Neighbours from hell...please help!

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Emmaf

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Can anyone advise what to do when your neighbours are causing huge disturbance to your life? Going on over a year now and getting worse, now almost daily.

Music blaring at all hours of the day and night - they don't work and there are 4 adults plus friends always in the house. Suspicion of drugs being used but just a suspicion.

The route of knocking at the door and politely asking them to keep the noise down can no longer be used as they have become abusive and threathening. The route of banging on the wall has been tried too and they have come screaming at us! Afraid to leave in a letter asking them to be respectful as afraid of how they will react.

Don't have a number for the landlord.....a few people have been in and out that I suspected might be the landlord and asked if they were the landlord and they said no, the landlord lives abroad! Rent being paid by Community Welfare. wondered about contacting them to see if I could get landlords address or even pass a letter to them this way?

Went on prtb website to see if I could get landlords details and it asks you to register as an agent or a landlord with your pps number etc so scared to do this as am neither!

Any advice much appreciated.
 
Thank you Cashier. Both of those threads were awful. However, neither really answer my question as one was to do with a council house and the other the case of someone selling and not disclosing noisy neighbours.

I really hope to god we don't have to consider the selling up route.

We own our house and theirs is privately rented. Other neighbours tell us an Irish couple own it as they used to live there but moved and now rent it and never left contact details.

Really afraid to go to the Guards for fear of repercussions - would much rather approach the landlord, but how do I find them?
 
PRTB - the website is dreadful, but try this link to find the published register for your area.

If the landlord is not registered then you can go to the land registry or registry of deeds to find the owners name - although it wont help you find where he or she now lives - there may be a charge for looking that up also.
 
You can make a third party complaint through the PRTB. The cost is €25. See [broken link removed]
 
Thank you so much guys. Very useful stuff there.

Truthseeker, your link was excellent! Had a look and the house is not registered on the prtb list. I always assumed if rent was being paid by a Community Welfare Officer then the property would have to be registered with prtb. Can anyone clarify?
 
I always assumed if rent was being paid by a Community Welfare Officer then the property would have to be registered with prtb. Can anyone clarify?
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I dont know. Have you tried ringing the revenue report line as a previous thread has shown. Tell them you suspect the landlord is avoiding tax.
 
No, at the moment it's not compulsory for a property to be registered with the PRTB if Rent Supplement is in payment, although this may change in the future.

One of the qualifying criteria for Rent Supplement is that the tenancy is bona fide, and supporting documentation must be provided to support that. In this regard, some staff may request PRTB registration confirmation.
 
gipimann said:
No, at the moment it's not compulsory for a property to be registered with the PRTB if Rent Supplement is in payment, although this may change in the future.

One of the qualifying criteria for Rent Supplement is that the tenancy is bona fide, and supporting documentation must be provided to support that. In this regard, some staff may request PRTB registration confirmation.
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Can you say from where you got this information.
IMHO it is irrelevant how the landlord is paid - he still has to register the tenancy.
However, on re-reading your post, gipimann, I see you contradict yourself:
some staff may request PRTB registration confirmation.
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Off hand, as far as my memory serves me, a dwelling rented by a local authority does nor have to be registered with the PRTB, however, if it is rented in the private market it it must be registered.

OP, contact the PRTB, if the property is registered, they will have a record of it and the landlord's address. Therefore, I'm sure you will be able to make a third party claim. Also clam for damages - inconvenience, stress etc; awards are often in the thousands. However, you will need undeniable proof - this is the essence of winning. No proof, no deal.
 
Hi OP,

it isn't really relevant to your complaint whether the tenancy is registered with PRTB, you can make a third-party complaint either way.

I very much doubt that PRTB will give you the landlord's details anyway.

If the tenants are receiving rent allowance or are under the council scheme then I think you should contact the council or CWO to complain them.

PS - PRTB published list is not updated very often, it is possible that it has been registered and hasn't yet been put on the list.
 
facetious,

I didn't contradict myself - Under current SW legislation, it is not a legal requirement for a person claiming rent supplement to rent a property that is PRTB-registered. If the landlord chooses not to comply with the requirement to register with the PRTB, that does not debar a tenant from applying for and qualifying for Rent Supplement.

