Tenants who owe over €70,000 in rent arrears can spend Christmas in house

Four tenants who owe rent arrears of €70,750 will be allowed to remain in their Dublin home for Christmas after a judge put a stay on their eviction.

Barrister Arthur Cush told Judge John O’Connor in the Circuit Civil Court that the four tenants had not paid their €2,500 a month rent for just over three years.

Judge O’Connor told one of them: “I don’t believe a word you have said,” when he turned up to make excuses for having reneged on rent payments on and off since Christmas 2019 and claimed it was all down to Covid-19.

Marcin Stolarski, Klaudia Moskalweicz, Dorata Simonyan and Gregorz Wrona, all originally from Poland, signed a tenancy agreement in November 2018 with landlords Emerley59 Ltd for 14 Belmayne Avenue, Belmayne, Balgriffin, Dublin 13.

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Mr Cush, who appeared with Conor Newman of Barry O’Donnell and Company solicitors, said the four owed arrears of €70,750.

He said that although Emerley59 had been granted a determination by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) in September 2021 ordering them to vacate the premises within 14 days, they had appealed it to the District Court and subsequently to the Circuit Court.

Chris Guckian, a director of Emerley59 of Merchant’s Quay, Dublin 8, told the court his company was seeking to enforce the RTB’s determination order on the basis that the appeals had been frivolous, vexatious and bound to fail and had been brought purely as a delaying tactic.

When Marcin Stolarski, the only one of the tenants to attend court, said the arrears had arisen solely because of Covid, Judge O’Connor said he did not believe a word he had said and added that they had effectively used the courts to their own advantage.

He said they had not attended the RTB hearing or the District Court hearing and hadn’t lodged an affidavit explaining their situation.

Judge O’Connor said he was refusing their appeal to his court and would affirm both the orders of the RTB and the District Court directing they vacate the premises within 14 days.

He said that due to the time of year he would grant a stay on the order to vacate for two months allowing them to make alternative accommodation arrangements by mid-February.

There is an eviction ban until the end of March 2023 but tenants who do not pay their rent or engage in anti-social behaviour can still be evicted.