# Tenant leaving 15 month lease early, landlord retains deposit.



## jumper1 (21 Jul 2014)

Hi, A friend of mine signed a 15 months Fixed Term lease in Jan 2014 but has recently found a cheaper property closer to work and her hours have been cut so she cannot afford the more expensive property any-more .
She gave the Landlord 35 days’ notice to leave which is over the stated 28 days required as per PRTB website. Unfortunately the Landlord is keeping the Deposit to offset any costs in re-letting the property and loss of rent. My friend  has removed the Hi-Fi system from the house to force the Landlord to return the Deposit as she did not do any damage to the property and has told the Landlord she has no problem returning the Hifi once he gives the deposit back . 
The Landlord has asked if she would assign the rest of the Lease and has also asked why she is leaving, but she is not interested in getting another tenant and wished to keep her reasons for leaving to herself. 

The Landlord has already had people into see the property 

She believes that this is unfair of the Landlord to keep the Deposit as the property is in the same state as when she moved in and has always paid her rent on time. Also she does not understand why she has to pay to advertise the property as the Landlord would have to re advertise the property again in 8 months anyway. 
She was thinking of going to the PRTB to get her Deposit back , would this be the way to go, any help would be appreciated. 

Regards,


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## delgirl (21 Jul 2014)

Your friend is in the wrong here - if she signed a 15 month fixed term lease, that that is the term to which the landlord is entitled to hold her.

The notice period on the PRTB website does not refer to fixed term leases.

I would suggest she should return the HiFi system asap otherwise she could find herself charged with theft.


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## Guns N Roses (21 Jul 2014)

In fairness to the Landlord, your friend signed a fixed term lease which she now intends to break.

The landlord will now be down money as a result. The landlord is not entitled to keep the deposit if the property is left in the same state. 

They are however entitled to seek the rent for the remaining period of the lease period which in this case appears to be 7-8 months. Assuming the deposit is about 1-2 months rent, then your friend is getting away cheaply. 

Definately return the Hifi!


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## jumper1 (21 Jul 2014)

Great, thanks for your suggestions , will forward on.

regards, Jumper1


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## roker (21 Jul 2014)

My granddaughter was in a similar position with a year contract, but the landlord was good enough to return the deposit after 2 months. He had another tenants straight away. On the other hand my daughter lost €800 deposit because she painted the ceiling the same pastel colour as the wall plus a few made up complaints. It depends if the landlord is a genuine person, unfortunately a lot are just after money


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## delgirl (22 Jul 2014)

roker said:


> My granddaughter was in a similar position with a year contract, but the landlord was good enough to return the deposit after 2 months. He had another tenants straight away. On the other hand my daughter lost €800 deposit because she painted the ceiling the same pastel colour as the wall plus a few made up complaints. It depends if the landlord is a genuine person, unfortunately a lot are just after money


Did your daughter have permission from the landlord to paint the ceiling the same colour as the wall?

In any standard lease it states that the tenant will covenant:-

"Not to damage or injure the property or the Landlord's contents or make any alteration or addition to it. Any redecoration is to be made only with the prior written consent of the Landlord or his Agent."

And the 'made up complaints' are usually legitimate costs that the LL will incur as a direct result of the tenant's actions - eg. having to fill holes in the walls put there by tenants hanging pictures, excessive cleaning of kitchen appliances etc etc.


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## delgirl (22 Jul 2014)

jumper1 said:


> Great, thanks for your suggestions , will forward on.


Your friend should apologise to the LL for breaking the lease, pay for the advert and hope that the LL is able to let the property quickly and will be kind enough to return her deposit, although he/she is under no obligation to do so.

It's all about staying calm, being fair and negotiating.  Telling the LL to more or less mind their own business as to why she wants to break the lease is not a good strategy and holding the HiFi hostage will just inflame the situation and cause the LL to react aggressively.


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## facetious (22 Jul 2014)

A fix term lease is, as others have said, fixed for the term of the lease, in this case 15 months.

However, tenants have a way of legally breaking a fixed term lease while landlords do not have this option.