What is required is for the tenant to prove that the tenancy is bona fide. Evidence of a bona fide tenancy may be PRTB registration, or it could be a lease/tenancy agreement. That is why staff may ask for information - it's not to prove that the property is PRTB-registered, it's to prove that the tenancy is legitimate.

Mrs Vimes,
The SWA officer or Central Rent office has no role to play in the behaviour of tenants, as the tenant was not placed there by the SWA officer. If they were placed by the council under a Rental Assistance Scheme (in which case SWA Rent Supplement wouldn't be payable), the council may have a role as they placed the tenant.
 
The owner may have a post forwarding service on their mail. You could try contacting them in this way.
 
gipimann said:
facetious,

I didn't contradict myself - Under current SW legislation, it is not a legal requirement for a person claiming rent supplement to rent a property that is PRTB-registered. If the landlord chooses not to comply with the requirement to register with the PRTB, that does not debar a tenant from applying for and qualifying for Rent Supplement.

What is required is for the tenant to prove that the tenancy is bona fide. Evidence of a bona fide tenancy may be PRTB registration, or it could be a lease/tenancy agreement. That is why staff may ask for information - it's not to prove that the property is PRTB-registered, it's to prove that the tenancy is legitimate.
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If a person, as a tenant, rents a property as a residential dwelling in the private sector then that tenancy is required to be registered with the PRTB (not the property, the tenancy is registered).

There is one definite exception for non-registration (which an SW recipient may rent) which is where the tenancy is in a shared dwelling and for a specific bedroom with the facilities shared with the other occupants of the dwelling.

If the SW recipient is a licensee (i.e. living with the landlord in the landlord's own home) then again there is no registration and, yes, the SW recipient would in most cases be required to provided proof of their residency by the production of a written licence agreement.
 
gipimann said:
Mrs Vimes,
The SWA officer or Central Rent office has no role to play in the behaviour of tenants, as the tenant was not placed there by the SWA officer. If they were placed by the council under a Rental Assistance Scheme (in which case SWA Rent Supplement wouldn't be payable), the council may have a role as they placed the tenant.
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Thanks for clarification gipimann, sounds like PRTB is probably the only option so.
 
Thanks again everyone. Some great ideas there. Never knew about the land registry tho it seems to ring a distant bell in my mind. Getting onto them and prtb this week. Will let you know how we get on.

Can't thank you all enough for the advice.

Emma
 
Landlords have obligations including getting rid of troublesome tenant's if neighbours object. It may be that the landlord needs rid of them but could do with you complaining, you do this via the PRTB. But to back up your claim I think you certainly need to make a complaint to the gardai. In any case a friendly chat with your local gardai would be a good first port of call. Explain your fears.
 
We found the Community Garda to be the best port of call. They will also give you general advice on handling the problem.
 
We has issues like this with our next door neighbor. In the end we engaged a solicitor who took a legal case on our behalf against the landlord. (We had tracked down the landlord ourselves, but any solicitor will be able to search the land registry details for you). I'd avoid any further contact with the tenants. You've obviously tried to be reasonable and gotten nowhere.

The legal situation for a local authority housing may be different to a private rental, which is what we were dealing with.

The solicitor advised us the best thing to do was to open a complaint with the PRTB (takes ages) AND pursue the landlord directly in the district court (which only takes a few weeks).

It's very important to keep a log of noise and record it if possible. When it comes to actually going to court, it's important to make a good case and prove it's a pattern of disturbance.

In reality for us, the landlord settled with us on the morning we were supposed to go to court (which I suspect is very common) He paid all of our legal fees so financially the entire affair cost us nothing other than time and headache.

While the legal route is pretty daunting, I have to say I highly recommend getting legal advice to see what your options are.

If I were in the same situation again, I'd starting collecting evidence from day one and engage a solicitor as soon as I had enough to make a decent case.

Hope this helps and good luck. There are few things worse than this situation.
 
Kildavin said:
Incredible! So neighbours have an effective veto on your tenants ?
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In extreme circumstances you could almost put it like that. But look at it the other way, tenants that disturb the neighbours in ways such as have been described, are very unlikely to have been treating your property with any respect.
 
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