Tenant moved out leaving place in bad way

I would be grateful if anyone can offer me advice.

Im Irish but live <abroad>. I have a house in Ireland that I was renting to a <irrelevant detail deleted> lady and her 2 children (social paying for it).

I had a property management company looking after it after I moved away but I had to let them go as they never answered my or the tenant's calls, they owed me 6 months rent that took a solictors letter to get them to pay me.

The tenant moved out 2 weeks ago, I came back to Ireland to get the keys back and do a final inspection on the house.

My issues after inspection:

She left alot of things in the back garden, childrens slide, 2 broken bikes, old tv, old stereo etc. She didnt cut the grass in about a year after me telling her 5 times to cut it. The house is very dirty and she didnt give it a final clean. And theres 3 full bins outside that she assure me she would come back the following day to put tags on (how naive I am).

Anyway, I had to return , <abroad> the following day (last week). Now Im concerned that she didnt return to put the tags on the bins.

Can I call anyone about this ? <Local Authority>? Social? as she is not answering my calls or am I correct in thinking that this is my problem now?

Also, if you were me would you hold onto the Socials €900 deposit to pay for:
1. to get the back gardens rubbish cleared.
2. to get the house cleaned. and
3. whatever other task needs to be done

I am returning to Ireland in two weeks to organise a cleaning and painting and clearing out of rubbish and then I will be getting a property management company to look after the letting/management.

thanks in advance
Paul

I think you have paid the price of not having a management company working for you.While you saved some money on management charges you now have these problems to deal with.I would hold on to the deposit because its for just the ciecumstances you find yourself in.In future if you are away dont let without local management backup.

thanks for the advice,

I had a management company but they were terrible. I was in the process looking for a new one, and I agree I was foolish to let the house go for a few months without one.

Can I suggest as well that you get in touch with a couple of neighbours while you're back, and give them your contact details.

We had a problem with people in a rented house on our road and even a few calls to the agent didn't help. It was only when I threatened to contact the owners, who live abroad, that the problem was sorted. So if the neighbours are able to contact you directly, you might find out about the house not being treated properly more quickly than if you were depending on the agent.

Hi

I had similar circustance about 2 years ago. SW tennant stopped paying rent (for 4 months) I was in Australia and had to fly back to find out why the rent was not being paid. Found the house and the garden to be in a dreadful state matresses in the back garden and a garden full of bin bags (dont know why as they did not have to purchase the bintags as SW tenents get them for free). Ended up giving the tenants the 1 months notice with the notification that if the rubbish in the garden was not removed before they moved out then the price of the clean up would be taken out of their deposit. They didnt clean up the mess and I deducted apr 75% of their deposit to cover the cost of skip hire and work done.

This tenant was before the time of the RAS scheme if it is the case that your tenant is under this scheme I would check out the RAS guidelines from your local authority with regard to refund of deposit

If its the case that your tennant is not under the RAS scheme I would refer back to your lease agreement and hopefully you have a section in relation to refund of the deposit. I had a section in my lease that said the house should be left as it was found disregarding general ware.

I was also the same as you without a management company. I immeadiatley engaged one after this incident. Is a percent of the monthly rent but is well worth the piece of mind with regard to knowing I wont have to chase up a tenant for money, that they will be following up with the tennant even if the rent is a day late

Hope your next tenant is better

Treetiger and Saff, thanks for your helpful advice.

The tenant was not under Ras, Ive checked my lease agreement with the tenant and I do have a section about keeping deposit if the place is left unsatisfactory.

Im going to phone her social welfare contact now to inform him that i will be deducting the costs from their deposit.

Any advice on the bin situation? I wont be home for two weeks and Im worried there is rotting bins outside the house.

Saff, was your property in dublin? are you happy with your current management agency ? If so any chance of giving me their name, details etc ??

The deposit has nothing to do with the social, per se. They often give tenants a once off "loan" to use towards a deposit...as far as I know it is up to the tenant to ensure the property is left in a reasonable condition as they will require the deposit for the next property.

Take loads of photographs of the property in the condition it was left. Use the deposit to pay for what ever work is required to be done (skip, cleaning, repairs). Keep reciepts for all work done. Issue her with a full list of what was done, costs and then (if any) return the balance to her. You could sue her if it costs more....but it's almost certainly not worth the effort.

Re the rubbish - is there anyone nearby would could buy tags & put the bins out (photos + reciepts). You really don't want rats.

Property Management - personally I don;t think they are great, again is there anyone you know and trust who could keep an eye on the place (there's no property mgmt company which visits the properties on a regular basis). Better,if possible to get a friend to do it and give them the money.

sam h said:

Property Management - personally I don;t think they are great, again is there anyone you know and trust who could keep an eye on the place (there's no property mgmt company which visits the properties on a regular basis). Better,if possible to get a friend to do it and give them the money.

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I agree with you Sam. I 'mind' apartments for my brother who lives in another country. He doesn't pay me a penny but I make sure the properties are always occupied and in good nick. If rent is late, I call round. Thankfully, this hasn't happen in years to either my brother's apartments or my own.

My rule of thumb is to judge books by covers. References aren't worth the paper they are written on. Leting agencies don't give a hoot who lives in a property so long as the dosh is paid.


You gotta take control of the situation yourself.

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Moved from Homes and Gardens to Property Investment which is where Landlord / Tenant rights and responsibilities are discussed.

Please post in the correct forum.

Some details which would identify the OP or their tenant have been removed.

I agree with everything Sam H says. If you do go down the property management company route, which I don't advise, you should try to get home as often as possible to check the property yourself.

I 'mind' apartments for my brother who lives in another country. He doesn't pay me a penny but I make sure the properties are always occupied and in good nick.

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Well I hope he brings you back a nice pressie & treats you to a meal.

To be fair, you have been lucky. If things aren't going well, it can be alot of hassle looking after a property for someone....but these are hassles most property mgmt companies won't deal with anyway !!

In my experience people often take advantage of people doing favours like this for them, but are less demanding when going through an agency as they are then charged for all their demands. I had a lot of unreasonable hassle managing property for someone in the family, so much so we switched to a managment company. Which is expensive for that they do, but reduces some of the hassle anyway. We'll review it again in 12 months.