Threatened with social services

LegacyUser

I cant even believe this thread title. Ive been literally ill all day with worry and stress. I cant eat and know I wont sleep.
Me and my other half had been living in a rented house with our 1 year old son for the past 7 months and always got on really well with the landlord as he lived close by we would see a lot of him, there were never any problems.
We had never signed a lease though as he seemed to be more casual about things.

A month ago we found a house that was closer to our jobs, our sons creche and cheaper so when it was offered to us I rang the landlord and told him about it and asked for a reference. He seemed annoyed and said "no you're breaking your lease", I just said "well we are giving you a months notice and you can even keep the deposit"- stupid I know but we really wanted this new place and to get it we had to have a reference. He hummed and hawed and eventually agreed.

So the day came and we moved out, leaving the place exactly as we got it. Then just this morning I got a voice message from an unknown number and there was a woman that didn't leave her name or number saying contact your landlord after the way you left that house.
I rang my other half straight away and he told me that he had left 2 closed, tied up rubbish bags in the kitchen and said that could be it. I was really annoyed at him for forgetting to put them out but I was in work myself so didn't think much more about it until later I got another voice mail from the woman shouting "I have since learned that a child lived in that house and if you don't contact your landlord then I'm going to contact social services, bringing a child up in that filth!! This is your last warning" Still she left no name or details. I was in shock and rang the landlord straight away but he didn't answer so I left a message saying I was disgusted and upset at the abusive threatening message I had been left and could he please contact me.

Seriously I cant even explain my horror, the public health nurse had just been up recently and my OH even had his boss and his wife over for dinner in the previous weeks, not to mention friends and family dropping in unannounced. We couldn't live like that even if we wanted to!!

Anyway I tried to call him again but no answer so I left a message saying "I have contacted my solicitor about that abusive threatening message, I would like the contact details for the woman who left it, please ring me back as soon as possible" A lie, i know but I was so angry and upset. So he rang me back a few hours later and i asked for the womans contact details but he just said let me just sau something but I said no, you have no idea how that message has made me feel and I take any threat to my child very seriously, to which he just said ok if you take it that seriously then have your solicitor write to me. I said I don't want to hear from you again and he ust said ha that's what you think.

I'm sorry this is all written so badly I'm so upset here I can't concentrate on anything else. Any help or advice would be great please.

tenchi-fan

It sounds like the messages you left the landlord are as crazy as the messages you received from this mystery woman. Ignore the messages and stop getting dragged into it. You have no obligation towards the woman and your contract with the landlord has been terminated.

If you have a few hours to spare you should report the phonecalls to the gardai and keep a journal of the times, but other than that just ignore them.

LegacyUser

Thanks for the reply, I know I shouldn't have lied about solicitors etc but I was just so enraged and upset. Threatening to report us to social services, it's so insulting i don't think anything could hurt me more.

LegacyUser

Thanks for the reply, I think it was his wife that rang to be honest, trying to scare us. But what if he really does call social services? My god I'd be so ashamed! I'm scared he'll try make the place look worse and take pictures. I've never been in such a horrible situation. I've got all sorts running through my head!

Pandora2

Also, sounds more like his Mrs. fed up at the drop in income and possibly having went round to give the place the once over found the rubbish. How many days was the rubbish left in the kitchen before the call's came??

I empty my kitchen bin every night with the weather up and down the way it is...maybe it got smelly!!

And the HSE do not operate in the fashion the OP describes, they would summon the OP by letter. But I would imagine they would need something in the way of hard evidence before doing that. I'm thinkin' photo's of squalor:eek: And a house you left yesterday would be of no concern to them, you would be judged on your home now, your GP's/PH Nurse opinion too would be sought, I have had a little experience in this area recently, teenage stuff!! The system isn't perfect but it is fairly respectful of the average parent and moves slooooooowly:( Almost out the other end now myself:cool:

Try and forget it....I know you won't immediately, it's emotive stuff...time will help. This shall pass!

Justask

You say your child is inday care, they will give you a ref if the social sevices do call, which I doubt they will. I'd also ask your landlord when your talking to him does he declare his rental income to the taxman

Dont worry that what he what you to be

LegacyUser

Pandora- I it's a week since we moved out and got the calls today so I did think it could have become smelly too but when we discussed it, all our foody rubbish etc was long gone and these bags were general clutter we were getting rid of, not anything that could smell thank god!! Our public health nurse is great and always commented on how well our son is doing and how we're doing great, he's thriving etc. I hope your own issues get smoothed out soon.

Sunflower- Thanks you're right AND he wrote us a glowing reference himself!

Justask- I'm 99.9% sure that he doesn't pay tax on the rental income.

Oh thanks so much everyone you've really made me feel a lot better. I'm still STUNNED that anyone could stoop so low though!!

