Sub-letting and hot water use

Midkemia

I moved into a new place in the last few weeks and the person I am sub letting off has asked me to restrict my shower hours to only one hour of the day and asked that I make them as short as possible as the apartment does not have a lot of hot water. Basically less then 2 minutes.

Of course I realised that this couldn't be true pretty quickly and found the button in the hot press to turn on hot water, so when I go to take a shower I turn on the hot water for 20 minutes beforehand...so I don't have to shower in cold water.

This is leading to a lot of confrontations with the guy I'm sub letting off who isn't happy that I am doing this. I am just wondering what are my rights in this situation as I am a licensee and don't have the landlords details, surely this is breaching some sort of minimum standard for rentals? I want to be clear that I am absolutely not taking the piss here and I am taking far shorter showers then I normally would, sometimes there's no hot water for the entire day and the guy expects you to just take a cold water shower? Bills are shared equally between me and him.

loyatemu

nothing gets Irish people more worked up than leaving the immersion on!

Does he shower himself? If you're splitting the electricity bill I don't see the problem.

HerrKapitan

Do ye pay the bills between you or does your landlord? I wonder does the landlord know about this sublet.

banie01

As a licensee, it's house rules. You have no tenancy rights and your reference to "sub-letting" is incorrect. If the person you are renting a room from is the leaseholder? Your relationship as a licensee is solely with them, you have none with the landlord.

I appreciate it's a shít situation and in particular given the current housing situation. But unless you are a named leaseholder? And not just renting the room from the leaseholder via a license arrangement? You either abide by the "house rules" or leave. What you should be aware of as a licensee, is that there is no protection against immediate eviction should the leaseholder decide.

Now perhaps a compromise is possible? You offer to look at the last few gas/electric bill bills before you moved in, and see what average usage is. Then offer to pay the usual 50% of that plus whatever extra is added via your preferred shower schedule. e.g if previous 6 months AVG out at 100 per month and bills since you moved in are averaging 120. You pay 50 as your "half" of the bills plus 20 as your additional usage.

cruizer101

Thats ridiculous, that said as licensee you have very little rights.

20 min x 30 days x 3kW = 27 units of electricity say 25c thats 7 quid a month i.e. feck all

You could even offer to pay him that 7 quid a month if you wanted.

Feckin idiot though, when you sublet there are certain things which are standard and should never even be questioned like having a hot shower. Maybe if you were having 2 long showers a day but even then it a bit crazy.

Midkemia

He will not provide previous bills unfortunately. I guess I will just have to look for a new place asap as the rent per month on this place is quite high and having to deal with an issue like this blows my mind to be honest. I thought hot water had to be available to a tenant regardless of whether they are a licensee or not 😳



JimmyVik

Ive never taken a shower for less than 20 minutes in my life.

OP if you play sports, dont ever wash your socks. When you get home put them on and walk around the house in them.

The smell will get worse and worse as the weeks go on. When you are waling past the other tenants and notice a nose twitch , just say , jaysus id love a proper shower, but sure yer man has me on the clock so i cant even get past washing my balls before the time is up.

After that its a game of who gives in first.

This is ridiculous op. Id look for a new place ASAP.

An aspect of Ireland seems obsessed with hot water heating sometimes. It’s like we come up with these lousy heating systems that are inadequately insulated and don’t work very well, and then some people seem to see hot water as an extreme luxury, as if they are living in the 1940s.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117852707#Comment_117852707

Wrong, once the lead tenant has Part 4 rights their licencee can apply to be put on the lease and the landlord can't really refuse. OP tell the lead tenant that they need to give you the landlords details or you'll lodge a case against them with the RTB for being an illegal landlord.

" (7) A person who is lawfully in occupation of the dwelling concerned as a licensee of the tenant or the multiple tenants, as the case may be, during the subsistence of a Part 4 tenancy may request the landlord of the dwelling to allow him or her to become a tenant of the dwelling.

(8) The landlord may not unreasonably refuse to accede to such a request; if the request is acceded to—

(a) an acknowledgement in writing by the landlord that the requester has become a tenant of the landlord suffices for the purpose,

(b) the requester shall hold the dwelling—

(i) on the same terms, or as appropriately modified, as those on which the existing tenant or multiple tenants hold the dwelling (other than terms comprising the rights, restrictions and obligations which arise by virtue of a Part 4 tenancy being in existence in respect of the dwelling),

(ii) upon (if such be the case) subsection (3) being satisfied in respect of the requester, subject to the same rights, restrictions and obligations as those subject to which the multiple tenant whose continuous occupation gave rise to the Part 4 tenancy's existence holds the dwelling. "

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2004/act/27/section/50/enacted/en/html

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2004/act/27/section/50/enacted/en/html

Here's a sample letter from Threshold

https://www.threshold.ie/assets/files/docx/licensee-to-landlord_letter.docx

mrslancaster

Edit

enricoh

Sounds like he had the apartment to himself for a while and wants to have it back to himself. Sod him, shower away and move asap.

Jmc25

If you can move, move. I've dealt with people like this in the past (monitoring the use of the kettle!!) and there's just no getting through to them. Life's just too short to stress about people like this.

meijin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117857829#Comment_117857829

oh, are you the person who fills up the kettle to the brim just for one cup of tea? 🤣

Diemos

oh, are you the person who fills up the kettle to the brim just for one cup of tea? 🤣

Have you house shared with my wife?

I’m going to guess it’s not just 20 mins is what’s causing the friction. Is it being left on longer, are you forgetting to turn it off?

Midkemia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117863954#Comment_117863954

It is turning it on on full stop, his argument is that I should only shower during the pre-set hour he has set it to come on at or else take a cold shower.

Del2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117864298#Comment_117864298

Is the immersion set to bath or sink? If it's sink turn it to bath and he most likely won't notice.

In reality you have to either move or get on the lease. He's taking the p1ss so needs taking down and loosing his €14k tax free income from you will hurt