rental property missing basic appliances despite landlords promise to provide them

DamoKen

Hi, just wondering if anyone knows the authority to report this to and what type of comeback a person would have.
A colleague told me about this in work today. Firstly my colleague is married and has 2 children, he's only been in Ireland for 2 years I think, originally from India so is not that familiar with what rights he has in this situation.

Basically after looking through daft for houses to rent he settled on a fully furnished house on the southside with all mod cons. When he went to view the property there was no fridge, cooker, washing machine etc.., all the basic necessities you would expect to find in a furnished rented property. All of these had been included in the ad on daft so my colleague asked where were they. He was assured that all applicances would be delievered and installed at no cost to him within the first week of his moving in.

The location, price and nearby facilities were good so my colleague signed a rental agreement. After moving in he called and was told the applicances would be arriving within the next few days. By the next week no sign of the appliances so he called the landlord again and this time was told no such agreement was ever reached and it is up to him to provide them.

Frankly I'm sickened at the duplicity of the landlord, especially as my colleague has a family with young children that the landlord is aware of. So basically I am wondering is there a government authority that he can go to about this, what are his rights here?

Cheers

Sponge Bob

print out ad from daft for starters and ensure others print it out and put in in envelopes and post them to a solicitor for safekeeping (everybody sign across the seal)

all mod cons means cooker fridge and washing machine, I would leave drier and dishwasher out of it for the moment

then write letter from solicitor demanding the mods be installed within 3 days or the contract is totally void , solicitor has sealed envelopes

if the landlord tries to sue the envelopes must be opened and affadavits written for the defence with exhibits attached

the landlord is scum and can only get worse

DamoKen

Sponge Bob wrote:

print out ad from daft for starters and ensure others print it out and put in in envelopes and post them to a solicitor for safekeeping (everybody sign across the seal)

all mod cons means cooker fridge and washing machine, I would leave drier and dishwasher out of it for the moment

then write letter from solicitor demanding the mods be installed within 3 days or the contract is totally void , solicitor has sealed envelopes

if the landlord tries to sue the envelopes must be opened and affadavits written for the defence with exhibits attached

the landlord is scum and can only get worse

yeah he still has the ad, printed out I think. Personally I think he should just get out, as you say the landlord is scum and will get worse, I can only imagine what will happen if there were any other problems such as a leak in the attic, accusing the tenant of causing the damage and demanding compensation would be a likely outcome though.
However as he has a young family he can't just get up and go no matter how difficult the living arrangement.
I'll pass the advice about the solicitor on and see where he goes from there. I was hoping though there is some letting authority that he could also seek advice from, surely there is some government agency that a tenant with a grievance can approach?

MorningStar

DamoKen wrote:

Frankly I'm sickened at the duplicity of the landlord, especially as my colleague has a family with young children that the landlord is aware of. So basically I am wondering is there a government authority that he can go to about this, what are his rights here?

Now as any normal person will tell you getting good delivered can be a nightmare. Now a landlord is no differnt from most people and has to rely on the services of others. THe failure to have the appliance is certainly the landlords responsibility but it may be unintentional in fact this is the most reasonable assumption rather than the landlord planned to let the place without these appliances.
I think going down the solicitor route is not worth it. Check the lease and rent book and file a cliam in court (can't remember which but any free advise service such as www.threshold.ie will tell you). If they only have a verbal agreement on the appliances then they can't really do much as both the lease is the actual agreement.
By the time it gets to court it will have been solved anyway so there really isn't any point either way.

I am a landlord so I don't want to be accused of bias but the legal route is really pointless no matter who you are if you want quick results.

Obviously appliance should be there by our normal standards but equally nobody should move into a place without them. THe landlord could claim they agreed to get the appliances themselves if they signed an agreement that said theat what can you do. The whole poormans copyright has little value as far as I know. I can doctor any web page and print it out for example.

DamoKen

MorningStar wrote:

Now as any normal person will tell you getting good delivered can be a nightmare. Now a landlord is no differnt from most people and has to rely on the services of others. THe failure to have the appliance is certainly the landlords responsibility but it may be unintentional in fact this is the most reasonable assumption rather than the landlord planned to let the place without these appliances.
I think going down the solicitor route is not worth it. Check the lease and rent book and file a cliam in court (can't remember which but any free advise service such as www.threshold will tell you). If they only have a verbal agreement on the appliances then they can't really do much as both the lease is the actual agreement.
By the time it gets to court it will have been solved anyway so there really isn't any point either way.