A tenant wishing to break a fixed term lease may assign the remainder of the lease to a replacement tenant. However, it is the tenant's responsibility to find the replacement and pay any costs involved. The new tenant must be acceptable to the landlord.

Failure to assign a lease means that the tenant is liable to lose his/her deposit to cover any landlord costs plus any rent while the property is vacant. Under these circumstances, a landlord is required by law to mitigate his losses (i.e. a vacant property9 as quickly as possible. If new tenants move in after 7 days, the tenant breaking the lease is entitled to a pro rata return of the deposit less any landlord expenses.

As long as the property remains empty, the vacating tenant is liable for the rent, as it falls due, until the expiry of the lease.


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## Bronte (22 Jul 2014)

delgirl said:


> Your friend should
> 
> pay for the advert
> 
> .


 
Don't agree with this as it's a cost fully tax deductable. 

I'm not sure but I think the landlord is only entitled to all the deposit if he is not able to rent it immediately. There is an obligation on the landlord to rent as quickly as possible as far as I know as Facetious also mentioned. 

Taking the Hifi is juvenile behaviour.  Very odd that a hifi was supplied.


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## Bronte (22 Jul 2014)

roker said:


> On the other hand my daughter lost €800 deposit because she painted the ceiling the same pastel colour as the wall plus a few made up complaints.


 
Your daughter could have painted it back to the original colour before she left.  The landlord would have to pay for paint and someone to paint the ceiling.  

What made up complaints?


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## delgirl (22 Jul 2014)

Bronte said:


> Don't agree with this as it's a cost fully tax deductable.


It may be tax deductible, but it's still an expense that the LL shouldn't be liable for in this case of a broken fixed-term lease.

As facetious says:



facetious said:


> A tenant wishing to break a fixed term lease may assign the remainder of the lease to a replacement tenant. *However, it is the tenant's responsibility to find the replacement and pay any costs involved*. The new tenant must be acceptable to the landlord.



If I were the LL, I would try to get a new tenant as quickly as possible and, if I managed to get one straight away, would give the previous tenant their deposit back provided the house was in good order and the HiFi was returned!


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## roker (22 Jul 2014)

delgirl said:


> Did your daughter have permission from the landlord to paint the ceiling the same colour as the wall?


 
The place was in a bad state before she moved in so she decorated throughout, and again the lounge after filling in the holes two weeks before moving out. It is normal practice with us to do the ceiling the same as the walls it looks better. He provided old 2nd hand appliances a blamed her for the rust and marks after she moved. He was looking for excuses to not pay the deposit back.


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## serotoninsid (22 Jul 2014)

roker said:


> It is normal practice with us to do the ceiling the same as the walls it looks better.


Normal practice?  He was dead right to retain on the basis of this.


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## AlbacoreA (23 Jul 2014)

roker said:


> My granddaughter was in a similar position with a year contract, but the landlord was good enough to return the deposit after 2 months. He had another tenants straight away. On the other hand my daughter lost €800 deposit because she painted the ceiling the same pastel colour as the wall plus a few made up complaints. It depends if the landlord is a genuine person, unfortunately a lot are just after money



What is the purpose of being a LL if not for money?

You need to abide by your lease/contract.

A place for rent in poor condition/repair is a sign you will have trouble with the LL. and you should not rent it.


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## Bronte (23 Jul 2014)

roker said:


> It is normal practice with us to do the ceiling the same as the walls it looks better. .


 
It is not normal practice for landlords. Magnolia on the walls and white on the ceilings and wood work. 

If the place needed painting why didn't you ask the landlord to do it? Or at least to supply the paint?

If the landlord was looking for excuses not to repay the deposit, and they are out there, than you should have made a complaint to the PRTB.  It's the bigest gripe against landlords as far as I know.


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## roker (23 Jul 2014)

serotoninsid said:


> Normal practice? He was dead right to retain on the basis of this.


