I was assaulted yesterday evening by former housemate

euser1984

I went to pick up my deposit and he said that I couldn't have it because I didn't clean up after myself. He said I'll give you 100 euro if you clean the "communal bathroom". I cleaned my room before I left and he said I didn't and that he had to move loads of my stuff. He also said that he told me to clean up before I left. This guy is living in space - you would swear he owned the house.

He said he had to move all my stuff and cleanup my room - I said "where's my stuff" then, and showed me some things he had taken out of a spare room, none of which is mine. I told him I moved everything out of my room and hoovered etc.
I asked him what he did and all he could say was "cleaned stuff off the skirting boards", he also brought me to the back of the house and showed me an old bike and and some other rubbish as another reason, but they were there when I moved in and what's that got to do with the deposit for "my room".

He constantly referred to the whole house "which was actually ok imo for late twenties" and that he was owed it because he did that work cleaning up. tbh, the lad had only moved in recently and wanted all these changes - basically taking over the place. Pure odd. He is older than us also so basically shouldn't have moved in when he had this pre-meditated.

I was reluctant to leave yesterday evening as I was trying to reason with him but he had nothing to go on. He began to use physical force then - pinned me against a wall, dragged me to the door where I fell and hit my head off the ground. My neck is sore for where he held me.

I'm considering making a garda statement (to cover myself) and going to a&e to get an x-ray....I cannot believe he is "stealing" my money with no grounds. He accused me of stealing before too! As soon as he moved in he was talking a good bit about a dispute he was going through with former housemates - I became suspicious shortly after that maybe the problem was him.

Any advice appreciated - I'm not sure the legal process is worth it for 275 euro but I don't want him to win - I can forget about it but the anger will always be there.

Paulw

You should report the incident to the Gardai.

seamus

The legal process is not about the money, it's about having the guy punished for physically assaulting you. It sounds like he's a serial headcase, you'll probably only continue to figuratively bang your head against the wall trying to get money out of him, but you can have him punished for assaulting you.

Go to the Gardai, report the incident. And as soon as you can. If he has any history of this kind of thing, he might go down to the station to file a complain about you.

Statement, he might get done for assault.

gmisk

Why did he have your deposit to start with?
I would definitely call the Gardai

Barracuda1

Report him to the guards. He has no legal right withholding money that isn't his. I am a landlord living with tenants are there is no onus on you to clean the room when you leave most people do it out of manners. I usually give the room a good clean and get the carpets cleaned professionally every 18-24 months. I am surprised he has your depoist who gave it to him.

davet82

Go to the the guards, if not for yourself, think of the next person he might assault or withhold money from...

Good luck

euser1984

He has my money because he took over the whole house when I left and got my room taken.

Initially with the other guy I was there with I gave him the deposit and then he lost interest in everything when he decided he was going to move somewhere else - so his attitude was basically you get someone for the room.

I was constantly trying to contact this guy when yesterday I called into his workplace and he said talk to the other fella - disgrace - I only found it out yesterday and I've been gone since the beginning of Jan. He was ignoring facebook messages I was sending to him and everything - odd fella too.

djimi

Barracuda1 wrote: »

Report him to the guards. He has no legal right withholding money that isn't his. I am a landlord living with tenants are there is no onus on you to clean the room when you leave most people do it out of manners. I usually give the room a good clean and get the carpets cleaned professionally every 18-24 months. I am surprised he has your depoist who gave it to him.

Its different for an owner occupier as there are no real laws either way regarding licensees; to all intents and purposes they are guests in your house. The OP however does not sound like a licensee; my reading of it is that the guy causing the hassle is just another tenant. If the OP left their room in a mess then the landlord would be entitled to deduct cleaning charges, but it would be the landlord, not a tenant acting as a self appointed agent/lord of the manor.