I am a landlord so I don't want to be accused of bias but the legal route is really pointless no matter who you are if you want quick results.

Obviously appliance should be there by our normal standards but equally nobody should move into a place without them. THe landlord could claim they agreed to get the appliances themselves if they signed an agreement that said theat what can you do. The whole poormans copyright has little value as far as I know. I can doctor any web page and print it out for example.

cheers for the link MorningStar, passed it on. I'd think the same on the legal route as not going to do him much good in the short term which is why I'd also advise him to get out. As far as unintentional on the landlords part I don't think he picked it up wrong, the landlord clearly agreed not once but twice to provide the appliances. Now that I think of it I think as he paid his first months rent and deposit by cheque perhaps the landlord didn't want him to cancel until they'd cleared in his account?
No matter, within a week the landlord had done a complete u-turn on what he'd agreed to. I realise it was a verbal agreement and unfortunately household contents are not in the lease, been a few years since I rented myself but I'm sure I always recieved a list of contents? Anyway, I personally would not wish to deal further with a landlord like this, not tarring all landlords (I have been one myself a few times), but it takes all kinds, and this guy from what I've been told does not strike me as the most decent in the world.

gibo_ie

As a landlord i agree with MorningStar, legal route is a waste of time, however they should contact the Residency Board (be paitent they will eventually answer phone!) www.prtb.ie
All andlords must by law register the tenancy, if not they face a 3k fine so maybe get your mate to mention this to him/her and see how fast it gets resolved!!!
Also check on lease/contract to see full list of applliances said to be included as this is what matters not really the website (this will be seen as false advertising maybe but a bit of a grey area).

Also Threshold are great.

Good Luck,
M

DamoKen

gibo_ie wrote:

As a landlord i agree with MorningStar, legal route is a waste of time, however they should contact the Residency Board (be paitent they will eventually answer phone!) www.prtb.ie
All andlords must by law register the tenancy, if not they face a 3k fine so maybe get your mate to mention this to him/her and see how fast it gets resolved!!!
Also check on lease/contract to see full list of applliances said to be included as this is what matters not really the website (this will be seen as false advertising maybe but a bit of a grey area).

Also Threshold are great.

Good Luck,
M

cheers Gibo, sent on the details. out of here for the day now so won't be able to answer any more but anymore advice or links keep 'em coming!

Cheers guys

D

MorningStar

DamoKen wrote:

cheers for the link MorningStar, passed it on. I'd think the same on the legal route as not going to do him much good in the short term which is why I'd also advise him to get out. As far as unintentional on the landlords part I don't think he picked it up wrong, the landlord clearly agreed not once but twice to provide the appliances. Now that I think of it I think as he paid his first months rent and deposit by cheque perhaps the landlord didn't want him to cancel until they'd cleared in his account?
No matter, within a week the landlord had done a complete u-turn on what he'd agreed to. I realise it was a verbal agreement and unfortunately household contents are not in the lease, been a few years since I rented myself but I'm sure I always recieved a list of contents? Anyway, I personally would not wish to deal further with a landlord like this, not tarring all landlords (I have been one myself a few times), but it takes all kinds, and this guy from what I've been told does not strike me as the most decent in the world.

I am bit confused now. Is the landlord refusing to get the appliances now or just taking his time? I was under the impression he was getting them but the just didn't arrive yet.
It seems extremley unlikely a landlord would annoy somebody in his property this much intentionally. It just is too risky for damage to the property. I get there are stupid people about but that seems extreme.
Most landlords don't bother with a list of contents.
There reallly is little advantage to a landlord to steal a deposit and a months rent, again I guess somebody could do it but very unlikely they would want to .

When I said the land lord did it "unintentionally" I meant leaving them with out appliance. I doubt anybody would intentionally rent a place without intending to get appliances. I could see somebody taking their time but most likely I can see failure to deliver goods as the casue. I am not defening the landlord as such just what seems to be logical rather than not.

Sponge Bob

MorningStar wrote:

I am bit confused now. Is the landlord refusing to get the appliances now or just taking his time?

He is refusing to get them after having advertised and let a property with "All Mod Cons" .

No fridge or cooker or washing machine is not "All Mod Cons" nowadays .

Victor

Its possible that the ad. was simply copied straight across from another ad. on the website, without the mod cons thing changed. In such a case, its either false advertising or the contract fails because there is no consensus ad idem.



Does it have indoor plumbing? Door locks? Electricity?