Can landlord keep deposit? Awkward situation!

MaryOD

Apologies in advance if this is the wrong board, I'm not sure where to post.

I'm looking for advice on the following please.

We are renting (with the assistance of rent supplement for the first time in our lives!) a small house. We live in probably one of the most expensive county council areas in Ireland (don't want to be too specific!). It is not an option to move out of the area for several reasons which I won't get into.

The rent allowance limit in the area for us is €925 for a family of four, which is impossible to find accommodation within this rate. (Just to ad, we pay €91 (declared) p/wk ourselves towards the rent).

Over the course of months while looking for somewhere to rent, we were faced with many, many places not accepting rent supplement and all being over the rate. Our options were face homelessness (which we did ask the County Council and Community Welfare Officer what would happen if we can't find somewhere to live to which their response was we "would be placed in homeless accommodation and you don't want that for your kids" (like as if we would choose this?!).

Anyway, EVENTUALLY we found a landlord who would accept R.S. BUT she wanted €1,100 p/mth. There was a house showing and the amount of people who showed up was unreal, we had to compete/sell ourselves and we 'won' the place!

She suggested that if we wanted to live there we would have to pay the balance up front for the year, plus a months deposit plus a months rent in advance. We were faced with get a loan for this or be homeless.

We borrowed the money from a family member- €4,300 to give to the landlord up front. We have two contracts one with the R.S amount and deposit (€925) and one with the real amount (€1,100).

We have and will continue to pay the rent on time every month BUT our contract is up soon and there is NO WAY we can afford to pay this neither up front nor on a monthly basis.

As an aside the house is dark and VERY cold (brutal insulation, very drafty- my husband has checked the attic, vents, walls- very poorly/cheaply done, attic not insulated- my husband has had to cover the vents- which are just holes in the wall with a bit of plastic over them and stuff old clothes in the attic roof to try insulate) anyway as a result our electric and gas bills are sky high (like we never had before living here) just to try keep the house warm for our kids.

Now, here's the question (eventually!) I'm afraid she won't give us back our deposit when we leave- we have updated the house, no doubt about that! We have fixed things in the house without ever calling her, have put in work, time & money (foolishly but just wanted to make it a nice place for us and kids to live), we have never asked her for anything.

We painted the kids' room and put a few wall stickers in room downstairs (not garish or anything, fairly neutral but kiddish) and when the landlord saw it she said you better repaint that when you leave?!

After all the work, money we put into the place and she picks on that. Anyway, we had someone from the HSE call out to the house to check the house over as apparently the previous tenants put in a complaint against the landlord re condition of the house and the landlord wouldn't give them back their deposit.

This is unsettling me the nearer we get to the end of our contract. Can she (she probably will) keep deposit and say because of the kids painted room (it's actually a tiny room just about get two kids beds in) and the wall stickers on the wall (she said they would probably leave a mark underneath when taken off!).

I don't really want to but money is tight and the risk of her keeping the deposit is making me think should we not pay the last months rent or is there something else we can do?

It's such a mess.
Any advice (not judgements!) please?

ABajaninCork

Sorry, but kids stickers DO leave a mark on the walls, no matter how carefully you get them off. I wouldn't give the LL any excuse to keep the deposit. Steam them off and repaint the wall.

I take it you're not renewing the lease? Give her at least a month's notice and move out. Give the place a really good going over, and take lots of dated photos. Preferably with a copy of the day's paper in full view.

Hope this helps and good luck!

the_syco

ABajaninCork wrote: »

I take it you're not renewing the lease? Give her at least a month's notice and move out. Give the place a really good going over, and take lots of dated photos. Preferably with a copy of the day's paper in full view.

Do this. And if you don't get the full amount off her, lodge a complaint with the PTRB.