Landlord accused my mother of forging her signature on Rent Allowance Supplement

bushybrowed

I'll make this short.

My landlord accused my mother of forging her signature on RAS forms. She said this as a means to essentially scare my mother and I out of the house, and said that if we didn't cancel an existing case with the PRTB, force the City Council's hand to drop an investigation into the property, leave in 10 days and pay her €200 by 3:00 pm on the 10th she'd call the guards. She had asked for over €1500 euro at first. My mother was originally like, hell no, I've been living in this house for 3 1/2 years -- you're just pissed because I filed a suit with the PRTB and the council found out about all the minimum standards regulations you broke. Originally we were going to simply keep on fighting but when her boyfriend started calling us incessantly, threatening to break down the door, and calling myself (a bloody teenager) a stupid bitch and c-nt that should "watch herself" did we decide to just get the hell out. We were afraid for our lives essentially, and my mother was scared that the accusation on forgery could cause her to lose RAS. We left the house and now desperately looking for a place to rent.

I, however, am a little plagued with the idea that the landlord could once again falsely claim forgery in the future in order to, essentially, blackmail my mother further. But, I'm also curious as to whether he claim even holds up -- she never contacted the guards again after my mother agreed to her "deal," accepted €200 to ensure she'd never call the guards, and then signed a rent allowance review form again even though she illegally evicted us. Isn't what she's doing illegal? isn't it illegal to sign a rent allowance form stating that she still has tenants in the home and that the state's money will be going to her for the next 6 months? (I'd also like to make it clear that my mother has not even retrieved her RAS payment for this month because she's afraid of the implications of accepting it while not being in the home.) What legal recourse do we have when this landlord keeps holding false claims over our head?

One eyed Jack

bushybrowed wrote: »

What legal recourse do we have when this landlord keeps holding false claims over our head?

There's quite a lot of personal information in the opening post OP so you may want to edit a lot of it out. That said, and I don't mean this to sound terrible, but we really can't give legal advice here. The only thing I could suggest is that your mum call into your local Garda station and have a chat with the officer on duty, and maybe it could start from there.

bushybrowed

I know, I do have quite a bit of info in there but I kind of just wanted to get across what was happening. I will try to edit it down more. Unfortunately we did go into the guards ourselves multiple times and were told that it's a civil matter. Even after we were threatened and told a guard would come down to us to take a statement no one ever came.

amcalester

Being threatened by the landlords partner isn't a civil matter.

Go back to guards and ask to speak to a sergeant, don't let the officer manning the front desk fob you off.

bushybrowed

I want to go back there and play the recordings in which he threatened my mother and I to, hopefully, a sergeant but I'm also afraid of the landlord and her partner. My mother has more fire than I do and she's just waiting till we're settled in somewhere to bring legal charges against them but as I said... what's stopping them from falsely accusing us of forgery again? how can -- to use a corny phrase -- justice be served when we're being warded off legal action due to a threat?

Samuel T. Cogley

You've seen first had it seems how useless the guards can be, why worried if they're called? There is never a situation where a tenant can be forceably removed from their home by the landlord. If you're being threatened like that it's harassment, call the guards. If the LL won't do the paperwork, good luck it's 18 months getting you out for non-payment of rent. Any threats etc. dial 999 immediately.

Edit: okay you've left? Gather all your evidence and go to the RTB.

You can't stop her from making the allegation, you may look at defamation down the line but for now get the LL done for the illegal eviction.

bushybrowed

We already left two days ago even though we had been putting up a fight since October to stay in the property. We weren't even being evicted for rent arrears (There was an arrears notice however of €275 but an verbal agreement was made earlier that year that we didn't have to pay it because of expenses due to being without water, but the then landlord went back on her word) it was due to refurbishment in the property. Refurbishment that the landlord lied about because we contacted the contractors she listed and they never had an agreement to do work in the house. The landlord has been getting away with murder and I don't know why. We contacted the guards so many times over the past 5 months because of the constant threats and no one ever helped us.... I didn't include the previous info in the first post in an attempt to make it less wordy, btw.

Samuel T. Cogley

bushybrowed wrote: »

We already left two days ago even though we had been putting up a fight since October to stay in the property. We weren't even being evicted for rent arrears (There was an arrears notice however of €275 but an verbal agreement was made earlier that year that we didn't have to pay it because of expenses due to being without water, but the then landlord went back on her word) it was due to refurbishment in the property. Refurbishment that the landlord lied about because we contacted the contractors she listed and they never had an agreement to do work in the house. The landlord has been getting away with murder and I don't know why. We contacted the guards so many times over the past 5 months because of the constant threats and no one ever helped us....

You have to be persistent with the guards. If they are ever on the property dial 999, they will respond. However some he said she said after the fact is not going to be a priority.

Gather up everything you have and lodge a complaint with the RTB. You may wish to hold off on the guards if there is no immediate danger anymore in case the criminal investigation impinges on the RTB's process.

Pat Mustard

Mod:

This thread can stay open for the time being, as long as no legal advice is sought or given. If legal advice is sought or given, this thread will have to be closed.

Practical advice may be given as long as it doesn't turn into legal advice such as "your landlord is liable for xyz because of abc" etc.

OP, in addition to the other complaints that you and your mother are entitled to make, you should tell your story to the city council housing dept; whoever deals with the RAS scheme.

seagull

Make a complaint to the PRTB about the illegal eviction and threats.
Go back to the gardai and say you want to make an official complaint about threatening behaviour and blackmail. It sounds like this has gone way beyond the boundaries of what could be deemed a civil matter.
Get back to the housing department and find out the implications of your mother signing the form. Also make sure to update them with the current situation to ensure the landlord doesn't get any further payments.

Mr. Incognito

No point going to the Guards now as you have left and they arent going to do much.

Take a claim to the PRTB and best of luck with it.

I'd have stayed personally and made myself a nuisance

davo10

It seems a strange accusation to make unless there was some substance to it, and presumably one that is easy to prove one way or the other. Why didn't you/your mum ask for proof of forgery?

I'm not a lawyer op, but if I were you/your mother, I'd want to be damn sure that the LLs signature was not forged on the RAS application. Playing devils advocate, if the signature was forged or your mum put a higher rental rate on form than was actually being charged, that could leave your mum open to fraud/theft charges, a real issue with the council/welfare and make the RTB case a little more difficult to predict.