Signed contract .paid deposit. Now LL isnt sure that they want to accept HAP

oranbhoy67

Hi all please bear with me whilst I try to explain my situation and look for advice.

I'm a single father (3 day weekend custody & half holiday time) of a boy, I wanted to live closer to him (for normal reasons and others which I will explain at the end) so I had a private let agreed in an area that he lives, where its normally very hard to get one with HAP, I have a dog too and although he has lived in a flat all his life again many LLs don't wish to take them, Understandable , my dog is very quiet and tame but I do understand LLs reasons for this

The person who advertised it and showed me around said they would take HAP which im already on and they had no issue with my dog also.. she then told me to sort out the details with a local estate agent which I did, she had the estate agents sign up a contract which I signed, as did this woman, I told her that I wished to move in this Monday which she and the estate agent agreed to as long as I paid up a months rent, the same in euros again as a deposit & a further €200 for heating oil already in the building,

I paid this today into the bank account which I was asked to

I yesterday (Friday) cancelled my direct debit for rent and HAP in this house which I have been living in. and my request to transfer HAP to this other area was approved.

I received my new HAP application form this week and gave form B (LLs Form) to the estate agent for them to fill in. And told them I would my form (A) ready for Monday.

So far - so good I was delighted that the first house I looked at was willing to take me on considering I am on HAP and own a dog

Fast forward to very late in the day yesterday and the estate agent rang me at half 4 to say that the landlady is now having second thoughts because of the complexity of the HAP form having seen it and now needs till Monday to make her mind up if she actually wants to go thru with it!!

despite both me and her mother signing off on the lease agreement with her mother signing on her behalf - it turns out the actual owner of the house is the woman who I had been initially dealing withs daughter who lives in the US, and she had been letting her Mum deal with everything through the estate agent!

But her mum has let out plenty of houses before and was well aware of what HAP is !!!

I explained again my predicament to the estate agent and that I was now just about packed and ready to go and that come Monday I had signed the contract to live in this new house and had cut all ties from my current house ( although HAP is not mentioned in the contract it was explicitly agreed on , in fact we signed 2 contracts. one with the price that HAP is willing to pay and one with the extra I was going to pay on top)

Just about all the money that I have is tied up in this woman's bank account, and in paying for the removals van... her mother is on holiday now too and I'm told she will email me before Monday to inform me of her final decision... from what I gathered from the estate agent. showing Tax forms to HAP seems to her major issue ..but thats me double guessing.

of course she might still accept it and I could be worrying about nothing.. but if not I'm stuck with nowhere to go, I'm on disability, with a dog and a van full of furniture , electrical equipment and clothes that will all have to go somewhere.. I don't & can't drive due to my disability & its very rural where I plan to move and there is no council housing available to me in my sons area, well there are plenty of council houses empty but nothing seemingly been done about getting them ready .


So just really worried now about what this weekend is going to bring leading up to Monday, the estate agent has asked the woman in the US to email me her decision before Monday, because of the anxiety that this turn of events has now been causing me. I have already been super stressed out just moving and trying to set all this up.

A major footnote to all this, I also - and this might sound hard to believe but its true - have been getting harassed by a man for over 2 years who is very mentally unstable, and his harassment last year at one point went as far as assaulting me, I have a Letter from the Gardai Stating that they believe it "is prudent that I be relocated due to this ongoing harassment that they are investigating" they told me an arrest for harassment is imminent to add to the arrest for assault, and the man has also made sexual abuse threats against my son, which is the main reason I want to be away from this person and closer to my son where I feel that I can protect him more.

so yeah a complicated one and any advice welcome

Pkiernan

She cannot refuse HAP Tenancies.
If she does, open a dispute with the RTB.
You can expect to be awarded a significant sum of money by her.
Keep all correspondence.

Contracts have been signed, it's your home now.

Graham

something like this?????

Dear Agent,

I am disappointed to hear your client is considering cancelling the agreed tenancy on the basis that I am in receipt of HAP.

I trust you will give your client the appropriate professional advice and hope once your client has time to consider the implications over the weekend that the tenancy will go ahead as arranged on Monday.

As the lease has been signed and deposit/rent paid I will assume we will proceed as agreed on Monday.

Kind......