tenant doing a runner

E

eamonn66

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i had tenants who moved out 3 weeks ago. when they were in the house they seemed very nice and looked after the house. after they moved out, i found out that they have run up a phone bill of 700 and to make matters worse, the phone account was in the name of the previous tenant and never changed. i had thought this was changed over and as they were intercepting the post from eircom, had no reason to think otherwise. they also got a bit behind with the rent but as i thought they were decent, we agreed that id keep their deposit to cover the back money owed. i had agreed to let themleave some of their stuff in the house after they moved out for a week or so and he was holding on to a back door key until it was all shifted. after 2 weeks the stuff was not shifted and the phone issue had come to light so we contacted him and asked him to come around and get the stuff at a particular time. we also blocked the back door at this point so he couldnt get in when we werent there. it turns out he had retained a front door and porch keys without my permission or knowledge and cleared out his belongings the afternoon before we had arranged to meet him. he is now no longer answering his phone which leads me to only one conclusion.
i know where he works and and know that he has family in the area.
last night i rang the guards as as far as i can see, they have committed 2 offences
1 - opening someone elses post which can be proven as they did pay the phone bills for a number of months
2 - entering the house without my permission
the guard i spoke to was quite sympathetic and wants me to go in and give a statement which i am fuly prepared to do.
does anyone have any other suggestions
 
You need to contact the previous tenant asap so he can give his version of closing his account. This could be an eircom cock-up if he has some evidence to show he closed it. I would go to his place of employment and see if he's willing to negotiate before you go to the police. You will need to change the locks either way of course. I presumed you've checked any other bills like electricity/bin charges/gas ?
 
I think you need to seriously be more assertive with future clinets for starters , you have given these people too much of a free reign.

Threy have commited a criminal offence and certainly run the risk of being arrested , however it will be your word against theirs in relation to the access and keys so make sure you have your statement correct and name any witnesses to your conversations etc....

I would also speak with Eircom , tell them your the landlord and the situation. The bill is still in the name of the previous tennant , so they have all the problems of a large unpaid bill in their name.
Eircom cannot make you pay the outstanding bill if it is in someone elses name, however they may refuse to service the address or maintain a phone line for an unpaid bill.

Hopefully this is a lesson learned
 
yes, its certainly a lesson that you cannot trust anyone
the previous tenant is deceased , which they knew. when they moved in they were asked to forward any post for this person to me so that i could pass it on. which makes the whole thing seem quite deliberate. i was very fair with them all along and now they are trying to take me for a mug. i am rapidly loosing patience and think the threat of arrest might be the only reamining option.
 
Wow - They knew the person was deceased. Now that is nasty. However, then the executers would have been expected to supply a final bill here for Eircom so I still think they are the ones who are responsible. As you say though these people were nasty and I think a threat of telling their family and friends what they did could get them to reconsider and sort their affairs out.
 
from my point of view .
in future get a final reading from esb , eircom ,sky etc


put the bills in the tenants name, make them liable .

its close to impossible to dispute their use of the service provided

even if they dont pay and you have new tenants moving in pay it yourself by a cheque through your lawyer and then go after them , the place will be rented and the lawyer will do all the work for you . the legal cots are borne by the tennant . a registered letter to the persons work seems to work wonders or a phone call give as much info to the secratry as possible so that word gets around

the costs mount up pretty quickly and its in their intrest to get this sorted .
costs a few years ago was 65 pounds plus vat for each letter and it took a few months to get all the money (600 for ESB bill in my case )and the tenant paid it all and the cost of all the legal work .

regarding the locks , change them especially if you have new tenants moving in and there are loose keys floating around
 
more bills arrived today which thankfully ARE in their name even though i was told they hed informed esb,ntl etc of their moving outand that their post had been redirected. there also seems to be what looks like a summons from an post which is probably the TV licence. ive checked their lease and it is very clear and states thet they are liable for all utility usage / bills etc from their moving in date. i will be back in dublin myself this evening and will bring the lot to the guards and make a statement. its quite amazing as they seemed quite decent
 
For any post that comes that is likely to be a bill for them send it back (unopened) to the sender in an envelope with a letter stating a forwarding address (which you probably don't have) and/or their work address

You are not doing anyhting wrong here, just forwarding a known address for any post

Write to thier employer asking could they contact you as it is the only address you have for them but do not make any statement apart from that you want to talk to them about something (it may libelous to state anything)
This may put a jump under them

In future, ESB, Eircom, Bord Gais etc will tell you over the phone who the name of the accounts are with if you inform them you are the landlord

Make a point of putting the details of these in the lease special conditions when letting again and that they need to be changed withing 7 days, e.g ESB reading 109327, Phone 1850 372372
7 days later call the utilities and check
ESB will change it for you as loandlord if you inform them no matter what, Bord Gais won't, the tenant needs to call

If you are due any money in relation to rent/damage and you have registered with PRTB contact them
They are supposed to mediate but they are about 6 months behind with registrations so don't hold your breath

I'm not sure if getting them arrested will, apart from easing your annoyance ,serve you any purpose

But if they are the type of people that they seem to be, do not go too far until you have the property rented again
An empty property is not a good thing to have when you have ex-tenants annoyed about their employer and Gardaí being contacted

It is not a nice thing to happen but rest assured it does not happen very often

[email protected]
 
stuart said:
In future, ESB, Eircom, Bord Gais etc will tell you over the phone who the name of the accounts are with if you inform them you are the landlord

Make a point of putting the details of these in the lease special conditions when letting again and that they need to be changed withing 7 days, e.g ESB reading 109327, Phone 1850 372372
7 days later call the utilities and check
ESB will change it for you as loandlord if you inform them no matter what, Bord Gais won't, the tenant needs to call

[email protected]
Click to expand...

thanks for the reply.
all the above conditions were in place which is why i was surprised to find out this had happened. the only issue is eircom who couldnt be less helpful. they wont do anything without the account number other than make the phone incoming only. they wont give out any details other than the amount owing and the fact that the last payment was last november. i was amazed that the phone was not cut off before now they promised mid last week to resend the last bill to the address but either they didnt or the tenant lifted it when he snuck in without our permission.
 
I'd just write to them exlpaining that there is no one there

Get them to disconnect the phone, if they want

When the new tenants move in and if they really want a landline explain to them to go with Esat and they should be OK

Eircom are a nightmare and their new automtaed phone system is a shambles
I had a prolem with them setting up a tenants phone line, he was nigerian and his english was not very good, so I offered to help
There had been no ling in 2 years but would not discuss anything as there was an outstanding bill

Ridiculous

Stu
 
today we received a copy of the most recent phone bill (not-itemised) which now stands at 1239euro.
i rang eircom and after speaking to a helpful CS Rep (A First) got put through to their credit management department.
i explained what had happened re the deceased tenant etc.
i told her i had been to the guards and was due to give a statement in the next couple of days and needed as much info as they could give me
about any CS/Service calls logged/ numbers frequently dialled etc.
the credit controller of the year that i spoke to flatly refused to tell me ANYTHING about the account or even send out an itemised bill and was not remotely interested in the fact that i was ringing them in an attempt to help them get the money owed to them .
she actually told me that i shouldnt have opened or even been sent the bill their cs dept sent me (so i could get the acc no. and cancel the line) as it was adressed to the deceased person.
the conversation ended with me telling her (and she agreeing) that if they dont assist me, chances are that they wont get paid a penny and these people who have committed a serious fraud will get away with it.

Unbelievable




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