Need directions for a question!

Hammer of Thor

Ola!
Yeah I wanna put a question to the masses regarding home rental contracts! Boring, I know, but I wanna put it in the right section and I can't seem to find it! I thought perhaps the consumer section, then I thought maybe that legal section, but I'm not so sure! I have a contract with my landlord, but my issue isn't so much with him, its with the letting agency who originally showed me the house; I was fed a line of bullcrap about the house which swayed me to sign the contract, but now a couple of months I'm very unhappy.

I'm wondering if someone can point me to the right place to give a more detailed description of my woes, and perhaps see if anyone else here has had the same problem!

Thanks in advance,
Thors Mighty Hammer.

Ponster

mod edit : moved to (possibly) the right forum.

Hammer of Thor

Nice one mate, thanks!

Right, basically I signed the contract on my house back in June, two days after having been shown in by a letting agent in Wexford. I asked all the usual questions, but as I was specifically looking for a house with a fireplace, backboiler, and oil central heating these questions were top of the list! I

She assured me that the fireplace did have a working backboiler that would provide hot water and heat the radiators. She also said that the oil central heating was in order, although there was no oil in the tank at the time. Being happy with her reply, and not being able to have any direct contact with the landlord (he lives in Dublin and name and phone no. were not provided until day of signing contract) I was happy to proceed with everything. I had also been told that all Irish and English terrestrial channels were available through the aerial on roof.

4 and a half months later now, the winter nights are setting in and the temp is dropping, brrrrr. I lit the fire last week for the first time, and was genuinely surprised to find the radiators weren't heating up after a few hours. It turns out there's no backboiler. There's fine heat off the fire, so I thought as long as the oil heating would do the other rooms in the house that would be ok. The oil guy arrive last Friday and proceeded to pump €500 worth of oil into the tank, he said that as the burner hadn't been used in awhile he'd happily give it a quick look over. Turns out the burner is knackered. It won't fire up, he says the only thing to do is get it replaced!

This is not the house that I was looking for! That damned agent and her lies! Plus the aerial only picks up RTE 1&2!

Has anyone else been in this situation before? I could tackle the landlord, but in fairness to him he wasn't the one that fed me the crap, so should I take my problem to the letting agency? I'd just like to explore a few avenues before contacting either party! Any help or advice anyone can give would be much appreciatted!

Victor

Talk to the landlord, explain the boiler isn't working and ask can he get it done (be careful that you agree what needs to be done) or alternatively you could deduct it from next month's rent.

Explain to the landlord that the estate agent doesn't seem to have told the truth.

Ultimately, if neither sort it, you can bring a claim to the PRTB or claim the property isn't suited as it isn't up to standard - a working heating system is considered basic.

Hammer of Thor

Thanks for the advice skin, will contact him during week. Should make for a fun phonecall, I get teh impression the man doesn't like parting from his money!