Problems with person in adjacent bedsit/granny flat

Fitz*

So I moved into a house with 3 friends, soon to be 4 around 10 days ago. it's a 5 bed house, with a granny flat attached to the house. The only thing physically shared between the 2 houses is a porch entrance.

We haven't signed a lease for a number of reasons yet. When we viewed the house, we were told of a Romanian man with cerebal palsey that lived there, but were told that female Final year students had lived in the house the 2 years previous and had never seen or heard him along with him having no English. We thought this was ok so agreed to move in & paid deposits.

The first night (Friday 6th) I moved in my stuff, I saw him just sitting on the porch drinking a can & smoking. I thought it was ok, was doing any harm to anyone, other than he was talking to himself, in a foreign language.

The Sunday the 10th was the first night I stayed there. got home just before 12 and I swear I was awake all night. It sounded like there was a fight between Polish ( or Eastern European mean) somewhere in the estate, but it was very close. Like outside my room in the back garden, or neighbour's garden. Looked outside and nothing. Like this was proper full on shouting & roaring. Then checked the front and again nothing. It wasn't until I heard doors banging I realised that it was the lad in the bedsit. Didn't sleep for hours, amybe 3 or 4 o clcok, not the most ideal when getting up at 7.30 in the morning for work. I am at the far side of the house and culd hear everything so clearly it was that loud.

Put it down to a Sunday day drinking and left it, until it started happening every day. At random parts of the evening there is banging on a table or something and then at night again doors slamming and just roaring from this lad.

We have already had problems with the landlord such as giving us a house with no working oven/grill. We have got the new oven/grill but it is just sitting in the kitchen as no one has come to install it. The immersion doesn't work. There is no way anyone lived here before us long term with that lad in the room.

We refuse to pay rent until a)we have an oven/grill installed, b) immersion fixed & c) he is dealt with, like gone from the house. Are we allowed to do this? The landlord wants us to sign a lease first to give him 28 days notice, but we want him gone before we sign. We can't put up with 28 more nights of it, especially sleeping above his room. We can't sleep so arriving for work tired can't help either.

I'm sure the landlord would prefer 5 times rent coming in as opposed to 1?

What's our best option? Moving would be very tough as there is very little, if any, houses left in the city, let alone nice ones.

whippet

very much wishful thinking that this lad could be moved out for your benefit. He is a tenant and as such has rights; more so than you do at this stage

Wabbit Ears

New tenant Versus Sick existing tenant, no chance!!!

Pack up and chalk it up to a bad experience, no good will come of this situation.

Moonbeam

keep a log of everything and hand it to the landlord and explain that you can not live there with all of this going on.

Fitz*

Thanks for the input lads. I thought we wouldn't have much as a say, but it seems like as much as the landlord has told us, he will struggle to get other people in in the future because of it.

He will be keeping a 6 bed empty. It's too late for college students to move in and can't see working people moving in there to be honest.

Wouldn't mind if it was weekends or whatever, but the fact it's everyday & night especially is pretty back. There's lads working shifts too, meaning sleeping during the day is hard enough, let alone night.

Good plot

Get the hell out if there and find somewhere else, there's plenty of places to rent out there. Or even tell him to shut up maybe talk to the man.

Abigayle

Good plot wrote: »

Get the hell out if there and find somewhere else, there's plenty of places to rent out there. Or even tell him to shut up maybe talk to the man.

I'm thinking that maybe a guy that drinks during the day every day and roars all over the place in the early hours might not be the most approachable guy, to be honest.

OP, as the others said, chalk it up to a bad experience and get out of there. You should treat every meeting with a landlord / estate agent as you are interviewing them too, and find out what odd ends need to be done. Get a lot more information on existing tenants if I were you, before parting with your cash.

While some have had no problems with their flat / housemates, they're few and far between. I'd problems myself in the past.

Ray Palmer

FitzShane wrote: »

We refuse to pay rent until a)we have an oven/grill installed, b) immersion fixed & c) he is dealt with, like gone from the house. Are we allowed to do this? .

No you are not allowed do this and are breaking the obligations of a tenant.

The existing tenant also has rights and cannot be moved out without the proper procedures being followed. It will at the very least take 28 days but much more likely to take months.

AS you have no lease signed I would move out

Emme

Cut your losses and leave.

If the landlord doesn't get other tenants that's his problem but at the moment there's a shortage of accommodation (I presume you're in Dublin) and some fool will put up with it. Or the Romanian man might get some of his friends or other antisocial types to stay in the house. The landlord obviously hasn't a problem with him if he has allowed him to stay there.

djimi

At present you can leave with 28 days written notice, which sounds about your best option to be honest. Once you sign that lease it becomes a whole lot more difficult to leave, so under no circumstances should you put pen to paper.

Assuming the guy has been living there for longer than 6 months then the landlord will not be giving him 28 days notice to leave. If he has a signed lease then its going to be difficult enough to get him to move out. Assuming the tenant actually abides by the notice period and doesnt decide to dig his heals in and let the landlord get the PRTB etc involved, Id say the best you could hope for would be to have him gone in maybe 42-56 days. If the guy is as bad as you say he is then its very optimistic that he will be gone in a hurry.