Evicting tenants

confused landlord

Apologies if this has been asked before. Im renting a house since Feb to a couple. They have breached their tenancy conditions - rubbish gathering outside, dogs in house even though no animals allowed as per lease, dog excrement outside house not being cleaned etc. Everytime I ring them they dont answer the phone. I cant call to the house as I live 150miles away.They also stopped paying the rent. I sent them the breach of tenancy notification and the 14days arrears of rent notification. On expiry of the 14 days I sent them an eviction notice.
Ive started a dispute case through the PRTB - does anyone know how long this takes? I opted for mediation as this seems to be quicker. has anyone any experience of this?
The tenants are given 24 hours to move out? What happens if they dont move?
Seems so unfair that they can stay in my property for nearly 7 weeks not paying rent and I only have a deposit for one month. The deposit wont even cover the rent as Ill probably end up spending it disposing of their rubbish and I dont even know what state the house is in inside.

TimeToShine

PRTB is notorious for being quite slow I'm afraid.

If they aren't gone once 28 days have elapsed since you sent them the eviction notice are up call the gards and tell them they are trespassing on your property.

You're probably just going to have to take the hit financially and chalk it down to experience.

Funky G

Oh god.

Start the ball rolling. Send them a notice of eviction and tell them to vacate the property within 28 days. state your reasons in doing so - lack of rent, animals and their fowling, etc. Reg post the letter. The PRTB are a dinosaur of an organisation. Unfortunately, get in contact with them in case the tenants do also. Keep records of all the payments the tenants have made till the stopped.

Best of luck!

njs030

TimeToShine wrote: »

PRTB is notorious for being quite slow I'm afraid.

If they aren't gone once 28 days have elapsed since you sent them the eviction notice are up call the gards and tell them they are trespassing on your property.

As far as I know you can't do this?? If they disagree with the notice or overstay past it you need to go through the prtb.

odds_on

confused landlord wrote: »

Apologies if this has been asked before. Im renting a house since Feb to a couple. They have breached their tenancy conditions - rubbish gathering outside, dogs in house even though no animals allowed as per lease, dog excrement outside house not being cleaned etc. Everytime I ring them they dont answer the phone. I cant call to the house as I live 150miles away.They also stopped paying the rent. I sent them the breach of tenancy notification and the 14days arrears of rent notification. On expiry of the 14 days I sent them an eviction notice.
Ive started a dispute case through the PRTB - does anyone know how long this takes? I opted for mediation as this seems to be quicker. has anyone any experience of this?
The tenants are given 24 hours to move out? What happens if they dont move?
Seems so unfair that they can stay in my property for nearly 7 weeks not paying rent and I only have a deposit for one month. The deposit wont even cover the rent as Ill probably end up spending it disposing of their rubbish and I dont even know what state the house is in inside.

Such a short notice period for this is, IMHO, invalid. The minimum notice period is 7 days for breach of serious anti-social behaviour.

However, as the tenants have not been in the property for 6 months, they have not yet acquired Part 4 rights. Therefore, you should just serve a Notice of Termination for breach of terms and conditions of the lease. No warning notice is required.

confused landlord

Ive served them with an eviction notice which gives them 28 days and on the 28th day they have 24 hours to leave. Ive lodged a dispute with the prtb for rent arrears and breach of tenancy obligations. From what Im reading here the prtb wont have it dealt with in the next few weeks. Im going to be left well out of pocket. Tenants probably think its great having 28days rent free on top of the last 3 weeks they havent paid rent. How will the prtb even track them down as ill have no forwarding address.

njs030

confused landlord wrote: »

Ive served them with an eviction notice which gives them 28 days and on the 28th day they have 24 hours to leave. Ive lodged a dispute with the prtb for rent arrears and breach of tenancy obligations. From what Im reading here the prtb wont have it dealt with in the next few weeks. Im going to be left well out of pocket. Tenants probably think its great having 28days rent free on top of the last 3 weeks they havent paid rent. How will the prtb even track them down as ill have no forwarding address.

