An 'absentee' landlord who hasn't collected rents in three months...

irishbran77

A friend has just told me that she hasn't seen the landlord in about three months of living in her present apartment! Now that her roommate has moved away she's worried that the landlord will suddenly appear and demand three months of rent in one go. It got me wondering if it's the landlord's responsibility to seek out the rent or the tenants? And if my friend contacts the landlord and explains she hasn't paid the entire time she's lived in his property, can he demand a lump sum immediately from her or can she make an arrangement with him about paying an extra amount on top of her rent until the back money is paid? (any sensible man would accept the latter but we're working on a 'worst case basis' here).

Any thoughts from people here will be appreciated.

WIZE

Did they not have to pay the rent into the landlords bank account ?

The_Conductor

Sounds bizarre.....
It is entirely possible that he/she may appear and demand the rent in a lump sum- and your friend needs to ensure that he/she is setting aside sufficient funds to cover the rent, when it inevitably must be paid........

irishbran77

No BVB, and no lease or contract of any kind was signed by my friend. Her roommate may have signed agreements and dealt with the landlord at one point but my friend never paid rent. What complicates the matter is that she is a foreign national with very little english. She didn't understand much of what was said by the roommate when she first moved in, but after that was never asked for money or rent at any time.

The_Conductor

irishbran77 wrote: »

No BVB, and no lease or contract of any kind was signed by my friend. Her roommate may have signed agreements and dealt with the landlord at one point but my friend never paid rent. What complicates the matter is that she is a foreign national with very little english. She didn't understand much of what was said by the roommate when she first moved in, but after that was never asked for money or rent at any time.

You do not need to have a signed lease- for a legal lease to be in place.
If she has not been putting money aside to cover rent- whenever the landlord decides to collect it- she had better start doing so immediately.

The lack of a written lease is *no* excuse for thinking you're getting free accommodation- you have a duty of care for the property- and to pay the rent. If the landlord is indisposed by illness or living abroad- you also have a legal obligation to the Revenue Commissioners- to forward 20% of the gross rent to them on a monthly basis- and the tenant can be chased for this retrospectively- up to 4 years later.

Your friend seriously needs to try to find her landlord- and organise her finances. She is setting herself up for a load of trouble- if she has not been putting the money aside to pay the rent and the Revenue Commissioners.......

WIZE

Tell your roommate to pack up all her stuff and leave the appartment ASAP . The landlord doesn't know she is there and for all she knows there could be alot more rent owed on the Appartment then just 3 months .


Your friend is walking herself into trouble

ztoical

Does she know if the roommate whose moved out has paid any rent to the landlord? Does the Landlord know your friend is even living there? Has she any way to contact the Landlord?

A friend of mine in New York moved into a sublet two years ago and was paying his share of the rent to the guy already living there. After 3 months he came home to find the other guy gone and the next day the landlord arrived with cops in tow....turned out the other guy hadn't paid his rent in months and was pocketing the rent from my friend. Landlord didn't even know my friend was living there. He had to find a new apartment in three days, wasn't fun.

irishbran77

Just an update... she decided to take the decent and honest route (despite my advice) and contacted the landlord (for the first time ever) to settle all bills with him.

Everything went well as she made arrangements to pay several months rent with him on the phone. But later that evening she returned home from work and found her valuables and laptop were removed from the apartment. The gardai came along and said somebody must have let themselves in (no signs of forced entry) and it was probably the landlord but after he denied it they said they couldn't do anything else!

No good deed goes unpunished I suppose...

kippy

This is getting strangerer and strangerer...........

Anyone with a key to the apt could have come in and taken the stuff, not just the landlord,
however based on what you've said I would be advising your friend to look for another place....

irishbran77

Thanks Kippy, but the only other person to have keys to the apartment left the country a while ago and the landlord was only contacted a few hours before the stuff went missing. Also he lives very close to her place. It would be an amazing coincidence if it wasn't the landlord who took the valuables.

But yeah, I think she should leave the place as soon as she can.

Kipperhell

irishbran77 wrote: »

Thanks Kippy, but the only other person to have keys to the apartment left the country a while ago and the landlord was only contacted a few hours before the stuff went missing. Also he lives very close to her place. It would be an amazing coincidence if it wasn't the landlord who took the valuables.

But yeah, I think she should leave the place as soon as she can.

The person who left could easily have given the keys to somebody else and the rest being a coincident. There is nothing "amazing" about by being a coincident;)

I was accused of stealing a tenants valuables once and cutting off power to a place. It turned out it was a friend of the tenant who had stolen a set of keys but the tenant was sure it was me barely apologising when the truth came out. I was best for all that he moved out as trust was gone.

doctor evil

What a horrible thing to happen. Were locks changed when the other one moved out?