Can I get my deposit back?

NervousNude

I'm currently living in a house with no lease. Noone in the house has a lease. It's managed by a letting company who 'think' that one guy has signed a lease (this is their presumption). Noone has seen this lease. When I moved in I paid my deposit to the guy who moved out.

I now want to move out. Because demand is so low at the moment, there's no guarantee that we'll find someone to fill my room (and pay me my deposit back). The letting agency have no record of me paying them a deposit, as it would have been paid by whoever originally signed the lease (now long gone). The letting agency are very difficult to deal with, and even more so recently. I've been trying to get them to paint the house for about six months now as it hasn't been painted in over 5 years (or more, that's how long my housemate has lived there) and they're point blank refusing. If I approach them to get my deposit back, do I have any rights to it?

ntlbell

if you signed nothing i don't see why you would have a problem.

sorry, just realised you gave the deposit to the guy leaving.

ops.

Xiney

assuming you have no receipt... you're out of luck probably.

I'd chalk it up as an expensive learning experience.

Happy Eater

Presumably there was an original deposit paid to the letting agent on first rental of the house. That has at least some value if this lease were to be discontinued.

Recommend getting the guys together in the house, going to the letting agent and telling them you want to terminate the current lease and at the same time renegotiate a new lease (at lower rents) with a new deposit level. This facilitates getting someone in for your room as rent will be more realistic. Unless the agent is really useless they will jump at this as otherwise the place will remain vacant. In that case send the landlord a letter directly who will definintely jump at it!!!

Otherwise you could end up in a form of Pyramid scheme of people leaving selling on a deposit which will never materialise. Think they can put you in prison for that

NervousNude

Happy Eater wrote: »

Presumably there was an original deposit paid to the letting agent on first rental of the house. That has at least some value if this lease were to be discontinued.

Recommend getting the guys together in the house, going to the letting agent and telling them you want to terminate the current lease and at the same time renegotiate a new lease (at lower rents) with a new deposit level. This facilitates getting someone in for your room as rent will be more realistic. Unless the agent is really useless they will jump at this as otherwise the place will remain vacant. In that case send the landlord a letter directly who will definintely jump at it!!!

Otherwise you could end up in a form of Pyramid scheme of people leaving selling on a deposit which will never materialise. Think they can put you in prison for that

This is really good advice, unfortunately I don't think any of my housemates actually want a lease. Is it possible/common to get an open ended lease? This might be an option if all we had to do is give a months notice. Also, is it common practice to rent a house by room or as a whole? I know for sure that noone will want to take on the responsibility of the whole house.

I know what you mean about the Pyramid scheme - I've seen a lot of places where the deposit is significantly higher than a months rent. And this was before rents started dropping. There's nothing to stop people tagging an extra hundred euro onto the deposit and pocketing it.

Our rent is actually very cheap for the area (at least €100 below average).

Victor

Are you registered with the PRTB?

Tell them you want your money back or they'll have a PRTB case to deal with.

Agent J

Victor wrote: »

Are you registered with the PRTB?

Tell them you want your money back or they'll have a PRTB case to deal with.

+1.

If they didnt register you as a new tenant with the prtb when you moved in its the landlords problem(management company by proxy).

Wouldnt hurt to know they can be fined up to 5k for not registering you. Cheaper to give you your deposit back.

NervousNude

I didn't know about the PRTB thing at all. I definitely won't be registered as they know nothing about me. I did, however, inform them that I'd moved in but no more was done about it.

That's a great bargaining tool. Cheers!

D3PO

Victor wrote: »

Are you registered with the PRTB?

Tell them you want your money back or they'll have a PRTB case to deal with.

seriously dont be so stupid or nieve.

He/she never paid the letting company a deposit so he / she cannot demand a return of a deposit. End of story.

paying a deposit to another tennant is just a no no. Themoney is gone, learn from the experience.

The PRTB cant do anything about this, coming on here and posting that kind of advise shows you have obvously never dealt with the PRTB and quite franky dont know what your talking about.