The Jammy dodger

Next time you go to rent a house never do anything ''casually''. Always take pictures with time and dates on them of the house on the day you moved in, Before and AFTER you've signed the lease.

When cleaning up and leaving the house, give your months notice, Have the landlord sign something that states he agrees that on such and such as date I have accepted the tenants wish to move out of the house.

after cleaning up, take pictures with time and date of house the house looked before leaving ( a video would be better ) entering each room and covering every part of the house.

Finally, never trust a man who doesnt tell you what he wants up front and is ''casual'' and likes to be your ''buddy''. He is not your buddy, he is your Landlord, always treat every transaction with a landlord as a business one not a friendly one.

Always cover your tracks, otherwise what happened you will be a repetitive process in your life of renting and moving.

The following is not legal advice by the way but you could go to your lawyer and get that deposit back. If you are on welfare you could get this defense free. If you can prove you lived in that house for all those months ( utility bill etc ) and that you did not sign any contract then he is in big trouble for not having a contract/lease set up. Every Landlord is also bound by law to register each of his tenants too. I mean he is up to his neck in it.

But depending upon the Lawyers fees ( if your not unemployed ) and whether or not it would cost you MORE to sue his behind than to forfeit your deposit...then your probably better off taking this one on the chin to be honest.

Hope this helps

qwertytlk

I would say this was landlorsd wife. She probably has the hump because you moved out and then when she saw the rubbish she just snapped. Im not defending her, she seriously over reacted and she should never have threathned you like this. But seriously, i would try forget about it. Even if she did call social services, which i doubt she will, then as long as your son is looked after, fed, clean and happy(which im sure he is) then you have absloutley nothing to worry about. And if they come, you will obviously explain the situation with the landlord etc and they will see your house is not a flea infested pit this woman is claiming it to be and they will know it was just a vindictive malicious report. Im sure they deal with that type of thing all the time. I doubt it will come to that anyway. So dont worry. Best of luck

Big Bag of Chips

IF they were called and IF they do come, it will be to your house that you live in now.

So if your current house is not a kip with a rat infestation then you have nothing to worry about.

Even if your house is untidy and the floors haven't been swept for a day or 2, it's still not grounds for taking your baby off you! If it was my kids would be gone long ago.;)

Ignore any future threats. Delete cowardly messages before you even hear them. Block your landlord's number if you can.

And then get on with your life and forget it.

dafunk

They held on to your deposit and now they've verbally abusing you? I have no idea what you're worried about here, they have got zero grounds for making any sort of a case against you. Typical landlords IMHO, you pay them huge lump sums of money over a space of months or years and they're giving YOU abuse about havin to dirty their hands putting out two measly rubbish bags? **** them. I think it's extremely unlikely they call social services and even if they do, ss will cop straight away that it's a false accusation and they could even end up being charged.

If I was in your situation, I'd
(i) file a formal complaint about them to the guards and then
(ii) put a claim through the small claim courts (costs about 20e) for my deposit. I know you told them to keep the money but it's not theirs to keep and you don't owe them anything. They will refund you straight away rather then having to go to court and face charges.

Morag

If they call social services and make a complaint under the child protection act, it generates a report on thier system and even if the complaint is hogwash the file remains open for two years and if there are no more report it is closed but it is still a file on you in the system.

I would suggest ringing the socail workers in your local HSE clinic and having a chat with them, tell them about the threats, give them the landlords name, if you can call into them with your child and explain how upset you are about the threats.
Think of it as a pre emptive strike.

If you get any more abusive texts or voice mails call down to the local garda station with them and make a complaint and get it on the books with them.

eejoynt

write to

the special enquiries branch
revenue commissioners
dublin castle
dublin two

outline
1 how long you were there
2 how much you paid per week/ month
3 photocopies of rent book if you had
4 number of othe tenants in the house - if any

deatil nothing else
sign and give your pps number - ie it shows you are working

LegacyUser

I woke up today feeling a lot more positive and less irrational! I seriously do appreciate all the advice given!
Dropped my son to creche and was speaking to the manager as I would most mornings, I was telling her and she fell about laughing, said it was crazy and that if anything was to happen which she highly doubts, that herself and the other staff (who we have dealt with since I went back to work after maternity leave) would be happy to write statements etc to inform social services that we are NOT the people he is making us out to be.

I also rang a solicitor (I know it sounds dramatic but after such horrible things being said about us, I wouldn't see anything as dramatic! Also, I want to be prepared just incase anything does go further) and just asked her advice, she offered to write a letter to the landlord to tell him not to contact me and asked would I like to take things further regarding the voice mails. I said no but am glad I rang for peace of mind!

I know it might sound like I'm being overboard and I might think that if I was reading this, but having my parenting skills called into question in such a horrible way just kills me and IF things do go further, which I also doubt, I want to be ready for war!

Really though I'm going to leave this behind me know, thank you all so much for the replies, because of them I was able to sleep a lot easier last night.