OP my advise would be to go to the landlord and ask for your deposit back. Why are you dealing with some gob****e tenant on a power trip anyway and why does he have your deposit to start with? All dealings of this nature should be with the landlord/agent only.

D3PO

djimi wrote: »

OP my advise would be to go to the landlord and ask for your deposit back. Why are you dealing with some gob****e tenant on a power trip anyway and why does he have your deposit to start with? All dealings of this nature should be with the landlord/agent only.

if he didnt hand a deposit to the landlord hes not entitled to a deposit back from the landlord.

First step is report the assualt. After which he can then go about getting his deposit back from this thug. I suspect that the OP has no written reciept for the deposit which is an issue.

djimi

D3PO wrote: »

if he didnt hand a deposit to the landlord hes not entitled to a deposit back from the landlord.

Would the housemate in question not have to be designated officially as the agent for this to apply?

D3PO

djimi wrote: »

Would the housemate in question not have to be designated officially as the agent for this to apply?

No they wouldnt.

The OP has handed a deposit to somebody whos subletting rooms in the house, this is completely independent of the landlord. The normal way this works is that the OP would get somebody to replace them in the house share and the new tenant would give them the deposit and so the cycle would continue until the leaseholder and the subletted tenants all decide to move out at which point the landlord would return the deposit to the original leaseholder who would in turn return the deposits to the other housemates.

This is an awful way to run things though, the turnover in housemates etc causes problems to the point that the likely key tenant ends up somebody other than the leaseholder in the first instance which has an affect on everybodies deposits.

Ultimately the landlord is only responsible to return a deposit to the person who has given him one.

I would never ever ever hand a deposit over to anybody other than the LL or EA. The OP has no recourse here except to take a civil case against the person they handed their deposit to, and if they dont even have a written reciept for said deposit (which i bet is the case) then even winning that way is severly diminished unless they have some way of proving they paid such a deposit.

mark renton

euser1984 wrote: »

Any advice appreciated - I'm not sure the legal process is worth it for 275 euro but I don't want him to win - I can forget about it but the anger will always be there.

Hiace van, collect the lads, tool up, problem solved.

djimi

D3PO wrote: »

No they wouldnt.

The OP has handed a deposit to somebody whos subletting rooms in the house, this is completely independent of the landlord. The normal way this works is that the OP would get somebody to replace them in the house share and the new tenant would give them the deposit and so the cycle would continue until the leaseholder and the subletted tenants all decide to move out at which point the landlord would return the deposit to the original leaseholder who would in turn return the deposits to the other housemates.

This is an awful way to run things though, the turnover in housemates etc causes problems to the point that the likely key tenant ends up somebody other than the leaseholder in the first instance which has an affect on everybodies deposits.

Ultimately the landlord is only responsible to return a deposit to the person who has given him one.

I would never ever ever hand a deposit over to anybody other than the LL or EA. The OP has no recourse here except to take a civil case against the person they handed their deposit to, and if they dont even have a written reciept for said deposit (which i bet is the case) then even winning that way is severly diminished unless they have some way of proving they paid such a deposit.

Fair enough; I was aware of such an arrangement (indeed I lived in a house like that when in college) but I didnt think it had any legal basis whatsoever!

Now that I actually stop and think about it you I can see that you are right; the deposit would only be returned when the lease is ended, which is for the property, not one room. I had originally assumed that this was some kind of a rent a room thing, but it seems not.

D3PO

djimi wrote: »

Fair enough; I was aware of such an arrangement (indeed I lived in a house like that when in college) but I didnt think it had any legal basis whatsoever!

Now that I actually stop and think about it you I can see that you are right; the deposit would only be returned when the lease is ended, which is for the property, not one room. I had originally assumed that this was some kind of a rent a room thing, but it seems not.

Yeah it seems to be fairly commonplace as an arrangement. That said its really not a good one.

Victor

mark renton wrote: »

Hiace van, collect the lads, tool up, problem solved.

Advocating violence is not acceptable.

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