Trouble with what you see on daft.ie and what you get in person

squirrely

hey

sorry if this has already been discussed before but kinda just wanted to have a bit of a rant and see if anyone else has had these problems when trying to find rented accommodation.

Myself and the other half have been looking to rent somewhere in cork since november in and around watergrasshill/rathcormac/ glanmire area as we are expecting our first child in april and the cottage we were renting was too small and old and damp....etc.

We found a house on daft in watergrasshill and the pictures were nice, well furnished, clean, etc and so went to view it. Agent said that all they were taking from house was childs bed and the tv from the sitting room, we expected that and agreed, signed contract and all. Went to collect key from agent and take meter readings, agent left and i had look around house, the place was dirty, food left in fridge, freezer and dishwasher, couches left in a state, holes and screws in the walls where pictures and railing and shelves were taken down, wires all over the place and furniture changed downstairs, now when i went upstairs you can imagine my surprise to see that the nice big sleigh bed was replaced with a 4'6" devain with fecked matress, lockers changed, and a picture frame where tv was in bedroom, took this frame down and there were screws and two big holes where wires were meant to be, and about 50hangers thrown at bottom of wardrobe which ws broken. Spare room had bed changed also as well as the cabinet which was there was now gone. the childs room in all fairness they took the bed....as well as the locker, curtains, lightbulb and 2 shelves were ripped of the wall... Now i'm almost finished i promise.... there was an attic conversion too with a projecter, i went and looked at this, some of the couch was gone, there was a spare piece of carpet covering the largest stain i have ever seen and the projector had wires missing that had been there when we had viewed it so that i could not even get it started. Finally the bathroom, there was originally a nice mirror and a cabinet in the bathroom, and this was replaced with a sheet of mirror and cabinet gone, they left the wiring for the old mirror exposed in a brand new junction box hanging over the mirror and the side shelf was now loose due to the repositioning of the screw. they didn't even clean the dust from where they had drilled. it was a kip. i rang agent and he came back following day and viewed property with me and offered my deposit back or fix the place up. we said we couldn't live in it knowing the owners who did this were just next door at the time. I went to get deposit back and when i asked to speak to someone in the company about this i was told by the receptionist that sometimes this happens and that i got shafted but it had nothing to do with them. some load of ****e.

So back to daft and found another property in rathcormac, nice house, viewed it with agent and again was told certain items would be taken, we agreed on price and was due to hear back to get contract signed, in space of two days the house went from furnished and available in 2 weeks to unfurnished and not available for 6 weeks. with no price drop. We again raised the issue with the agent saying he showed us the house, we agreed and then he comes back saying no.... this again felt unfair, now, only this week just gone, as we have still not found a suitable house within our budget and location the agent rang me and asked if i was still interested in the property, my partner and i agreed and said yeah we would take it for the price and that we just wanted to see it again to see what we would need to move in..... you can imagine how happy we were to find a place as baby is coming and there is a lot of pressure what with me working in dublin and only getting home once a week, and then 2 days later the agent rings to tell me that the owners were taking the house off the market, again load of ****....

so my questions are as follows, in regards to the first house the letting agent as fair as i can assertion broke the contract by not letting the house as it was described but we were told tough ****e but the company....if i broke that contract they would be after money off me and so am i entitled to go after same money off them

in regards to second house, what can i do in relation to that.

is there a regulator within dft.ie who I can contact in relation to falsely advertised properties

and finally anybody know of any 3/4 bedroom houses going in the above areas.

thanks for letting me rant a bit and if there are requests i will post pics of what the house was meant to have and what we got, you wouldn't decking believe it i swear..

thanks again

matrim

In regard to the first house, why did you sign and pay money without seeing the place yourself? You got your deposit back so what extra money are you looking for?

On the second one, sometimes that happens. Not much you can do. It's likely the owners circumstances changed and that caused them to take it off the market.

coffee_cake

why on earth would you pay a deposit before viewing??

squirrely

sorry lads, we did view it in person with the agent, and it was confirmed to us that what we saw was staying apart from the kids bed and tv is what was staying hence how we knew that so much stuff had been changed and or taken.

squirrely

sorryin relation to the money, i was speaking to a person who had tried to get out of a contract and was told no that they would have had to have paid the remainder of the money owed and i feel that if it was me who had decided not to take the property after signing the contract then the agency would have come looking for money off me and i feel that it should work the other way too. the money isn't important its more the inconvenience that they caused and that did cost as i took a/l to come down to sort it and between the cost of traveling and stuff i was out of pocket which annoyed me as i had nothing to show for it. sorry didn't mean to come across that i was only about the money, al i wanted was a good place for our baby.

Mr.Wemmick

I understand the frustration. This isn't about what you did but about the way in which these properties are advertised and the expectation that you will take it whatever awful way it is presented to you prior to moving in.

It is possible that the EA, once you said you would take it, told the LL that you are in a hurry to take/find some place and he/she not bothering to clean the place thinking it was a done deal.

I don't understand how a previous tenant can leave a rental property in a mess like that, and then the LL not bothering to check and clean the place before advertising again.

It sounds like you have had a bad run of it. I hope you get sorted soon especially before the baby arrives.

Good luck!

squirrely

Yeah I agree with that, the funny thing is with the first house we were accommodating and told the EA that we weren't in too much rush as we knew the occupants were packing up everything to immigrate but they said no it would be from the start of the month. What we then discovered was that they put off leaving Ireland and instead moved in next door and swapped all the furniture from the house they were renting, it was baffling and after we got our money back they seemingly then went in painted and covered the holes in the walls, cleaned up etc and then wanted to know why we wouldn't take it then. What annoys me most tho is the fact that the EA employee basically said tough **** and that it was nothing to do with them which I feel is wrong, there were acting as the landlord so they should have made sure the property was up to standard.