Difficult Rental Situation

Rb

Hi All,

Thought I'd come here for some advice on a situation myself and the girlfriend are confronted with at the moment.

We're currently renting a 3-bed semi, our lease is up in November.

Last October we took on a new housemate. When doing the viewings, we told all prospective housemates that we were looking for someone to stay until the end of the lease at least, and had advertised it as 12 months online. Since we were already a month or so into the lease, we didn't offer a written lease and agreed orally with the current housemate the terms (rent, bills etc) and that he'd be here until November 09.

At the end of May he announced he was leaving and that he'd be gone at the end of the June which has really caused problems for us.

He was paying around e600 per month for a double en suite, which at the time was the standard for the area. However, there is absolutely no way we will get someone in for e600 now, as the rental prices have dropped significantly. As we're locked into a 12 month lease with the landlord, we haven't brought up the subject of a rent decrease as of yet as we were doing fine as is and had planned to in November.

The rent for the house is roughly e1600 per month.

With regards to this, what is our best way forward? If we ask for a decrease and the landlord says no, what are our options?

The housemate also kept his work gear in one of the spare rooms in the house and currently there is mud walked into the carpets that has yet to be cleaned, we don't go in there often so only noticed it now. Since his announcement,he hasn't made a single effort to clean anything in the house despite knowing we have to show it soon to get someone in, and has yet to allow us into his room for inspection/to take photos of.

Bills are due this month, so given everything are we still expected to give him his full deposit (minus final month bills)?

As I said, we're not too sure of our options here and are pretty stuck as a consequence, so all advice is much appreciated.

Thanks.

SoupyNorman

I think first off you need to put any issues of rental values to one side as these are market forces at play and nothing your housemate is liable for.


I had a similar scenario last year but we put the person in question on the lease , the person did not provide a months notice (8days before the rent was due in fact) so that person did not get their deposit back off me.

Because the agreement was oral then your housemate can leave when they choose, they may have a moral obligation but no legal. Seems to me he has done the decent thing in giving you a months notice so in return the fair thing to do is return his deposit (-)bills.

Your best bet is to try get a rent reduction and sublet the room until the end of the lease, you cant really blame the housemate for your predicament as you engineered it really as there are more grey areas in the rental world the the minimalist theme in boards.ie and more so when the person is not on the lease, what Ive learned is people will always let you down so me and my GF just rent by ourselves, it's so much simpler.

Victor

Rent out both rooms?

I'm not sure ther eis much you can hold him to besides making sure he gives proper notice, pays the bills and leaves the palce no worse than he got it.

the_syco

Rb wrote: »

He was paying around e600 per month for a double en suite, which at the time was the standard for the area. However, there is absolutely no way we will get someone in for e600 now, as the rental prices have dropped significantly. As we're locked into a 12 month lease with the landlord, we haven't brought up the subject of a rent decrease as of yet as we were doing fine as is and had planned to in November.

The rent for the house is roughly e1600 per month.

Right, so he was paying 600 of 1600, so you were paying 1000? Well, if you want, try moving into the double ensuite, and renting out the two smaller rooms for 250 - 300 each?

irlrobins

As others have said:

a) Renter didn't sign a lease so he's entitled to leave whenever he wants. At least he did give you notice.
b) For this reason you will have to return deposit, minus any bills and cleaning costs.
c) You and Pythia are liable for the full cost of the house (€1600), but even if you rent the rooms for less that you would like, it's still better than having to pay the full rent yourselves.
d) As for looking for a rent decrease, as you're in a lease the landlord has no obligation to lower the rent until the lease comes up for renewal in Nov.

Rb

SoupyNorman wrote: »

what Ive learned is people will always let you down so me and my GF just rent by ourselves, it's so much simpler.

Yeah, this is our second time being let down by a housemate and we're looking at our options come November. The choice of either not having something formal and running the risk of being screwed, or having something formal and allowing a stranger some control our living space, isn't great.
Unfortunately I absolutely despise apartments which severely limits our options with regards to living by ourselves.

Cheers for the advice though.

Syco, that may certainly be a good option going forward as it is only until November.

We'll have to look into the cost of cleaning the carpet, which I don't think myself and my girlfriend are liable for as we allowed him put his gear there as a favour and on the condition that it was kept clean.

Thankfully the landlord has been relatively good to us in the past and we've been trouble fee tenants, so hopefully she does us a favour and drops the rent.

If not, I guess her house will be on the market in November.