Life long tenant rights

Hi

The following is problem faced by a friend of mine:

1. 2 years ago she inherited a house from her mother in which an elderly lady lived and had also reared her family-at a guess the lady would have occupied the house for well over 50 years.

2. My friend wanted to get work done on the house and also to increase to an acceptable level. Current rent is only €30/month but my friend accepts the house is in need of a lot of repair and would increase it once this is done.

3. The elderly lady has not been in the house for well over 6 months. My friend asked her son if she was coming back to the property and he refused to clarify matters for her.

4. My friend asked the son if she could gain access to the house to determine repairs to be done. He allowed her in and then demanded she give him a detailed report of the work to be done.

5. She gave him the report but he kept saying to her that a suitable time could not be found to do the work and he then changed the locks on the door.

6. My friend contacted a solicitor who told her nothing could be done as the son's solicitor had said the elderly lady was not of sound mind and so she could not make any decisions on the situation. The solicitor representing the son could not determine who was acting on the elderly woman's behalf.

7. The house is falling into disrepair and the elderly lady's daughter comes home once every 2 months from France and stays in the house for a few days according to neighbours.

Has anyone ever been in this situation? My friend has contacted a 2nd solicitor but he is proving even more useless than the 1st one she engaged.

It is a nightmare
Mangos

This is a difficult problem. The property is likely to come under the controlled tenancies legislation because of the length of time that the lady has been in the property. Her rent would therefore be controlled This legislation is old and complex, it is also possible that other acts apply but unlikely. You should ask the solicitor to get a barrister familiar with landlord and tenant law to advise. The old lady is most likely entitled to a life tenancy but you should be able to repair the property but there will be a procedure to follow. If the woman is of unsound mind that is not necessarily the land-lords problem, he will have to follow the statutory procedure, if the tenant needs to be made a ward of court for the house to be dealt with then that is a matter for the tenants family. Most solicitors would not be familiar with this area as it is quite uncommon now, would have been bread and butter stuff 20 years ago in Dublin anyway. But there are barristers who know about it, solicitor should instruct barrister.

Hi Ramble

Thank you for your response. I will pass on this info to my friend.

Many thanks
Mangos