Screwed by Letting Agency?

Clare159

Hi
Im looking for some advice. I just moved in to a rented duplex in Ashbourne. its handled by a letting agency.
The rent on the 4 bed is €900 a month, which is cheap, but i feel like we keep getting screwed by the letting agent.
1stly he convinced us to sign a lease and move in within 10 days of viewing the house.
When we went to move NONE of the repairs had been done and the house was filthy. we let it slide, spent 3 days cleaning and when we asked him about it he totally brushed us off.
Thees LOTS of little things wrong with the house- Dishwasher n washing machine are broken, showers all needed new heads etc. Again we gave him time and he brushed us off "it'll all get done girls, dont worry about it"...
So then there was the couch. the one in the house was broken in half basically. we were told the new one would be there when we moved, it arrived 2 and a half weeks later.
And then the big one. WE had a HUGE leak on saturday. Came downstairs and there was water streaming down the walls, out of the light fixture in the kitchen etc.. really really bad. When we rang the letting agent, my roommate was obviously a little bit high strung, but again we were brushed off. Over an hour later a cowboy plumber arrived, turned off the water at the mains n said "i'll prob be back Monday, could be tues,or wedensday...." and we get a text from the letting agent saying "never speak to me like that again" regarding my roommates attitude on the phone to him.


Im just wondering if we're being messed around here or am i wrong in thinking that looking after the house is this guys job???

Zamboni

The guy is a scumbag.
Break the lease and walk away now.
Never, under any circumstances, take a letting agents 'word' for anything.

They are not all scumbags but they should be treated as guilty until proven innocent.

TheScriptFan

Clare159 wrote: »

Hi
Im looking for some advice. I just moved in to a rented duplex in Ashbourne. its handled by a letting agency.
The rent on the 4 bed is €900 a month, which is cheap, but i feel like we keep getting screwed by the letting agent.
1stly he convinced us to sign a lease and move in within 10 days of viewing the house.
When we went to move NONE of the repairs had been done and the house was filthy. we let it slide, spent 3 days cleaning and when we asked him about it he totally brushed us off.
Thees LOTS of little things wrong with the house- Dishwasher n washing machine are broken, showers all needed new heads etc. Again we gave him time and he brushed us off "it'll all get done girls, dont worry about it"...
So then there was the couch. the one in the house was broken in half basically. we were told the new one would be there when we moved, it arrived 2 and a half weeks later.
And then the big one. WE had a HUGE leak on saturday. Came downstairs and there was water streaming down the walls, out of the light fixture in the kitchen etc.. really really bad. When we rang the letting agent, my roommate was obviously a little bit high strung, but again we were brushed off. Over an hour later a cowboy plumber arrived, turned off the water at the mains n said "i'll prob be back Monday, could be tues,or wedensday...." and we get a text from the letting agent saying "never speak to me like that again" regarding my roommates attitude on the phone to him.


Im just wondering if we're being messed around here or am i wrong in thinking that looking after the house is this guys job???

Hi Claire, sorry to hear about that. I had a similar situation. Landlord kept giving us the brush off and talking to us like we were silly little girls. I eventually rang 'Threshold' and they advised me to the following:
- Write a letter to the agency advising off all the issues, giving 7 days notice to fix them
- if in 7 days everything is not fixed or reasonable efforts, give 28 days notice (you can get official notice from PRTB website) and use deposit as rent.
- If they start going on about 'breaking the lease' you can offer to find them new tenants. You can then get ANYONE into the house, and if they refuse the tenants, you are within your rights to break the lease.

They cannot kick you out, have to give you a 'demand' for your rent if it's overdue by 15 days and then after that issue with 30 days eviction notice. Hopefully it won't come to that. But it's good to know these things.


I hope this helps, hopefully these are just teething problems but you really have to set the issue with them. Write down every communication for your records.

The majority of letting agencies/landlords are great, but when you come across a horrible one is traumatising!!

convert

Did you get anything in writing from the EA regarding the repairs before you moved in?

Put everything in writing from now on, and send everything via registered letter if you have to, and make sure you keep a copy of everything you send the EA, as well as times, dates and details of phone calls of your dealings with him. Keep the texts as well.

I don't suppose you managed to take any photos of the leaks or the condition of the place when you moved in?

Then contact Threshold, giving them all details of your dealings with the EA, and see what they advise regarding a course of action. Their website also has details of what should be in a rented house and what constitutes 'working order'. Print it off and have it to hand next time you're dealing with the EA.

It does, however, sound like they're really messing you about and not taking things seriously. Even if he has to contact the LL about what's going on, he still should be able to give you a date by which everything should be repaired.

Clare159

i have all the contact we've had with the agency over email but thats it. dont get me wrong here, theres nothing unfixable in the house- just a lot of small things (bar the leak) but i feel they should've been done before we moved in, or at the very least done at our request!

Thanks for the advice though, checked out that Threshold website- v helpful, had never heard of them before....