  You have an old fashioned outlook, have a look at a few magazines

It does not cost €800 to paint a ceiling


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## serotoninsid (23 Jul 2014)

roker said:


> You have an old fashioned outlook


Old fashioned isn't something I ever thought I was but every days a school day.



roker said:


> have a look at a few magazines


I guess that's where I'm going wrong...I'm not an avid reader of homes and gardens magazine 

I would have thought that white was bog standard ceiling colour.  I'm not saying that you can't or shouldn't paint any other colour.  However, if that was the way the house was turned over to you, that is the way it should have been returned OR otherwise, it should have been agreed BEFORE you took the decision to paint it.



roker said:


> It does not cost €800 to paint a ceiling


I guess not - if that is all he is claiming the €800 covers. However, it would have been best if he didn't have the opportunity to point to this.  Perhaps from his point of view, it would also have been good if he didn't have to point to this also.  

I'd imagine any LL would want to keep colours pretty neutral and standardised - not customised to one individuals particular tastes...


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## Bronte (24 Jul 2014)

roker said:


> You have an old fashioned outlook, have a look at a few magazines


 
Landlords are not in the business of lifestyle magazines for walls, it's not an old fashioned outlook and it's the same in Ireland as it is in the continent or the USA to have either white or magnolia walls. 

The standard is magnolia and white in Ireland, every single new house I've seen in Ireland is painted that way. When you own your own home you can paint it any colour you want, when you rent, you can do likewise, but you should return it to the colour you received it in. That reminds me of my tenant who painted the ceilingand walls of their bedroom deep purple, it took a lot of paint to hide that. Don't know how they slept it it, it was so bad.

I note that you've gone back on the 800 being for painting and appliances to being solely 800 Euro for painting one ceiling?


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## Sipe (24 Jul 2014)

Can I add? 

Our tenant asked to renew lease for a second year to Spring next year. We agreed.We use a letting agent as don't live close by so we can't manage it ourselves.

They now wish to move out early (they are students). They asked to do a tenant assignment to get their deposit back. We are unhappy with this proposal as we rely of the agency's judgement of tenants to decide if suitable etc. As it's in their interest to find anyone to take over the lease, the quality of tenant might not be high. 

Can we refuse this? We will have to pay €1,000 fee to the agent to cover the finder fee so their deposit just covers this. 

Is it acceptable to refuse a request for a tenancy assignment and retain the deposit to cover the cost of letting.


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## Bronte (24 Jul 2014)

Sipe I think it's an entirely reasonable proposal of the current tenants, and it is legally allowed. But they cannot impose tenants that you don't agree with. So they have to find tenants that your agent agrees to.   They sound like good people to me.  

Remember that the 1K fee to the agent will be fully tax deductable.  You should also be able to negotiate a lower finder fee if the agent has less work to find a suitable tenant.


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## postman pat (24 Jul 2014)

I wouldnt be a landlord again for all the tea in China...or all the magnolia in Woodies!


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## Bronte (25 Jul 2014)

postman pat said:


> I wouldnt be a landlord again for all the tea in China...or all the magnolia in Woodies!


 
If we have another property bubble I will probably get out myself. I regret not selling one property that was going for a mad price, but no doubt I may have then just invested again and maybe incorrectly. 

Had a tenant recently send me an email while I was on holiday asking to pay no rent for the next two months as they were going back home to Bangladesh and would I paint the house and something about a door and smoke that I didn't understand. I've replied saying no to the rent and asking what he meant about the smoke, and no response so hopefully it's all forgotton in the excitment of going home. The house was painted less than two years ago. As I said on here before, my tenants walls have seen more paint than I as owner have on my own home. 

And I don't do emails on holiday, so I late replying to him, plus I have an agent he could have asked, plus I had a relative in their doing work two months ago and nothing was mentioned that needed doing then.


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## facetious (26 Jul 2014)

Sipe said:


> Can I add?
> 
> Our tenant asked to renew lease for a second year to Spring next year. We agreed.We use a letting agent as don't live close by so we can't manage it ourselves.
> 
> ...


If you refuse an assignment, the tenants are entitled to serve a 28 day Notice of Termination AND retain their deposit except for any damage.

As Bronte says, the landlord has the right to vet any new tenants of an assignment and to refuse unsuitable tenants according to the landlord's referencing criteria.


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