# Any landlords who have been taken to court by the PRTB? Letting agent kept me in dark



## Gazza (1 Oct 2009)

Has any landlord out there been taken to court by the PRTB? 

I've been hit with an order to pay €4,000 in costs recently. 

The order was made without my knowledge as they sent all the details to my letting agent who choose to ignore them (for about 12 months). 

Now I'm faced with the €4,000 fine which I knew nothing about. Now the PRTB are claiming the order is binding and I now have solicitors fees, the fine plus the time to try and recover the money from the letting agent (once I get a loan from the bank - some chance of that!). 

Typical of the country we live in- btw I've canvassed my local politicians but as per my expectations nothing has happened! 

Help!!


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## murphaph (1 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*

What's the fine for?


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## Gazza (1 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*

€3000 cost of tribunal and €900 deposit for tenants.. the background to this is a cleaning charge was deducted from the tenants deposit and they refused to accept this. The tenants went to the prtb and they in turn contacted the letting agent who choose to mess the prtb around for about 12 months resulting in the fine and the order to return the full amount. The prtb only contacted me AFTER the order was binding.. I've now been threatened with further costs and possible jail sentence...


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## Howitzer (2 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*

Sounds like you've a case withyour agent.

You are obliged to pay the fine. The costs, both financial and otherwise, of not doing so are obvious. To me your best bet is to pay the fine and try and recover the costs incurred through their negligence (3K) from your agent.


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## Bronte (2 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*

I'm not sure about this. Is it legal for the order to be made against the landlord if he was not aware of the case. How can that be legal. The landlord had no chance to defend himself. I would have thought the PRTB were on shaky ground with this ?

Separate to this, 900 is one hell of a cleaning charge? Is your agent above board?  As for the 3K tribunal cost, the PRTB are really going after landlords.  So much a for a simple system to arbitrate between landlords and tenants and avoid costly legal bills.


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## murphaph (2 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*

Another good reason NOT to use an agent if at all possible.


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## demoivre (2 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*



Bronte said:


> I'm not sure about this. Is it legal for the order to be made against the landlord if he was not aware of the case. How can that be legal. The landlord had no chance to defend himself. I would have thought the PRTB were on shaky ground with this ?



I agree - I'd be talking  to my own solicitor pronto if I was the op.


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## murphaph (2 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*

I'm not so sure guys. That is the point afterall in using an agent. Let's say I'm a landlord but I choose to live in the Amazon basin in a hut somewhere. I use an agent to run my rental property-would we expect the PRTB to find us in our hut in the Amazon to deliver the bad news? I think not. Once you use an agent I imagine the PRTB is entitled by law to deal with your agent.


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## Bronte (2 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*

Well if the agent took the 900 and this was incorrect then the agent is at fault and the PRTB should take it up with the agent?


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## murphaph (2 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*

I think the landlord has to take responsibility ultimately though, so choose your agent VERY carefully if you must use one, must be the moral of this story.

I'd say the OP will have to pay the fine and then chase the agent for messing up.


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## Gazza (2 Oct 2009)

*Re: Any landlords who have been taken to court by the PRTB? Letting agent kept me in*

fine paid today... and now its over to my solicitors to recovery the money. My solicitor has stated that we could take on the prtb but there is a chance that they could win and I would be left with a hefty fine/jail and costs could be awarded against me. I'm not willing to take the risk, I'll take my chances on recovering the money from the agent and learning a very valuable lesson about agents!! thanks all.


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## MrMan (3 Oct 2009)

*Re: Prtb*



murphaph said:


> I'm not so sure guys. That is the point afterall in using an agent. Let's say I'm a landlord but I choose to live in the Amazon basin in a hut somewhere. I use an agent to run my rental property-would we expect the PRTB to find us in our hut in the Amazon to deliver the bad news? I think not. Once you use an agent I imagine the PRTB is entitled by law to deal with your agent.


 
doesn't matter where you live, if you hand over full management to an agent they are then responsible for the decisions. Any big decisions are still passed to the owner before acted upon, so this looks like a clear cut case to recover costs. As for the Prtb, the Owner generally has to sign off and also has to write to confirm that they are letting an agent handle their case. I would question prtb before paying anuthing.


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## RScott (25 Feb 2010)

*Re: Any landlords who have been taken to court by the PRTB? Letting agent kept me in*

Hi
Got problems also with Red Property - did you get anywhere with your court case?


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