Qm i entitled to my deposit back?

juanveron45

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this so feel free to move it

I started work in galway last monday and I moved into a place on tuesday, basically its a room in a house.I paid a deposit of 200 euro and a weeks rent of 60 euro and the rent is to be paid on a week to week basis.

I have been deliberating all week whether I made the right decision on taking this job or going back to college to do my degree, I have now decided I will go back to college in cork so I will be moving out of this house in galway.

What I would like to know is if Im entitled to my deposit back, nothing was discussed and signed regarding this, money exchanged hands nothing else?

muppetkiller

Your probably not ..but If you can find someone to take the room then you could get the deposit back of them.

qwytre

As nothing was discussed and no contract then take a reasonable approach to it. You are leaving very early, your housemates have to go and find a new person just after you said you would stay.

So I suggest you pay your rent to cover to the end of the week. After that yes you should get your deposit back but leave a box of cadbury roses of something to say sorry for leaving them in the lurch a bit. Maybe even pay an extra week rent to give them time to find a new housemate.

Yes you should get your deposit back. A deposit is mainly there to cover any damages or sometimes if you leave earlier than you said you would. But nothing was agreed in this case.

Canis Lupus

On the other hand if only money changed hands who's to say they can just say what deposit.....

qwytre

Canis Lupus wrote:

On the other hand if only money changed hands who's to say they can just say what deposit.....

99.9% of people would not try to do that.

BC

No is the short answer.

Its irrelevant that you haven't signed anything. If you have been living there less than 6 months you still have to give 28 days notice. The landlord is entitled to withhold your deposit for non-payment of rent so the landlord could withhold enough of the deposit to cover whatever part of the 28 days you have not paid for.

However, i would try and approach the landlord, explain the situation and see what you can do. You may be able to get someone else in and then get your deposit back.

qwytre

BC wrote:

No is the short answer.

Its irrelevant that you haven't signed anything. If you have been living there less than 6 months you still have to give 28 days notice. The landlord is entitled to withhold your deposit for non-payment of rent so the landlord could withhold enough of the deposit to cover whatever part of the 28 days you have not paid for.

However, i would try and approach the landlord, explain the situation and see what you can do. You may be able to get someone else in and then get your deposit back.

That is untrue. There is no such thing as a 6 month minimum stay. Where did you get this from? There is no minimum 28 day requirement either. It all depends on an agreement between the two parties. There is no agreement here.

The original poster is renting a room in a house, he is not dealing with the landlord.

As there is no agreement then the person can leave any time they want with their full deposit. In most tenancy agreements there is a 28 day notice requirement but there is no such agreement here.

But I think the original poster should be reasonable and maybe pay an extra weeks rent as he\she is living very early.

D'Peoples Voice

The OP should read
http://www.prtb.ie/DownloadDocs/Deposit%20Refund.pdf
and
http://www.prtb.ie/DownloadDocs/Example%20Notice%20Of%20Termination%20Tenancy.pdf

starky

qwytre wrote:

That is untrue. There is no such thing as a 6 month minimum stay. Where did you get this from? There is no minimum 28 day requirement either. It all depends on an agreement between the two parties. There is no agreement here.

The original poster is renting a room in a house, he is not dealing with the landlord.

As there is no agreement then the person can leave any time they want with their full deposit. In most tenancy agreements there is a 28 day notice requirement but there is no such agreement here.

But I think the original poster should be reasonable and maybe pay an extra weeks rent as he\she is living very early.

I agree with you, the usual, “YOUR BREAKING THE LEASE IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD” scaremongering going on here as per usual.

Breaking leases is ok, As long as you conform to its conditions and give ample notice required by the tenancies act. ALWAYS read the entire lease before signing so that there are no silly bits in it about being liable for rent of the full lease agreement period, if there is then do not sign it! Get an amended lease or keep looking for a new place, if a landlord goes to the trouble of writing something like that in a lease the I am fairly sure they will try to get the money off you if you leave. People’s circumstances change, this is a fact of life. Landlords have to deal with this it’s a side effect of what is in general a very profitable business. In an ideal world we would all live for a year in a place and then a year in the next and so on, of course this is fantasy for a great many people.

