landlord-estate agent miscomunication lead to homelessness for family of 6, advice?

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nomomoney

Guest
Can I ask for a bit of advice for a friend, heres her story;

I am just writing to tell you what happened my family and what we have been thru the past week.
moderator's note - text which identifies the poster and possibly the others involved deleted

Anyway my partner myself and our four children were renting a beautiful house in Virginia, Co Cavan. I was in college studying nursing and my partner got his hours dramatically reduced in work so we decided it was best to move out of our house and find a cheaper one beside the kids school.

We went to see a handful of which you wouldnt put a dog in. We found one we liked, we gave the estate agent €500 rent. We spoke to the landlord and he agreed we could start moving in and he would put deposit off because the hall needed painting and a few other jobs needed doing.

We went to the estate agent to finalise things and sign contracts her printer was broken! We returned a key to her as we had been given 2 by the previous tenant and estate agent had none.

I was in college all day Wednesday when I returned my kids were doing their homework and I was bleaching radiators down lol as you do. The estate agent arrived after 10mins my 8 yr old daughter answered the door at the top of her voice she shouted into us in the kitchen in front of my children "you guys cant stay here you have got to get out of here right now or im calling the guards for trespassing".

While trying to console my children she stated that because we had not signed contracts or paid deposit. She said we had half an hour to get out or she was calling the guards. I was in tears then at this stage we gathered a few belongings and left. Unfortunately as we did not know where we were going and assumed i would be back the next day we had to leave our cat in the utility room but knew she would be ok.

We sat in the car for 2 hours until my partners parents arrived home from work, with all our belongings in the house we had just left and we were left homeless. His parents live in a 3bed house so we squeezed in; no cot even for the baby.

We rang the landlord ourselves he was shocked and worried we had nowhere to stay but he lives hundreds of miles away so said thats why he puts it in estate agents hands and he actually apoligised.The next day we rang the estate agent who said as well as money contracts she was not handing back over keys until we had reference from previous landlord. We contacted him but he was unable to meet us until Friday we told the estate agent she said this was not good enough and we would have to wait.

As we left in a hurry we asked if we could return to the house as not only had we left our family pet of 5y ears we only had enough medicine for our son for one night. She said somebody would meet us at the house. A man was there who was swearing at us to hurry up. Our cat was gone she had let her out. We were informed by neighbours she was in taking photos which she has used to update her website.

On friday as promised we arrived with money reference and pen in hand to sign contract. She told us ok give me some time and i will get back to us?!

At this stage i was ready to kill her but bit my tongue knew not much longer and we would have the key. My father rang an hour later as both our batteries where dead with nowhere to charge them. She informed him she needed someone to go guarentor for us another obstacle and of course my father agreed he would do it. He picked us up on our way down to her office she said someone would meet us at the house for us to remove all our belongings furniture etc that she didnt think we should go ahead with the house.

The man who was there was ignorant and very aggressive kept telling us to hurry up that he had better things to be doing. We were given 20 minutes we were told she would meet us sat morning as we were unable to get a truck at short notice. Needless to say no one met us yesterday because it didnt suit her. So we are still homeless without all our belongings furniture etc.

When we asked the reason as to why we couldnt move in it was because we have a cat! We dont she is still missing. But she told my dad on the phone she doesnt like when people go behind her back (we asked landlord if we could move in) because she loses control.

I dont exactly know why i am writing but after all we have been through all we were looking for was a fresh start my baby has cerebral palsy and it can be very tough sometimes with 4 kids and studying full time trying to make a future for my children. She shouldnt be allowed do this to innocent people. And as of yet we have not received a single cent of our money back.

Many thanks,
 
just to add My friend has just found another house for the same price that she can hopefully move in to tomorrow...but all of her stuff is still in the other house and they still have her money.

They said they will give her the money back less 100 for bills for less than 24 hours?? how does that even make sence?? The poor girl is a young mother with 4 kids, one sick and her partner is earning about the same as he would on the dole.
 
No wonder people are so eager to get on the property ladder in this country if that is what they have to deal with as a landlord myself I am shocked at that story more at the total disorganization of the whole rental scene. The situation should never come about if the handover was dealt with properly. I thought last nights program on RTE1 was so sad, the couple with one child stuck in an overpriced box with no hope of coming out of it all because they were so afraid of not getting on the property ladder and having to deal with renting in a coutry that does not have a good history in renting.
 
She should contact the Landlord and tell him the story here. He appears to be a decent guy and will confirm that he allowed them to enter the premises early. How about she also approach local media and tell them this story.
 
She did contact the landlord and he basically said that he has to go with the agent as thats what he pays her for...
She was back in the office to her today and she gave her back 400 of the 500 she gave her, took 100 for bills and cleaning....
they were there less than 24 hours and from what I know estate agents send in cleaners after a tenant before they rent it out again...which they didnt do after their last tenant...so there was no cost to them...Ive spoken to someone in threshold for her and they agreed she has a case against them and are going to assist her in taking the agent to court, she said that kind of carry on is not out of the norm!
 
They can't bill you for normal cleaning. Not a penny.

Nightmare. I dunno how these people stay in business if they treat people like that.
 
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