Please help, renting a terrible house!!

snowflakes

Hi there,
I am a student renting a house in Galway.
In March of 2010, myself and four others paid a deposit of 250 euro each to our landlord. He never asked us to sign a lease. We asked him for a BER rating but this never surfaced.
Everything was easy going and we said we would probably be renting the house from the end of September to sometime in May.

From the moment we moved in there were problems. The house is extremely cold, even with the heating on. There are single radiators in all the rooms and singled glazed windows.

We asked the landlord to fix the washing machine as it does not work at all. This did not happen. We asked the landlord to replace the front door as it was unsecure and water seeps in the door when it rains. This did not happen, although the landlord sent someone out to "look at it". Several appliances such as the toaster, hoover and kettle have stopped working as they are so old. There are no fire alarms on the walls and no fire blankets.

The house is so outdated, overpriced and depressing to live in.
Last week the landlord arrived and told us we had to pay for 39 weeks rent. He wrote down what each of us have paid so far and it is not near that. He is back dating the rent to the beginning of September and continuing it until the last week in May. I do not want to pay for the first few weeks or the last few weeks.

Should I write a letter? Should I give five weeks notice and move out at the beginning of May? I just checked the PRTB and the landlord's property is registered. However, we have paid 85euro cash everyweek from the beginning of the year (with heating and electricity extra).

Any advice on how best to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

snubbleste

Ask to see his BER certificate
Seriously give the minimum notice required in writing and move. You do not have to pay for 39 weeks rent if there is no lease. Document everything.

meg3178

snowflakes wrote: »

Hi there,
I am a student renting a house in Galway.
In March of 2010, myself and four others paid a deposit of 250 euro each to our landlord. He never asked us to sign a lease. We asked him for a BER rating but this never surfaced.
Everything was easy going and we said we would probably be renting the house from the end of September to sometime in May.

From the moment we moved in there were problems. The house is extremely cold, even with the heating on. There are single radiators in all the rooms and singled glazed windows.

We asked the landlord to fix the washing machine as it does not work at all. This did not happen. We asked the landlord to replace the front door as it was unsecure and water seeps in the door when it rains. This did not happen, although the landlord sent someone out to "look at it". Several appliances such as the toaster, hoover and kettle have stopped working as they are so old. There are no fire alarms on the walls and no fire blankets.

The house is so outdated, overpriced and depressing to live in.
Last week the landlord arrived and told us we had to pay for 39 weeks rent. He wrote down what each of us have paid so far and it is not near that. He is back dating the rent to the beginning of September and continuing it until the last week in May. I do not want to pay for the first few weeks or the last few weeks.

Should I write a letter? Should I give five weeks notice and move out at the beginning of May? I just checked the PRTB and the landlord's property is registered. However, we have paid 85euro cash everyweek from the beginning of the year (with heating and electricity extra).

Any advice on how best to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

Go straight to Threshold, the housing charity. They have an office at 3 Victoria place, Merchants road. ph 091 569273. www.threshold.ie. They will help you with the legal side of things, your rights and do not charge for their services, just leave a donation if you can afford it. Do take any documentation with you that you may have and photographs of the house, damage, bills etc, everything that you have paid out. Good luck.

SRAadvisor

hey snowflakes,

sounds like a really bad deal. i hope you managed to sort all those issues out. from our experience BER certs are not as high a priority for the PRTB as breaches of minimum standards. and of course looking for extra rent is not on, your contract and rent book are key on such issues as is paying your rent by direct debit.

you also have the option of having the local authority inspect the house, they are obliged to do this but some authorities are not aware of such an obligation. however many university accomodations offices are willing to carry out an objective inspection at your request.

then there is the issue of notices to terminate for breaches of landlord obligations and the difficulty getting your deposit back. it can be uber stressful especially with college work going on.

if we can be of any help let us know
www.studentrentingadvice.ie