Landlord used rooms for Airbnb with tenants still in house

Tenants of property investor Marc Godart have said he started operating Airbnb rentals in their north Dublin home while they were still living in the house.

Long-term tenants said holiday makers would arrive without warning at the mid-terraced house, which had been split into eight rooms, and would cook and do laundry while the tenants were paying the utility bills.

[ Controversial landlord owns range of properties bought with funding from Luxembourg ]

Tenants complained to their landlord Mr Godart’s company Green Label Properties and were served with eviction notices, which they were advised by housing charity Threshold were not valid. Five tenants subsequently lodged proceedings with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) but were evicted on October 31st before their case was heard.

The RTB heard their case last December and in January the five tenants were awarded €12,000 each against Green Label Properties. Mr Godart has appealed the RTB ruling and a final decision is awaited.

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The Irish Times earlier this week reported that Dublin City Council council had issued enforcement proceedings ordering the cessation of unauthorised short-term letting of Reuben House, another property managed by Green Label on the southside of the city.

[ ‘It is frustrating to see my room on Airbnb’: evicted tenants tell of landlord’s move to short lets ]

Tenants of Reuben House were last August evicted and subsequently found their rooms advertised on holiday lettings website Airbnb as “hostel-style” accommodation. Reuben Street Hot Desks Ltd, a company also owned by Mr Godart, has applied to the council for planning permission to change the use of Reuben House to an aparthotel.

Mr Godart (34), a native of Luxembourg, has been a director of Green Label Property Investments Ltd since it was incorporated in 2014. The other director of the company is Denise Godart (63), also from Luxembourg.

Mr Godart is a director of 56 Irish companies, according to Companies House records, and a search of Land Registry files shows that the companies have made a number of investments over the past decade. In recent months he has incorporated a number of companies that describe their main business activity as “holiday and other short-stay accommodation”.

The latest filed accounts for Green Label Property Investments are for 2022 and show it had property worth €2.7 million at the end of that year.

The company, which describes itself as a cross-border property investment business, is owned by Hesper SA, of Luxembourg, but is ultimately controlled by Mr Godart, according to the accounts. Filings in Luxembourg show that Hesper SA had assets of €4.29 million at the end of 2021, and recorded a loss of €44,465.

The Green Label accounts for 2022 state that the company had recently purchased The Foundry, St Judes, Railway Street/Beaver Street, Dublin 1. The property was purchased with funding from Hesper SA, according to the accounts. There are no mortgages registered against Green Label Property Investments for the Railway Street or any other properties.

Green Label recorded a loss of €93,000 during 2022 and added €504,000 to the value of its investment properties, according to the accounts. It had no employees and paid director’s remuneration of €298,410 to Mr Godart.

Tenants of the north Dublin house, which Mr Godart had sublet from its owner, said appliances including the cooker, washing machine, dishwasher and dryer were removed from the house and the gas and electricity were turned off the week before their eviction, at Halloween. They said they were confined to the kitchen of the house while their belongings were removed.

Mr Godart has not responded to requests for comment.