Tenants using deposit for last months rent

Sipe said:

Thanks everyone for your replies!

We are non resident so the property is managed by an agent so it’s hard for us to find out what’s really behind it. And the agent isn’t good so they aren’t good at noticing problems (we often pick up problems from their pictures after hey tell us everything is fabulous) .....

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Hi,

I don't think you mentioned the agent before now, and particularly that you don't rate the agent.

I'd put immediate pressure on the agent to earn their keep. See what they come up with. Have you seen written evidence that the tenant did only give the notice period that you've been told they gave etc. ? Likewise, has the agent not advised you on what action you can take, to seek to enforce the lease etc. ?

I would also replace the agent, if you are not entirely happy with the current one. As you are living abroad, you need a good agent that you can trust and rely on, and lets face it - this is someone you are paying, not someone who is managing your property as a favour etc. !

valery said:

From my experience, it’s fairly common for tenants to use deposit as final months rent.

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As an experienced landlord I can tell you this is most definitely not the case.

This is an extremely dangerous path to be going down. You need to be firm with your agent and tell him or her that you will not accept the deposit to be used as the last months rent. Let your agent know that if pressure is not put on the tenant to pay the last months rent you will be seeking the services of a different agent. This has happened to me twice before and both times I remind rigid on my insistence that the tenant pay and they did.

Update:

The tenants moved having not cleaned the place and leaving junk behind including toys and 2 desks.

They are suddenly no longer contactable and without a deposit we must now foot the cost of the clean up and removal of junk....

No deposit, no recourse for us landlords

rob oyle said:

Such is the power that landlords have at the moment that tenants, when moving to a new property, are given a 'take it or leave it' offer that makes no allowance for notice periods with their current landlord.

For example: I viewed a property on 23rd January and I was told that if I wanted to take it on, it was being leased from the 27th January.

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While I can understand that this is frustrating for a tenant, what under the current law is the alternative. A landlord cannot in practice show a property until the existing tenant has moved out. The landlord cannot be sure that a tenant will move out until they actually do move. There is another active thread here where a tenant gave notice themselves and then didn't move.

When the tenant does move and the landlord shows the place, naturally the landlord wants to get the place rented as soon as possible. In your example the landlord would lose the 4 days rent, which is one thing, but also not be certain that you were going to take the place. Any landlord is going to favour a tenant who wants to commit immediately and start paying rent.

This is another example of the self-defeating effects of regulation to favour the tenant. If regulation gave a landlord certainty that they could get possession on a known date and allowed a period before that for reasonable access for viewing we could have a more civilised process of changing over tenancies.

Sipe said:

Update:

The tenants moved having not cleaned the place and leaving junk behind including toys and 2 desks.

They are suddenly no longer contactable and without a deposit we must now foot the cost of the clean up and removal of junk....

No deposit, no recourse for us landlords

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Being a landlord is a frustrating and thankless occupation in every way except one. But that one is very important.

The question now is whether you have any recourse against your letting agent.

Be grateful they are gone - overholding would have cost you 10 times more.

@Sipe

Do you have PRSI numbers for your former tenants? The RTB has access to a variety of resources to help track down errant tenants.

Most folks would just let this go but you might want to try and pursue your former tenants for unpaid rent, etc, as a matter of principle.

Who would be a landlord, yet another story to add to the many, I am sorry despite being good tenants that they let you down but it seems turnover costs will not amount to much.

Sipe said:

We are non resident so the property is managed by an agent so it’s hard for us to find out what’s really behind it. And the agent isn’t good so they aren’t good at noticing problems (we often pick up problems from their pictures after hey tell us everything is fabulous)

We are just concerned if they damage the place etc or leave the place in a complete mess, we have absolutely no come back. At least with the deposit you can insist they clean up to the standard they got the place. All going well, we would give their full deposit, but who knows.

Our previous tenants did damage and we got stung so just nervous about that too (broken beds and chairs).

The other point is that it seems tenants can leave whenever they want. It’s not so easy if we needed them to leave with such short notice. We now need to find new tenants at short notice mid lease when we hadnt budgeted for it. And who knows if the property will be in a move in condition when they vacate.... and what it will cost us to any issues which perhaps would have been protected by the deposit.

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I'm non resident too and I couldn't care less if I get no notice or if they use up the deposit as rent. I've been at this for two decades and I always expect to have to clean up the place and repaint if necessary. Sometimes tenants will paint and I willingly supply paint. We've all got stung. It's part of how it works. You're main issue is that you have to pay for the clean up. This money should have been set aside by you for such an eventuality. It takes 5 minutes to put an ad on daft, and with the way things currently are you've be rented again in jig time, maybe on a higher rent.

Surely your agent would have people to get the place ship shape in a day or two. I got Polish pateners one Christmas to paint a 3 bed house and they did it in about 3 days or less. Big tall straping lads who didn't need to use ladders. Couldn't believe how fast and efficient they were. Got their name from an ad in the local paper. Recently I repainted and put in a new kitchen (fire by tenant and got insurance) and got people via ads and it all worked out grand. Managed to do it from abroad with my husband visiting once on a Saturday to meet potential workers.

And don't waste your time with the old tenants, or with the RTB. That idea is laughable.

Sipe said:

And the agent isn’t good so they aren’t good at noticing problems (we often pick up problems from their pictures after hey tell us everything is fabulous)

We now need to find new tenants at short notice mid lease when we hadnt budgeted for it. And who knows if the property will be in a move in condition when they vacate.... and what it will cost us to any issues which perhaps would have been protected by the deposit.

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Two issues are striking here.

a) Bad agent
b) budgeting

Neither of those have anything to do with the tenant.

Get rid of the agent, get a larger deposit next time and put money aside.

Palerider said:

Who would be a landlord, yet another story to add to the many, I am sorry despite being good tenants that they let you down but it seems turnover costs will not amount to much.

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They were good tenants for 3 years. They left on time, they left a place needing to be cleaned and a few bits dumped. This is no biggie.