I get sick of listing to landlords banging on here about keeping deposits over lease breaking, for gods sake if you chose to be a landlord then there are some things that come with the job, finding and replacing tenants is one of them. Irish landlords (well at least some of them, not all I am sure :-)) want tenants that; pay over the odds, never leave, don’t cause any normal ware an tare to the property and never have to contact them, come on landlords this is just not the way life is.

Anyway, juanveron45 in reality if you have not signed anything and there is no tenency agreement in place and the people are reasonable then there is no reason why you should not get your deposit. Worst case should be that you have to wait till they find someone else to move in to pay the 200 that they can give back to you.
That is the casual answer. If you are entitled to it back is another matter, did you get a receipt for the €200? You should cover your back in future and ask for a receipt, or transfer the money on-line so that there is a paper trail. You should always try and sign some kind of an agreement in a situation like this, unless you absolutely trust the people you are moving in with.
The best plan is to suck up to them and apologise and hopefully you should get it back. Really you probably should offer to cover any rent that is left unpaid because of your move, that is what I would do, although I live in Dublin so any rooms I have ever moved out of are always filled the next day so I have never had to in reality.

Good luck with it!

BC

I never mentioned a 6 month minimum stay.

Also, the OP wasn't clear about who he/she paid a deposit to so I made an assumption it was the landlord.

The 6 months i mentioned refers to notice periods. The amount of notice a tenant has to give a landlord and vice versa depends on the length of the tenancy. After 6 months part V applies and so the notice periods increase.
Before 6 months, the notice period is 28 days. In the case of no written lease standard notice periods still apply. This is to protect the tenants. Obviously tenants can end the tenancy but only as long as they give notice. The 28 day rule does apply here but as i said in my post the OP should talk to the landlord as most are reasonable about this sort of thing.

See the residential tenancies act here (page 5) for notice periods:
http://www.prtb.ie/DownloadDocs/Residential%20Tenancies%20Act%202004%20-%20A%20Quick%20Guide.doc

qwytre

BC wrote:

I never mentioned a 6 month minimum stay.

Also, the OP wasn't clear about who he/she paid a deposit to so I made an assumption it was the landlord.

The 6 months i mentioned refers to notice periods. The amount of notice a tenant has to give a landlord and vice versa depends on the length of the tenancy. After 6 months part V applies and so the notice periods increase.
Before 6 months, the notice period is 28 days. In the case of no written lease standard notice periods still apply. This is to protect the tenants. Obviously tenants can end the tenancy but only as long as they give notice. The 28 day rule does apply here but as i said in my post the OP should talk to the landlord as most are reasonable about this sort of thing.

See the residential tenancies act here (page 5) for notice periods:
http://www.prtb.ie/DownloadDocs/Residential%20Tenancies%20Act%202004%20-%20A%20Quick%20Guide.doc

The 28 day rule does NOT apply here as this is not a landlord-tenant agreement or relationship. This sounds like a rent a room agreement or maybe even subletting. In the case of rent-a-room the residential tenancies act does not apply. The OP can leave at anytime with full deposit back as there is no agreement in place.

BC

qwytre wrote:

The 28 day rule does NOT apply here as this is not a landlord-tenant agreement or relationship. This sounds like a rent a room agreement or maybe even subletting. In the case of rent-a-room the residential tenancies act does not apply. The OP can leave at anytime with full deposit back as there is no agreement in place.

As i said in my previous posts as the OP has not clarified i'm assuming tenant/landlord in which case 28 days does apply.

Anyway who says its not a landlord tenant agreement??
All the OP said is that its a house share. I'm in a houseshare but rent and deposits are still between each individual tenant and the landlord.