A County Armagh couple whose daughter died while at university in Liverpool have been told they must pay for her accommodation for the rest of the year.

The letting agent involved is claiming that because the girl's parents acted as guarantors on the lease, they are liable for the debt.

Sinn Féin's Mickey Brady said the agent's demand was "very unfair".

Mr Brady said the Bessbrook family had received demands for rent owed since her death and threats of legal action.

"The agent is quite clearly arguing that the young girl, because of her sudden death in January, has breached the lease agreement and is demanding that the rent be paid in full," he said.

"This is another example of ruthlessness of the worse kind, and a fixation on ensuring that the money owed will be obtained even if it has to override a family's grief.

"This family is still traumatised by the sudden death of their precious daughter and now they have to cope with the added pressure and fears of debt collectors and court cases.

"In all my years in dealing with agencies and officials, I have never come across such a totally unsympathetic attitude."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7318220.stm

This is just despicable.

The way it's being handled seems rude, but the request is not really that out of line. The debts of dead people do not evaporate, their heirs normally inherit them.

I assume that in the UK that there is a requirement of landlords to mitigate damages by trying to re-let the premises, but showing good faith to do so, the original tenant should be liable for the outstanding rent for teh term of the lease.

Yeah, she's dead. The parents were guarantors, not the leasers. It just seems like greed to me. Whoever the landlord is he/she aren't doing themselves any favours.

Yeah, this is just standard practice. It said the parents acted as guarantors, so it seems like a pretty clear-cut case.

Are you gonna kick his arse?

Maybe where you live it's standard practice. It isn't here. Not for rent that's due After the person is dead. Sure, if the deceased owed rent from
when alive then you could make a case for it.
this was a big enough story here to make our evening news broadcast, how times have changed.

nah. You'll notice that a sinn fein representative gave his opinion. That's the political party affiliated with the IRA. I think the landlord will give up soon enough.

HORSE HEAD IN THE BED

That was an Iti trait. We were more into our semtex and shit like that.

i agree. its business. they cant re-rent the room. if they could re-rent the room then they shoudl let the parents off the hook.

Life Insurance. It's a good thing.