property agency....can they do that??

jokoli

Hi all,

Just looking for advice. Two friends and me signed a lease last week for a house to rent. When we looked at the house the first time we were assured and shown that everything works fine. The House is brand new and the property agency Powell and Long, on Grand Parade in Cork, said that they were government owned. I said to myself great! what are the odds like..... :rolleyes:

We moved into the house 5 days ago, and none of the radiators upstairs is working, the water in the showers does not get warm, and so on.... So far we stayed calm, we contacted them regards those problems and several small issues last week, sent them emails, left voicemails, no response so far.

The rads not working upstairs is a big issue for me, as the rooms have big windows and it get's very cold in the roomsThen last night our neighbour came up, telling us that he has a leek in the house and the floors aren't straight anymore (apparently the apartment was flooded) and he's been chasing up the agency since the middle of December. No response from the agency either :rolleyes:

[I am new to having problems like this, so far I've been blessed with good landlords.
I don't know the Irish law, and the contract is not helpful either.... Does anyone has similar problems? Do you have any advice for us? What are our rights? Can I refuse to pay the rent until the issue is fixed?

Thank you so much in advance for your replies

the groutch

not sure about refusing to pay the rent, but it is a misrepresentation so I'm sure you could seek to get the contract nullified by a circuit court , and then later make a claim for rent paid, inconvenience etc in the small claims

i71jskz5xu42pb

>we contacted them regards those problems and several small issues
>last week, sent them emails, left voicemails, no response so far.
Put it in writing, you'll need a paper trail for later if you want to take it further. Email might be OK but "I left a vmail" is pretty useless.

>What are our rights?
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/housing/renting-a-home
http://www.prtb.ie/

>Can I refuse to pay the rent until the issue is fixed?
Personally this is the route I would be going after a reasonable amount of time. Nothing focuses the mind more than a missing rent cheque.
I'm not saying that is the best route to go legally. But given the choice between that and wasting my time in the courts or the PRTB I know which route I would go.

If you don't pay the rent what is the agency going to do? Getting you out of the house will be a major hassle and even if they do you'd probably find it easy enough to get a new place in the current market (depending on where you live).

dahamsta

Witholding rent is often mentioned in leases as a breach of contract, and that would probably outweigh your breach of contract if it's not written down anywhere. Verbal misrepresentation is hard to prove and "not worth the paper it's written on".

How have you tried to contact them?

adam

jokoli

Thank you so much for your answers!!!!!! Much appreciated!

Yes I tried to contact them several times. After I posted this threat I sent another email and CC'ed all the bosses of the property agency (as I found out there email addresses on the internet) and there you go, the agency contacted me straight away and apologized for there behaviour and also sent a plumber straight away!!!


It's always good to involve superiors...

Cabaal

Can be alright, keep following it up with them until its sorted though