paying the €280, and tell the landlady that unless you move into a bigger room, you don't see why you should pay more, as when you moved in, you were told that you were paying €280 for the room.

I've stayed in a few houses, where it'd say in the contract that I was paying for the room.

=-=

Also, as your paying no deposit, move. Let them find you not there some day.

MorningStar

daveym wrote:

Lets be realistic the way this house is being run i doubt anybody has a rent book, I'd expect the landlady to take some kind of interest in what's going on in her house and look after people who are subletting. It's a classic landlord not wanting the hassle of knowing what is going on so can't be blamed.

How do we know the tenant did have a rent book? I missed this and don't see it in any of the posts.

Actually I think you might not know how many properties work out to be rented. Many hosues are rented by a group of friends and inevitablly somebody moves out and a repalcement is gotten. Very very normal, no way is this is some extrodinary way to be run. Can you explain what method do you expect the landlord to know? How do you know the landlord did not know a new tenant moved in and was told that the rent is all sorted out?
To assume the intent of somebody is a lot different to assuming they are compling with the law. So it is not a classic anything unless you want to say classic bigotry on your behalf.

D

the_syco wrote:

Also, as your paying no deposit, move. Let them find you not there some day.

Don't want to do that, it would be pretty ****ty to lump the other tenants with my problem.

rambler

The girl with the double room needs to pay the extra, Morning star may be correct in saying that the landlady let the house as a whole and has no way of knowing who is in or out. If that is the case it was her duty to have one person to take charge of the house and to take responsibility for it and in so has to pay the cost should someone not pay up or cause damage to the property. 300 euro is a fair price for a box room, there is cheaper about and with less occupants.

Victor

rambler wrote:

The girl with the double room needs to pay the extra

This is the core of the matter.

A lot of the comments here have been correct, even if they do conflict. It is down to the housemate(s) that have the lease with the landlord to sort it out, in particular the girl with the double room (assuming she is on the lease).

I don't think D has done anything "wrong", merely that he didn't engage in a "to be sure, to be sure, to be sure" exercise

MorningStar

Victor wrote:

I don't think D has done anything "wrong", merely that he didn't engage in a "to be sure, to be sure, to be sure" exercise

Actually I think he did as he didn't ask the basics. Nothing against him but to get your rights you must know them and ask for what you are entitled.

copacetic

MorningStar wrote:

Actually I think you might not know how many properties work out to be rented. Many hosues are rented by a group of friends and inevitablly somebody moves out and a repalcement is gotten. Very very normal, no way is this is some extrodinary way to be run. Can you explain what method do you expect the landlord to know? How do you know the landlord did not know a new tenant moved in and was told that the rent is all sorted out?
To assume the intent of somebody is a lot different to assuming they are compling with the law. So it is not a classic anything unless you want to say classic bigotry on your behalf.

of course I know how it normally works, that's why I said it was a classic case you idiot.

am certainly not a bigot.

MorningStar

daveym wrote:

of course I know how it normally works, that's why I said it was a classic case you idiot.

am certainly not a bigot.

daveym wrote:

It's a classic landlord not wanting the hassle of knowing what is going on so can't be blamed.

This means you have made an assumption on the landlord intent and I call that bigotry based on occupation

copacetic

MorningStar wrote:

This means you have made an assumption on the landlord intent and I call that bigotry based on occupation

you are really gone off the deep end now, so you and all landlords are now victims of discrimination? In spite of the fact that you said yourself this was a very very normal situation but apparently 'very very' has a different meaning to classic in your book. Which I guess is the same book that has me being a bigot for giving my opinion..

Imposter

Have a chat with your housemates and outline your problems.
The options to resolve it are either that everyone pays the same rent and there is some sort of raffle for the rooms or that rents are adjusted based on room size. If you cannot afford to pay what your housemates want then inform them that you are paying the 280 as agreed (assuming that is wht was agreed) for this month and that you are moving out at the end of the month because you can't afford the extra rent. If they don't like that then move immediately.

Victor

The accusation of "bigot", while reasonably correct, is a little harsh.

The accusation of "idiot" was over the line. Banned for a week.

Calina

MorningStar wrote:

Actually I think you might not know how many properties work out to be rented. Many hosues are rented by a group of friends and inevitablly somebody moves out and a repalcement is gotten. Very very normal, no way is this is some extrodinary way to be run. Can you explain what method do you expect the landlord to know?

While not wishing to comment on the current case, I have to say that as a leaseholder, I have always informed my landlords when there is a personnel change in the house along with the name of the new occupant. In the current case I also get the newie to provide a reference for the landlord. I've found that most landlords understand personnel changes and don't have any problems with them.

That being said I have a golden rule about renting and it goes "If there is a couple sharing one room in a rented house, don't move in". Don't care how nice they are, or how long you've known them, the rule of thumb should be "number of tenants = number of rooms".
Also, find out who pays the rent to the landlord - I know no landlord who takes the rent piecemeal so presumably someone handles it and that person is likely to be the leaseholder.
Find out the total rent of the house - the only time I didn't do this I had all sorts of problems with the leaseholder who screwed me over wholesale.

D

Just an update. Origianally the rent was €300 for the box room and €350 for the other rooms, the land-lady put it up by €50 a month so I just suggested that everyone pay the extra €12.50 each. Everyone, except the girl agreed, but we forced her to accept. I don't think that things will change, so I told them that I'd be moving out at the end of the month.