Landlord doesn't have money to pay back deposit?

Billiebob

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Received notice this week that Landlord was terminating our lease as wanted to sell the property. I checked the lease and as he’d followed the exact procedure felt there was nothing to be gained by arguing/ complaining.

Put our energies into finding a new property and with luck we found one in a few days. Got back to Landlord and asked for necessary reference and if he was open to bringing forward our termination date if we got out quickly?

Landlord informed me that it was the banks shutting down his letting business which led to the termination. He doesn’t want to have to pay us back our deposit as basically doesn’t have the money. He would prefer for us to live out the last month without paying rent (if we’d had advance notice of this I’d have followed this no problem) but as the termination notice was at the minimum notice for the period we’ve been tenants, the termination date is only 10 days after the next rent payment date. (i.e. we stand to loose 2/3 of our deposit, €1,000, if he can’t pay us back). Landlord said he could give us a cheque but up to the bank if they’d pay it or not.

Unsure what to do and would welcome any feedback.
- Should I ask for a cheque of 2/3 deposit (i.e. not pay rent for last 10 days even if we’ve already left by then) in order to create a paper trail (even though highly likely a cheque will bounce)?
- Is there any use in starting a dispute with the PRTB (as the Landlord will not have the money to pay if we win our dispute anyway)?
- Can I lodge a claim against the Landlord in a court (e.g. small claims court?). Are tenants counted as unsecured creditors in any insolvency situation and thus won’t get anything back until banks/secured creditors are fully repaid?
- I presume that I have no claim against the bank for having caused the termination by calling in their loans/loosing patience with Landlord?
 
I would say there's a lot of LL like this, fortunately yours hasn't made any excuses as to why he should not pay you.
 
Pay no more rent, pointless taking a PRTB case against a broke landlord. Ditto the court case. Cheque is only to fob you off. How about you asking him to pay you the deposit bit by bit. You've a better chance that way.
 
Pay no more rent, pointless taking a PRTB case against a broke landlord. Ditto the court case. Cheque is only to fob you off. How about you asking him to pay you the deposit bit by bit. You've a better chance that way.
I agree with Bronte about this. It is the house which is being repossessed, not the landlord being declared bankrupt. IMHO, he probably has money, somewhere, but is not letting on about it. If there is no positive result you could mention that you will make a claim with the PRTB.
 
I went down the PRTB route for my daughter, it takes about a year and the LL run rings around the PRTB with their lies.
 
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