Moved into a dirty rental ... Help!

Catnwinnie

Today myself and my boyfriend started moving into our new rental in cork and as we started looking around we noticed the place was a bit grubby. The day we went to view the house, there was a cleaner there and the LA told us the place was being cleaned and painted as needed so we happily agreed to take it. We paid our deposit and first months rent and signed the lease.

So today we gathered up our cleaning products and began cleaning. We quickly realised the house was manky! The fridge was stinking and when I was scrubbing the oven I opened the bottom part to see about 100 maggots.

Needless to say we left immediately. I have emailed the LA and sent her pictures but we are wondering what our rights are. I told her to either deep clean the whole house or give us our money back. We haven't heard anything back yet.

Any advice welcome!!

Barely Hedged

Catnwinnie wrote: »

Today myself and my boyfriend started moving into our new rental in cork and as we started looking around we noticed the place was a bit grubby. The day we went to view the house, there was a cleaner there and the LA told us the place was being cleaned and painted as needed so we happily agreed to take it. We paid our deposit and first months rent and signed the lease.

So today we gathered up our cleaning products and began cleaning. We quickly realised the house was manky! The fridge was stinking and when I was scrubbing the oven I opened the bottom part to see about 100 maggots.

Needless to say we left immediately. I have emailed the LA and sent her pictures but we are wondering what our rights are. I told her to either deep clean the whole house or give us our money back. We haven't heard anything back yet.

Any advice welcome!!

What does your lease say about cleaning the property? If it says you have to leave it in a cleaned state then the apartment should be handed to you in the same state

the_syco

They have your money, so there's not much bargaining. You do have to wonder how bad it was before the cleaner was there, however!

As said above, what does your lease say?

Catnwinnie

The lease says must keep property and all it's contents in good clean condition.
Surely maggots in the oven is not good clean condition! The only bit of hope I have is that it's a small town and I'm sure the letting agency wouldn't want people to know the condition of one of their rentals.

I don't want to even think of the state of it before! New carpets upstairs so they must be covering something. Shudder!!

the_syco wrote: »

They have your money, so there's not much bargaining. You do have to wonder how bad it was before the cleaner was there, however!

As said above, what does your lease say?

Barely Hedged

Catnwinnie wrote: »

The lease says must keep property and all it's contents in good clean condition.
Surely maggots in the oven is not good clean condition! The only bit of hope I have is that it's a small town and I'm sure the letting agency wouldn't want people to know the condition of one of their rentals.

I don't want to even think of the state of it before! New carpets upstairs so they must be covering something. Shudder!!

Tell the landlord that you want it professionally cleaned or at least cleaned to the standard stated in the lease.

I can't say at this stage what you can do legally from here, but she has to stick to the terms of the leaee

Catnwinnie

Thanks. Yeah I'll just have to wait and see what she says and go from there.
Cheers for the speedy responses

Barely Hedged wrote: »

Tell the landlord that you want it professionally cleaned or at least cleaned to the standard stated in the lease.

I can't say at this stage what you can do legally from here, but she has to stick to the terms of the leaee

Field east

You could consider getting the 'opinion' of the county council's health and safety officer re the accomodation being fit or not for human accomodation if the LLs response is unsatisfactory

Kristopherus

Field east wrote: »

You could consider getting the 'opinion' of the county council's health and safety officer re the accomodation being fit or not for human accomodation if the LLs response is unsatisfactory

A better option would be to ring the local HSE hq and ask them to send out an E.H.O to have a look at that oven.

Catnwinnie

The Letting agent emailed this morning as she is off work until tomorrow and she just said she would contact the LL ASAP and come back to me. Hopefully they will sort it out. Reading through the rights of the tenant I saw that a fridge and freezer must be provided but we only have a small fridge and ice box. I'll have to mention that also.

Catnwinnie

Just to update. The LA has informed me that they are getting a specialist cleaner in to deep clean the whole place. Apparently the owner of the house was disgusted with what he heard about the place. I'm meeting her tomorrow to show her the filth!! Thanks for the advice ðŸ˜႒

MouseTail

Catnwinnie wrote: »

Reading through the rights of the tenant I saw that a fridge and freezer must be provided but we only have a small fridge and ice box. I'll have to mention that also.

An icebox/freezer section is sufficient under the regs.

hfallada

Catnwinnie wrote: »

Just to update. The LA has informed me that they are getting a specialist cleaner in to deep clean the whole place. Apparently the owner of the house was disgusted with what he heard about the place. I'm meeting her tomorrow to show her the filth!! Thanks for the advice ðŸ˜႒

I wouldnt be surprised if the LL was unaware of what the estate agent was doing. Rentals are too low return for estate agents compared to sales, so they tend to get lower rental price to fill the place ASAP and dont give a **** about the service they provide. I dont know of a single LL I know that uses an estate agent or who has used an estate agent to let their property and be satisfied with the service they provide

Arbiter of Good Taste

hfallada wrote: »

I wouldnt be surprised if the LL was unaware of what the estate agent was doing. Rentals are too low return for estate agents compared to sales, so they tend to get lower rental price to fill the place ASAP and dont give a **** about the service they provide. I dont know of a single LL I know that uses an estate agent or who has used an estate agent to let their property and be satisfied with the service they provide

We use a letting agent to let out our properties (we manage them ourselves) and are extremely satisfied with him. I've recommended him to others