Have you contacted the prtb? If they don't move out you will have to lodge a complaint to get them out in which case more rent arrears will add up, you can't just turn up and change the locks or do anything illegal- you need to check exactly what you are meant to do if they don't leave.

Be careful how you tread as you don't want to give them a case against you! Have you tried engaging with the tenant to sort out the issues?

confused landlord

Yes Ive contacted the prtb and they said to issue eviction notice and lodge a dispute-have done all this. The tenant changed his number so I couldnt make contact. They are both polish and claim not to have good English so when I asked for the new number I was left the number one digit short. Anyway I finally got the number, I keep ringing and texting and they keep ignoring me. Apart from one text saying theyd lodge the rent last week and the didn't. Ive been so civil to them despite one of them swearing down the phone at me when I said if you dont pay your rent you leave me with no choice but to evict you (as per Act). Im presuming that after the 28 days notice are up I have every right to go into my property, change the locks and remove their belongings.

athtrasna

confused landlord wrote: »

Im presuming that after the 28 days notice are up I have every right to go into my property, change the locks and remove their belongings.

Alas no, that would be treated as an illegal eviction believe it or not!

confused landlord

Oh No, so what do I do then?

confused landlord

Has anyone used the PRTB mediation service? I wonder does it take long for the PRTB to contact the tenant?

athtrasna

If they overstay you have to go through the PRTB. Some landlords go as far as bribing tenants to leave as it's a speedier and ultimately cheaper process :eek:

the_syco

confused landlord wrote: »

Ive served them with an eviction notice

How did you do this? If you physically gave it to them, it's most likely a waste of time, as it'll be your word against their word.

whippet

athtrasna wrote: »

If they overstay you have to go through the PRTB. Some landlords go as far as bribing tenants to leave as it's a speedier and ultimately cheaper process :eek:

that is the most common route to eviction.

I had to do it a couple of years back, they actually wanted €10k to leave the property (everything about the eviction was perfectly within the requirements of the law - I had advise on this) .. they wouldn't leave.

When I called to the house after they were supposed to be gone I was encountered by about 10 of their extended family who arrived in caravans and hiaces.

I make a swift escape. Eventually after some informal conversations with some members of the AGS .. I was able to convince them to leave with their deposit and a months rent (even though they hadn't paid rent for three months) .. this amount was small change to the amount I had to pay to get the house ready for the next tenancy.

Its amazing how much certain individuals can live up to a stereotype in real life.

By the sounds of it your tenants know the game and will stretch this out as long as they can. The PRTB will tell you informally over the phone that in cases where tenants are 'over staying' as in staying after formal eviction notices are given without paying rent .. they will act quicker, but in reality you will still be hanging for a couple of months with no access to the property and no rent.

Unfortunately in ireland the system and the law is all in favour of the tenant and the landlord has little or no actual recourse to recoup losses or gain rightful access to their properties.

Cuddlesworth

The process is as follows.

Notice of arrears.
Notice of eviction.
In your case, its now PRTB mediation.
PRTB adjudication.
Circuit court case.
Eviction order with Sheriff.
Repairs to property.
New tenants.

If it takes less then a year, your lucky.
If you know their places of employment you can take up another court case and get their wages garnished for the rent lost and property missing. Although in most cases, the people who do this know this is unlikely to happen.

slingerz

i've got new neighbours yesterday and the squad car was there less than 24 hours later. the father has got criminal convictions that you dont want living next door to.

the only option is to move out but where we are there is a lack of alternative properties really

odds_on

confused landlord wrote: »

Ive served them with an eviction notice which gives them 28 days and on the 28th day they have 24 hours to leave. Ive lodged a dispute with the prtb for rent arrears and breach of tenancy obligations. From what Im reading here the prtb wont have it dealt with in the next few weeks. Im going to be left well out of pocket. Tenants probably think its great having 28days rent free on top of the last 3 weeks they havent paid rent. How will the prtb even track them down as ill have no forwarding address.

