Paying deposit without contract

Benzino

Hi all,

My GF and I are looking to rent a house in Dublin. We have viewed the place twice at this stage, and met the landlord on both occasions. He seems like a very nice man, up front and honest about the place. Today, when we were viewing it for the last time before agreeing to take it, he was cleaning the place out and said he is replacing the mattress this week and will even be re-doing the windows at some point this year. He has even given us the keys to the place in case we want to tip in again or show friends/family.

It all sounds great however there is no contract to view or look over. He said once we pay the first months rent and deposit he will, and I quote, "write on a scrap of paper that he received the money and the terms of the agreement". Is this normal practice? I don't feel comfortable giving money (via bank, not cash in hand) without some sort of document to fall back on. He did say that he is not a registered landlord, that this is his parents house.

As he's not registered I can't see him offering a written contract. If his parents own the house they are the Landlords, if you are happy renting from an unregistered landlord you must be happy with the pitfalls that brings.

hdowney

Honestly I'd be walking away from it. He is not a registered landlord and that would ring all sorts of bells for me. It's his parents house. Are they registered landlords, in which case ask to deal with them and get a contract from them BEFORE paying over money. Otherwise just walk away. All you are seeing and hearing is probably too good to be true and whilst yes you can still take him to the PRTB even if not registered, you could end up in a whole heap of crap by then.

_Kaiser_

I'd want to see a proper lease first and to make sure he's authorised to rent the place/act on his parents behalf, but I personally wouldn't be too bothered if he's "registered" or not myself. If this property is outside Dublin then what you describe would fit with my own experiences and all the better for it IMO as you're dealing directly with the guy rather than some disinterested "agency" and it'd generally be the norm to do things a little more "informally".

Given the ineffectual and long-winded nature of the PRTB to resolve any issues, the fact that there's not much weight to their judgements anyway (as evidenced by some of the threads here), and the general attitude that renting is only a temporary step on the road to ownership and so doesn't have to be taken too seriously that is common in landlords, tenants and the regulators, it's pretty much the Wild West anyway so your gut is all you can go by and - registered or not - if there ARE issues (as a tenant or a landlord), you can look forward to months of hassle and frustration to get it solved..maybe!

Of course in an ideal (or even professional) world, everyone would be registered, tenants would behave themselves, landlords would be quick and responsive to any issues and so on - but as long as the above situation exists, getting people like that is the exception rather than the norm it seems.

Mrs OBumble

AFAIK, there is no such thing as a registered landlord.

There are registered tenancies - ie combination of LL and tenant and property.

And there are registered property / estate management companies.

But not landlords.

Mrs OBumble

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

AFAIK, there is no such thing as a registered landlord.

100% correct.

When one refers to a registered landlord it used to mean he was declaring the income to revenue, in recent years it also refers to the landlord having the tenancy registered.

It's a figure of speech sort of thing.

foggy_lad

Also when he says it's his parents house I would be taking that to mean they are deceased and it is now his house to live in or rent out as he pleases.

the_syco

Benzino wrote: »

that this is his parents house.

I'd avoid it. He's renting a house he doesn't own, and won't give you a lease until after you pay the deposit; could be a whole load of rules that you may not like on the lease, but it'll be too late by then.

TimeToShine

Make a judgement call, nice properties are hard to come by in Dublin so if you think he's genuine and really like the place I'll go against the grain and say that I don't see what the problem is. It's true you'll have less rights but once again it's up to your judgement - if he's offering to replace mattresses/fix windows throughout the year he might be just as genuine as a landlord with "a document to back him up".

If that doesn't tickle your fancy you could maybe try and google a few typical leases, alter accordingly and print off to show him. It sounds to me like it's laziness more than anything on his behalf - or hesitancy because he isn't sure how the system works.

Just as an addendum, are you sure you aren't misinterpreting his quote? "Write on a scrap of paper" doesn't necessarily mean he's going to whip out a used handkerchief and expect you to sign on the dotted line - it could well be just a figure of speech. It's pretty common practice now in Dublin to have to stump up the deposit on the spot and then sign the lease at a later date.

Benzino

Hey all,

So after getting lots of people's opinions on it, we went ahead and paid the deposit. A number of people seem to be saying that this is common place in Dublin, and the fact we already had the keys before paying the deposit gave us some reassurance.

So far so good, while we haven't moved in yet, we have visited the place since none of the locks have been changed, well not yet anyway He has also cleaned up and repaired items in the house and brought a new kitchen table and chairs as there were none there originally.

I wasn't aware of the registered landlord not actually been a thing. I thought that was a requirement for a tenant to claim rent relief for example?

foggy_lad wrote:

Also when he says it's his parents house I would be taking that to mean they are deceased and it is now his house to live in or rent out as he pleases.

No, his parents are not deceased, well not to our knowledge anyway. They would be elderly, he is in his 50's, so I'd imagine he is just taking care of renting it out and maintaining it for them.