Problems Moving Out Over Fixed Term Lease

Genevaman

Hi all,

I'm a student tenant currently sharing residence with five other guys on a fixed 9 month lease. The problem is the place is a kip. I'm the only who cleans up, there's garbage strewn about the floor and my housemates party and blare music into the early hours of the morning before leaving their mess for me to clean..

So I gave my landlord notice that I'd be leaving on the grounds that I couldn't sleep, study or relax in my own home. I was told that it wasn't his problem and that I'd lose my deposit if I left. Finally we came to a compromise that one of the other housemates friends would replace me as a tenant. I would pay a half months rent, he would pay the other half and I'd leave after the first two weeks. This is approximately two weeks after I had given notice.

Rent day comes along and I am informed literally 30 minutes before my landlord's agent arrives that the new tenant has bailed and I need to pay full month's rent again and that my deposit will be withheld if I don't find a new tenant in the next two weeks. The place is still a mess.

Am I being jerked around here? Why am I expected to work as the intermediary? Isn't my initial complaint valid? I only accepted to the 'find a new tenant' thing in the first place because I was assured the new guy was a shoe in and wanted the whole business over and done with as quickly as possible.

Any advice, sooner better than later, would be greatly appreciated. I've already put a deposit down on a new place and don't have the money to afford both. Heck, my deposit was meant to cover my first month's rent. I have a week to sort the situation out.

Thanks in advance.

djimi

Your complaint is with your housemates, not the landlord. You are all jointly responsible for the rent; if you have a problem with living in a pigsty then round up your housemates and tell them to grow the f**k up and start showing some pride in where they live. They might be students but that does not mean that they have to live like children or animals.

If you want out of this tenancy then you are either going to have to find your replacement or suffer the potential financial loss Im afraid. The landlord cannot just "keep the deposit"; they can only deduct to make up for lost rent and must move to mitigate their loss quickly.

The other option is for all of you to move and to reassign the lease. This way you can all expect to keep your deposits.

Im working off the assumption that you all jointly rent the house under one lease. If you are renting a room then just organise with the landlord to allow you to find a replacement.

Grandpa Hassan

You've signed a fixed term agreement, and my interpretation of your post is that it is your housemates who are the problem, not anything to do with the house, and therefore not the LLs problem

Unfortunately, if you want to exit your fixed term agreement early, it is up to you to find someone to assign it to.

It is up to you to find a replacement tenant to take over the rest of your lease. Until you do, you are on the hook. The LL doesn't have an obligation to let you break the lease and find someone to replace you just because you don't get on with your housemates.

Of course it will all depend on the actual terms of your rental agreement, but that's my view based on the info to hand

Genevaman

I've had to deal with the neighbourhood watch at least three times now and have even been forced to start washing my dishes in the bathroom sink because the kitchen has gotten so bad. There's actually mold growing in the kitchen sink. The floor is so dirty you can leave footprints and the counters are piled with unwashed ware, leftover food and beer cans. I can't even enter the living room without shoes anymore there's so much crap about. I've voiced my concerns plenty of times and its always fallen on deaf ears. This can't be right. The place is so bad I can't even keep up with the cleaning. I've resigned myself to cleaning my own room, the upstairs bathroom, the landing and the stairs because that's genuinely all I can manage.

I feel like I'm paying to be an overworked live in house cleaner. My grades have even started to suffer. There was one point where, over the course of 68 hours I only got 3 hours sleep. On exam week! Is it really a case of just being told 'Deal with it'?

In any case, I'm likely going to bail next week. They can keep my deposit if they want, I can't keep on living like this. I'll take out a student loan if I have to. I really wish I didn't need to though.

