In Ireland, landlords and estate agents firmly believe that the tenant owes a debt of gratitude to the landlord. The landlord, so the belief goes, is the one who, with his boundless kindness, makes his possessions available to a needy person. In Ireland, the tenant is, therefore, only a guest who is allowed to stay in his home under the host's grace. However, this only applies as long as the landlord wishes. A guest only has the right to be a guest, and a guest has nothing to complain about, because after all: "Whose bread I eat, whose song I sing".
Flats in Ireland are usually furnished and ready to move in. Sounds practical, but this had a big catch:
There is little leeway to furnish the flat to one's liking. It is not t allowed to paint the walls or hammer a nail into them. To hang a picture without the landlord's permission (what a majestic word, actually).
The tenant simply has to live with the landlord's junk, mostly the cheapest stuff they could have gotten. The pictures that hang in every flat and the furniture that comes with them are nothing but fossil mite catchers that have already survived many generations of tenants. The fact that the furniture belongs to the landlord makes it very easy for the landlord to throw an unwelcome tenant (guest) out the door or to prevent the flat from being vacant for even a month when he moves out.
This was just an excursion to give you a bit more of an insight of how the situation is on the Emerald Island. Now I will provide you with a review of my own experience with an Irish real estate Agent called ERA Downey McCarthy
Since my review is more extended, I'll start with the summary:
ERA Downey Mc Carthy is a not trustworthy agency, which should be avoided
for the following reasons:
They had not put the real flat on Daft.ie and misled us with it from the very beginning.
The windows in the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen were broken. The heating also needed to be fixed. ERA Downey Mc Carthy had two months to do this. Besides, ERA Downey Mc Carthy takes a right to carry out 4 (!) inspections a year in Corona times (see the contract), and yet they do not even manage to carry out the most standard repairs.
The plastic bathtub had cracks in the bottom. A few of them were poorly taped over (see video). I pointed out that this is a safety risk for the downstairs neighbors but they ignored my concern.
After pointing out the defects, we were shouted down on the phone.
ERA Downey Mc Carthy threatened to cancel a rental contract we had already signed.
After my experience with ERA Downey Mc Carthy, I can say that you should not trust these people. It starts with the fact that ERA Downey Mc Carthy collects a fee of 500(!) euros to allow you to apply for a flat. The small print says that ERA Downey Mc Carthy will withhold the fee if all the required documents such as tenant references and certificates from the employer have not been received after three days. The fee will be withheld if you withdraw your application.
It is a shame that this practice is legal in Ireland. Yet, some agencies refrain from such unethical and exploitative practices - ERA Downey MC Carthy is undoubtedly not one of them, as their business model is designed precisely for this form of exploitation.
The flat we applied for was in Cobh. In the pictures at Daft.ie, you could see the beautiful cathedral and the harbour of Cobh from the living room. The flat cost 1200 euros cold rent, had two rooms and was estimated to be 50 square metres, which was much cheaper than comparable flats in Cork (but of course still far above what the apartment should be worth). However, when we looked at the flat, we realised that it was not the same flat as advertised, the living room did not have the room to the habour and the cathedral. The apartment was identical, but from the kitchen, you could only see a bit of the cathedral and the harbour, from the living room, which was on the shady side, you could only see a garden with lots of bushes and trees.
This was a big disappointment for my wife, but we thought the flat would be an improvement for us, so we finally applied and paid 500 euros to ERA Downey Mc Carthy.
After weeks of waiting, we got an acceptance letter and submitted our application documents:
Passport, Employment Letter with salary details and references from previous landlords. Shortly after, our employers and ex-landlords were called to ask if our details were correct (I wouldn't be shocked if ERA Downey MC Carthy asked very indiscreet questions about us in all STASI fashion).
On the day they handed over the keys, I found a flat with broken windows and the plastic bathtub had cracks on the floor and was therefore leaking. The window in the bathroom and the bedroom window almost fell out of the frame when I opened them because the hinges were broken. I then sent Kelly an email asking her to postpone the move-in date, as the flat still had defects. Not insignificantly, they had not repaired the day before moving in, even though was put online two months before.
Kelly from ERA Downey McCarthy did not like my objection at all. She replied that I should not open the windows for three weeks - after that, they will repair the windows. I told her that it was January and that we need to ventilate the bathroom to prevent mould.
Kelly's reaction to this was a furious phone call. She literally screamed through the phone that the broken windows were no reason at all to complain and that I was only creating problems that didn't exist. In a calm voice, I pointed out that broken windows were not a non-issue and that she had plenty of time to replace the windows and fix the heating before the lockdown. Kelly now became even more indignant and shouted at me not to explain her job, because after all the flat is fine and I have no right to complain. But that was not the end of it; she asked me in a sharp tone if we wanted to move in. I replied, yes, the contract is signed, and of course we want to move in, we only insist that the windows and heating will be repaired when we move in. Now Kelly was saying in all seriousness that she knew so many people out there who wanted the flat and that I should be grateful that we got it. Besides, the neighbours downstairs also had the problem, and yet they wouldn't complain...
She repeatedly asked me if I wanted to move in and I gave her the same answer by refering to the mutually signed contract, but for her, the contract, which she had signed, seemed to be only a one-sided obligation. After all, she told me, ERA Downey Mc Carthy can unilaterally terminate it at any time (it means a contract in force is a one-way street for ERA Downey Mc Carthy with no obligations of its own). "David," she said, "this is not a good start, do you want your money back?
I was shocked at this unprofessional attitude and her understanding of the law with which she suddenly put us under considerable pressure. I thought about it for a moment, as there was a lot at stake for my wife and me:
We had just given the notice to leave our flat and had already moved some things over. After all, it was not a question of repairing a television or a camera. Still, something quite existential like a house, and suddenly someone was threatening to put us in such a precarious position for pure viciousness.
Not wanting to jump to conclusions, I said we would move in and ended the conversation. My wife had overheard the conversation; after all, she could not ignore her screaming. However, after a moment's consideration, we decided to withdraw our notice for our current flat and not move to Cobh for the time being. Luckily our landlord played along, and the foul-mouthed lady from ERA Mc Carthy immediately agreed to our request and assured us they would transfer the money back.
ERA Downey MC Carthy advertises with the slogan "People you can trust".
On the other hand, I say ERA Downey Mc Carthy are the least people you must trust. ERA Downey Mc Carthy's business model is designed to exploit tenants, the broken and barely regulated Housing Market, unfortunately, allows ERA Downey Mc Carthy to continue their unethical actions unchecked.