“We never really had what you’d call a trouble-free relationship with our landlord. We’ve been here for nearly six years and it’s been a one-sided relationship all the way. The washing machine was ancient and the clothes came out just as dirty – and smelling even worse. Our landlord told us we weren’t using it properly.

“The gas cooker had two working rings and you couldn’t cook anything in the oven. On the 5th December 2010, during the huge blizzard, we smelled gas. We got Bord Gais out and the engineer shut the supply off and said it hadn’t been serviced since the system had been fitted, and that it couldn’t be reconnected until a registered engineer did a full service. We informed the landlord immediately. He provided us, after many calls, with fan heaters four days later, but nothing to cook with. The engineer arrived ten days later, the week before Christmas.
“When our last rent increase was implemented in June, we asked for some essential maintenance to be done. Water was pouring down the living-room wall when we had a shower. We really needed a cooker that worked. The house hadn’t been painted since before we moved in, and the stairs carpet was bald.
“Eventually it was decided the bathroom would have to be ripped out. We spent eight days living with no bathroom. I’d be washing myself in a bucket in the kitchen, boiling water in a kettle in the morning, and the workman would let himself in while I was doing so. The house was destroyed. We were living on a building site and it was very distressing. Several weeks later, the living area was painted, again while we were in the house. It was like a building site for days and the fumes were appalling. We finally got a working cooker, though, and were able to use the oven for the first time in five years.
“He then wrote again with a new lease, saying our rent was being raised by another €200 from October. Our previous rent increase had been in June, which would mean our rent had been raised by €300 in the same year. We told him we didn’t have it and pointed out the PRTB (Private Rental Tenancy Board) rules on rent increases – but he was very uncooperative. We had no alternative but to take our case to the PRTB.
“The process was appalling. We were going by the PRTB’s own literature, yet they found against us. Our rent has now been increased by over 25% in less than a year, and all we’ve got for it is a functioning house — these were essential repairs. The rent we’re now paying is over €200 higher than the PRTB’s own figures for a two-bed terraced house in our area. Our rent has been increased three times in one year, and the landlord has openly stated he thinks he can get another €200 a month for it. And we have no rights, no comeback.
“We’re both on low incomes, we don’t have the money for it. We’ll be here six years in May, we’ve paid tens of thousands in rent, and we’ve no rights at all. I’m terrified for the future. I’m 45 and spending the lion’s share of my limited income on rent – and I’ve no hope of ever saving the deposit for a place of my own.”