Verbal contract to lease

Dirtgoosh

We agreed to lease a house over the phone yesterday having viewed it, and were to drop the deposit around tomorrow and we have a text message from the landlord agreeing this, and now she calls to tell us they have got a better offer which they will take unless we match it. Unfortunately we have passed on another property now gone and have given notice to on our own house? Have we any comeback or just suck it back and move on?

coylemj

Dirtgoosh wrote: »

We agreed to lease a house over the phone yesterday having viewed it, and were to drop the deposit around tomorrow and we have a text message from the landlord agreeing this

Agreeing what?

Until the cash was on the table neither she nor you was bound to any 'agreement'.

Dirtgoosh

Agreed price and dates, confirmed by text message

coylemj

I think you'll find that until you handed over the deposit there was no deal or contract.

Ask yourself this: If you had found a better house before you handed over the deposit on the first house and decided to take it (the second house) and walk away from the earlier 'agreement', would the first landlord have been within her rights to legally force you to go ahead with the deal you made with her?

I don't think so, a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on, same applies to a text message.

Dirtgoosh

Ya figured as much, just annoyed!! Thks

stevecrow74

if its not written on paper and dated and signed, then it really doesn't count!

dannny1

I went to see a flat this evening, liked it, and wanted to take it. There was another couple there who wanted it also. I didn't have the full deposit but the letting agent said he would take 50 until tomorrow. I gave it to him. Less than an hour later I changed my mind and decided the location is too inconvenient. I rang the agent to get the fifty back, remember this is about 40 mins later and the agent is refusing to give me back the deposit. This is despite the fact he can just give the flat to the other couple no problem at all. I offered to go and meet him and he refused, he was saying we had a contract and I broke it. I didn't sign anything. Am I entitled to my 50 back? Thanks in advance

stevecrow74

dannny1 wrote: »

I went to see a flat this evening, liked it, and wanted to take it. There was another couple there who wanted it also. I didn't have the full deposit but the letting agent said he would take 50 until tomorrow. I gave it to him. Less than an hour later I changed my mind and decided the location is too inconvenient. I rang the agent to get the fifty back, remember this is about 40 mins later and the agent is refusing to give me back the deposit. This is despite the fact he can just give the flat to the other couple no problem at all. I offered to go and meet him and he refused, he was saying we had a contract and I broke it. I didn't sign anything. Am I entitled to my 50 back? Thanks in advance

the only thing worse than signing a contract is not signing a contract!

luckily in your case you didn't sign a contract or they would probably be well within their right to ask you for the rest of the deposit even though you changed you mind
check with threshold http://www.threshold.ie/
they will be able to advise you better.

hession.law

Dirtgoosh wrote: »

Agreed price and dates, confirmed by text message

Is the lease for less than a year or more than a year? IF it is for under a year the formalities are more relaxed. A text message stating rent and dates this would be evident of an agreement to a lease, and the equity maxim "equity sees as done that which ought to be done". As in Bellew v Bellew although there was no written agreement the court inferred an agreement from the words and conduct of the parties. "oral contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on" is just simply not true they're still legally enforceable but are more difficult because of uncertainty.