E
emma09
Guest
We got tenants in 2005. As we were first time Landlords, didn't really knew how the system worked.
We found out 3-4 months later that Tenants were sub-lettting. Our property was well looked after and they seem nice people so we didnt say much.
Then tenants had arguements with each other and one of them left and another guy took over - so we had him as "main person" as point of contact for paying rent / bill etc.
Everything fine for next 2 years. We increased the rent every year as whatever the going rate was that time.
Everything OK. Fast Forward to June 2009. We got Reduced Rent (about €400 less) from the Tenant in our Bank Account for the month.
Few days later arranged to meet up at the house and speak to the Tenant. He had lots of papers infront of him. He had been touch with Social Welfare / Healthboard. He was really aggressive. His wife standing in one corner - speaking in her language to the husband. Both were very aggressive towards me and my husband.
Anyway, tried to ask what happened. If everything OK. they told us we were Greedy, Liars, taking too much money off them. and called us all sorts of names. I was pregnant at the time, I got very upset and cried ( I know, I shouldnt have!) Anyway, we asked what happened? We were prepared to be flexible with the rent - and had realised finances for people had changed quite a bit for everyone in 2009 - including my husband, who had lost Job since January of 2009.
After, we all calmed down, the Tenant told us that he had lost Job in January 2009 and the rest of the tenants (whom he was subletting, had gone back to their country - Eastern european). We said, OK, we understand, why you are upset. Lets talk on mutually agreeable figure. He started shouting again!
We tried to reason with them, that they had a lease agreement with us and strictly speaking cannot do anything about it. The agreement was from January 2009 - January 2010.
We explained, we are paying Fixed Interest Rate mortgage - a much higher rate than a lot of people paying in 2009, but we couldnt do anything as we had agreement with our Bank.
They didnt wanted to hear anything and wanted to terminate the contract. I thought, we had good realtionship with the Tenants and since they are not happy with the Rent and things are tight for them.. lets agree on finishing this agreement and asked them if they wanted to vacate? and they said YES. So, we said, give us sometime before we can find another Tenant to replace them. So, we both agreed, verbally for the end of the month - 30th June. It was first week of June, when we spoke.
They left within 2-3 days and left the keys with neighbours. Later on, few months later, we got a call from Threshold telling us that we need to pay him back Deposit? My husband tried explaining to them what happened and that we were left without Tenants for few weeks - had to clean up the place as they left the place in a mess and few things broken. They didn't wanted to hear this and told us about Tenants Rights.
My husband half heartdly agreed to paying part of the Deposit back on condition that we wanted to speak to the Tenant Face-to-Face - it never happened. In the meantime, we have had our own financial problems and to be honest, we left it and didnt hear from them for the last few months.
Today, we got a letter from PRTB asking us to attend a "Hearing" and we are both worried sick about this. I cannot believe this is happeneing to us. We tried our best to look after this Tenant. He was so nice and polite in the first couple of years. Always offered us cup of tea.. drink etc.. and all of a sudden due to difficulty paying in rent - he has turned completely opposite. We know we haven't done anything wrong. We were prepared to lower down the Rent, as everyone was doing in middle of 2009. We did not ask him to leave the house in 2-3 days ( he obviously had planned it). Now we are being told that we are the guilty party.
The only thing we are guilty of is that we do not have any paper proof of all this.
I can't find any bank statements to prove that he didnt pay us the full amount in the last month.
We paid for PRTB in the first couple of years but we didnt pay in 2009 - quite frankly we did not have the money. All the rent money went towards paying for Mortgage/insurance misc. costs etc.
Now, we are going to be prosecuted for not paying for PRTB - who we all know is there to offer help to TENANTS and not to Landlords.
Its all such a mess.
What can we do?
Ted his deposit back.
We found out 3-4 months later that Tenants were sub-lettting. Our property was well looked after and they seem nice people so we didnt say much.
Then tenants had arguements with each other and one of them left and another guy took over - so we had him as "main person" as point of contact for paying rent / bill etc.
Everything fine for next 2 years. We increased the rent every year as whatever the going rate was that time.
Everything OK. Fast Forward to June 2009. We got Reduced Rent (about €400 less) from the Tenant in our Bank Account for the month.
Few days later arranged to meet up at the house and speak to the Tenant. He had lots of papers infront of him. He had been touch with Social Welfare / Healthboard. He was really aggressive. His wife standing in one corner - speaking in her language to the husband. Both were very aggressive towards me and my husband.
Anyway, tried to ask what happened. If everything OK. they told us we were Greedy, Liars, taking too much money off them. and called us all sorts of names. I was pregnant at the time, I got very upset and cried ( I know, I shouldnt have!) Anyway, we asked what happened? We were prepared to be flexible with the rent - and had realised finances for people had changed quite a bit for everyone in 2009 - including my husband, who had lost Job since January of 2009.
After, we all calmed down, the Tenant told us that he had lost Job in January 2009 and the rest of the tenants (whom he was subletting, had gone back to their country - Eastern european). We said, OK, we understand, why you are upset. Lets talk on mutually agreeable figure. He started shouting again!
We tried to reason with them, that they had a lease agreement with us and strictly speaking cannot do anything about it. The agreement was from January 2009 - January 2010.
We explained, we are paying Fixed Interest Rate mortgage - a much higher rate than a lot of people paying in 2009, but we couldnt do anything as we had agreement with our Bank.
They didnt wanted to hear anything and wanted to terminate the contract. I thought, we had good realtionship with the Tenants and since they are not happy with the Rent and things are tight for them.. lets agree on finishing this agreement and asked them if they wanted to vacate? and they said YES. So, we said, give us sometime before we can find another Tenant to replace them. So, we both agreed, verbally for the end of the month - 30th June. It was first week of June, when we spoke.
They left within 2-3 days and left the keys with neighbours. Later on, few months later, we got a call from Threshold telling us that we need to pay him back Deposit? My husband tried explaining to them what happened and that we were left without Tenants for few weeks - had to clean up the place as they left the place in a mess and few things broken. They didn't wanted to hear this and told us about Tenants Rights.
My husband half heartdly agreed to paying part of the Deposit back on condition that we wanted to speak to the Tenant Face-to-Face - it never happened. In the meantime, we have had our own financial problems and to be honest, we left it and didnt hear from them for the last few months.
Today, we got a letter from PRTB asking us to attend a "Hearing" and we are both worried sick about this. I cannot believe this is happeneing to us. We tried our best to look after this Tenant. He was so nice and polite in the first couple of years. Always offered us cup of tea.. drink etc.. and all of a sudden due to difficulty paying in rent - he has turned completely opposite. We know we haven't done anything wrong. We were prepared to lower down the Rent, as everyone was doing in middle of 2009. We did not ask him to leave the house in 2-3 days ( he obviously had planned it). Now we are being told that we are the guilty party.
The only thing we are guilty of is that we do not have any paper proof of all this.
I can't find any bank statements to prove that he didnt pay us the full amount in the last month.
We paid for PRTB in the first couple of years but we didnt pay in 2009 - quite frankly we did not have the money. All the rent money went towards paying for Mortgage/insurance misc. costs etc.
Now, we are going to be prosecuted for not paying for PRTB - who we all know is there to offer help to TENANTS and not to Landlords.
Its all such a mess.
What can we do?
Ted his deposit back.