newbieineire
Registered User
- Messages
- 13
Good day everyone,
I have been reading the past threads with much interest over the last few weeks. We have had the following situation with our ex-landlord ... it will be long, mind you. I had typed this but it was lost in oblivion, so here we go again:
We rented a "high-standard" 3 bed-semi detached fully furnished house for 19 months. The rent was agreed via a letting agent but once the contract was signed, we were handed over to the landlord who would then deal with everything. We were never given a walk-through of the property nor an inventory with everything that was in it. Likewise, we were never given a rent book or any receipts of rent paid - though we have proof of the rent paid via bank statements with transfers made to the landlord's account.
The property was clean when we moved in, but in no way was it spotless when we moved in. Considering we are a family of 2 adults and 2 young boys aged 5 and 2, we were not too bothered. What I was bothered about was that the duvets, pillows and bedcovers all had an awful body odour smell. The kitchen also had a roasting tin in the sink full of grease and soapy water. We considered petty to report this, so we just sent the bedding to be dry-cleaned and disposed of the tin. I found it amusing at the time (if I had known...), the fact that the house had an all-round music/multimedia system and a home-theatre sound system, etc, but no kettle, no toaster and no waste bin, to name some things. But then again, since we had no inventory we just thought that was what was in the house and we got the things we needed, such as a toaster, kettle, etc.
We vacated the house on 31st December 2009. Upon departure, we notified the landlord of 3 significant damages to the property: one was three leather dining chairs which had been scribbled with a pen by my youngest son, the other one was a broken DVD player which was replaced with a Blu-ray/DVD player of a much higher specification, brand new in box, and lastly scribbles in the walls in the boys' bedroom. We got quotes for painting these walls and they came to €500. The chairs were €700 for a full set of 5. We then offered him to retain €1200 of the deposit (which is €2,100) to cover for these damages.
In return, we got an email with a list of damages and "missing items" the list is too long to put on here, but it is truly ridiculous, citing €300 for a kettle and toaster that never existed, €100 for a broken velux blind when the velux windows do not even -have- fittings for blinds! €5,000 for repainting the whole house when it was just -two- walls the ones that need repainting ... the list goes on and on. The list of damages according to him amounts to over €10,000, he is deducting our deposit (2,000, not the 2100 euro he's got) and he has billed us for almost €8,000. We told him that if he was not happy with the €1,200 we would then take the matter to a dispute with the PRTB in order to look for recovery of our full deposit and gave him 7 days to reply. Since we heard nothing from him in that time we went ahead and placed a dispute with the PRTB.
This morning we got a letter from his solicitor's giving us 7 days to pay the €8,000. This is so absurd that it is almost surreal, but we are at a loss at what to do next. Is it worth us getting solicitor's advice? The man is completely delusional.
Do we reply the solicitors telling them that a PRTB dispute has been set and they will contact his client in due course? Do we get a solicitor ourselves? I have been trying to contact threshold but they are always busy. We pretty much do not what to do next. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.
I have been reading the past threads with much interest over the last few weeks. We have had the following situation with our ex-landlord ... it will be long, mind you. I had typed this but it was lost in oblivion, so here we go again:
We rented a "high-standard" 3 bed-semi detached fully furnished house for 19 months. The rent was agreed via a letting agent but once the contract was signed, we were handed over to the landlord who would then deal with everything. We were never given a walk-through of the property nor an inventory with everything that was in it. Likewise, we were never given a rent book or any receipts of rent paid - though we have proof of the rent paid via bank statements with transfers made to the landlord's account.
The property was clean when we moved in, but in no way was it spotless when we moved in. Considering we are a family of 2 adults and 2 young boys aged 5 and 2, we were not too bothered. What I was bothered about was that the duvets, pillows and bedcovers all had an awful body odour smell. The kitchen also had a roasting tin in the sink full of grease and soapy water. We considered petty to report this, so we just sent the bedding to be dry-cleaned and disposed of the tin. I found it amusing at the time (if I had known...), the fact that the house had an all-round music/multimedia system and a home-theatre sound system, etc, but no kettle, no toaster and no waste bin, to name some things. But then again, since we had no inventory we just thought that was what was in the house and we got the things we needed, such as a toaster, kettle, etc.
We vacated the house on 31st December 2009. Upon departure, we notified the landlord of 3 significant damages to the property: one was three leather dining chairs which had been scribbled with a pen by my youngest son, the other one was a broken DVD player which was replaced with a Blu-ray/DVD player of a much higher specification, brand new in box, and lastly scribbles in the walls in the boys' bedroom. We got quotes for painting these walls and they came to €500. The chairs were €700 for a full set of 5. We then offered him to retain €1200 of the deposit (which is €2,100) to cover for these damages.
In return, we got an email with a list of damages and "missing items" the list is too long to put on here, but it is truly ridiculous, citing €300 for a kettle and toaster that never existed, €100 for a broken velux blind when the velux windows do not even -have- fittings for blinds! €5,000 for repainting the whole house when it was just -two- walls the ones that need repainting ... the list goes on and on. The list of damages according to him amounts to over €10,000, he is deducting our deposit (2,000, not the 2100 euro he's got) and he has billed us for almost €8,000. We told him that if he was not happy with the €1,200 we would then take the matter to a dispute with the PRTB in order to look for recovery of our full deposit and gave him 7 days to reply. Since we heard nothing from him in that time we went ahead and placed a dispute with the PRTB.
This morning we got a letter from his solicitor's giving us 7 days to pay the €8,000. This is so absurd that it is almost surreal, but we are at a loss at what to do next. Is it worth us getting solicitor's advice? The man is completely delusional.
Do we reply the solicitors telling them that a PRTB dispute has been set and they will contact his client in due course? Do we get a solicitor ourselves? I have been trying to contact threshold but they are always busy. We pretty much do not what to do next. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.