Scortho

Genevaman wrote: »

I've had to deal with the neighbourhood watch at least three times now and have even been forced to start washing my dishes in the bathroom sink because the kitchen has gotten so bad. There's actually mold growing in the kitchen sink. The floor is so dirty you can leave footprints and the counters are piled with unwashed ware, leftover food and beer cans. I can't even enter the living room without shoes anymore there's so much crap about. I've voiced my concerns plenty of times and its always fallen on deaf ears. This can't be right. The place is so bad I can't even keep up with the cleaning. I've resigned myself to cleaning my own room, the upstairs bathroom, the landing and the stairs because that's genuinely all I can manage.

I feel like I'm paying to be an overworked live in house cleaner. My grades have even started to suffer. There was one point where, over the course of 68 hours I only got 3 hours sleep. On exam week! Is it really a case of just being told 'Deal with it'?

In any case, I'm likely going to bail next week. They can keep my deposit if they want, I can't keep on living like this. I'll take out a student loan if I have to. I really wish I didn't need to though.

That isn't your landlords problem though. It's you housemates who you chose to live with. Your landlord isn't a babysitter. It's up to you and your housemates to come to an agreement on the cleaning.

If neighbours make a complaint about the tenants antisocial behaviour, then the landlord has to be seen to act, but I don't think this is the case when one tenant complains about their housemates.

the_syco

Genevaman wrote: »

Is it really a case of just being told 'Deal with it'?

In any case, I'm likely going to bail next week. They can keep my deposit if they want, I can't keep on living like this. I'll take out a student loan if I have to. I really wish I didn't need to though.

A man with nothing to lose can be a dangerous man to cross.

With this in mind, consider holding interviews for a replacement tenant. It sounds like your housemates have burnt their bridges with you, so try to have all the replacement tenants not the sort your ex-housemates would like to share the place with. In essence, encourage them to find your replacement.

D3PO

OP you may aswell leave and forfeit your deposit. Its not the LL's fault but look at it logically.

1) If its such a kip nobody in their right mind will fill your place so your not going to be able to reassign so why waste your time and effort trying to do so

2) If its that bad when you come to move out your going to lose the deposit anyway Id imagine.

Next time be more careful about the people you move in with. Lesson to be learnt for you unfortunately.

Mrs OBumble

I've been known to place uncleaned dishes in the bed of the dirty f*** who left them in the kitchen sink. Only had to do it once to get the desired behaviour change.


TBH, you'll be luckly if all you lose is your desposit: you've signed a lease for 9 months, which means you're liable for that unless you can get a replacement tenant to your landlord's satisfaction.

Genevaman

Cut myself on broken glass nobody bothered to sweep up in the living room this morning. I'm out. If he wants to chase me down for money that's his problem but I'm done.

Cheers for the replies people. Doesn't seem like I have much in the way of rights here but at least I know what I'm up against.

quietsailor

Genevaman wrote: »

Cut myself on broken glass nobody bothered to sweep up in the living room this morning. I'm out. If he wants to chase me down for money that's his problem but I'm done.

Cheers for the replies people. Doesn't seem like I have much in the way of rights here but at least I know what I'm up against.

Fella (you sound like a fella) ranting about this si doing nothing for you except raise your blood pressure and probably make you more miserable than you are already. You keep posting about these kind of incidents and you don't seem to be taking in the points the other posters are making.

The landlord isn't the one making the mess - it's not his problem
The landlord isn't the one keeping you awake - it's not his problem

I'm not taking a dig at you, I'm trying to get the point across that it is nothing to do with the landlord, in fact the whole point of Irelands tenancy laws is that the LL must leave the tenants alone as much as possible - if he starts "doing something" to get the other tenants to behave as you'd like then the LL could be brought before the PRTB and be fined.

The LL isn't going to do anything, your the only one that can do anything -

1. if the place doesn't suit you you will have to move out and expect the loss of your deposit,
2. if you can't afford the loss of your deposit you will have to stay there until you can find someone to replace you

It sounds like you've gone for option 1 so the best thing to do is regard the lost deposit as a bloody good lesson about who you move into a house with - I've had similar happen to me and I'm cautious of who I live with now