It is neither the PRTB's job (nor the court's job) to "track down" the address of ex tenants against whom you are making a claim. If you don't have their address the PRTB cannot send any documents about the claim to them so the case will not proceed.

whippet

odds_on wrote: »

It is neither the PRTB's job (nor the court's job) to "track down" the address of ex tenants against whom you are making a claim. If you don't have their address the PRTB cannot send any documents about the claim to them so the case will not proceed.

that is why I would love to see PRSI numbers being required from both the tenant and the landlord in all tenancies. These can be held by the PRTB, should a determination order be made an application to have either the landlords or tenants wages / social welfare garnished to repay the debt.

It would be a seismic shift from the one-sided system at the moment and I am sure that both landlords and tenants will start behaving better as soon as they realise that they will have not option but to pay for their choices !

confused landlord

odds_on wrote: »

It is neither the PRTB's job (nor the court's job) to "track down" the address of ex tenants against whom you are making a claim. If you don't have their address the PRTB cannot send any documents about the claim to them so the case will not proceed.

On the PRTB website they say that they do use PPS numbers to 'track down' tenants as they share information with other Government agencies.

confused landlord

whippet wrote: »

that is why I would love to see PRSI numbers being required from both the tenant and the landlord in all tenancies. These can be held by the PRTB, should a determination order be made an application to have either the landlords or tenants wages / social welfare garnished to repay the debt.

It would be a seismic shift from the one-sided system at the moment and I am sure that both landlords and tenants will start behaving better as soon as they realise that they will have not option but to pay for their choices !

I needed the tenants PPS numbers to register them with PRTB. I have no problem giving mine to any tenant who wants to claim their tax free allowance on rental payments.

Calina

whippet wrote: »

that is why I would love to see PRSI numbers being required from both the tenant and the landlord in all tenancies. These can be held by the PRTB, should a determination order be made an application to have either the landlords or tenants wages / social welfare garnished to repay the debt.

It would be a seismic shift from the one-sided system at the moment and I am sure that both landlords and tenants will start behaving better as soon as they realise that they will have not option but to pay for their choices !

Tenant PPS numbers are required for registration. Given your assertions of how things would change if they were available, I'm surprised you don't know this basic piece of information.

whippet

Calina wrote: »

Tenant PPS numbers are required for registration. Given your assertions of how things would change if they were available, I'm surprised you don't know this basic piece of information.

What I am looking for is that the PPS number can be used to garnish incomes based upon determination orders by the PRTB so people can actually get their money back from rogue tenants and landlords.

As it stands I have the PPS number of a tenant who owes me about €8k in damages, rent arrears etc .. and I have absolutely no way of getting this money back unless I attempt to take a civil court action and I know that this course of action would just be throwing good money after bad.

If their substantial social welfare payments could be garnished to reimburse me (may take years) I am sure this tenant wouldn't do the same to the next landlord.

If there was a mechanism in place like this you would see an increase in the number of landlords willing to accept rent allowance etc ...

French landlord

confused landlord wrote: »

Has anyone used the PRTB mediation service? I wonder does it take long for the PRTB to contact the tenant?

I am a French landlord and filled a dispute with the PRTB re. my tenant not paying her rent. It took about 6 months before the case got through adjudication. The tenant was then kick out of the house and she was supposed to pay 500€ per month until total reimbursement of the unpaid rents. Unfortunately she never paid a cent back and left without a forwarding address... PRTB is unable to find her. We are left out with 5000 € unpaid rents + 3000 € charges to put the house back in good condition after she left... Good luck

garhjw

Calina wrote: »

Tenant PPS numbers are required for registration. Given your assertions of how things would change if they were available, I'm surprised you don't know this basic piece of information.

You don't need the PPS number to register the tenancy. It is asked for but if you don't have it that doesn't stop you registering it. I'm surprised you didn't know that.