A landlord who carried out a “stark” and “egregious” illegal eviction of a pregnant tenant, her partner and their one-year-old baby 10 days before Christmas has been ordered to pay €15,000 in damages.
A Residential Tenancies Board tribunal heard that the couple arrived home to find the locks changed and their belongings emptied from the property on December 15th, 2023.
The mother had been in hospital the night prior to the eviction due to her pregnancy and recalled being surprised when she was informed by her neighbour that there was a notice attached to her front door.
The notice alleged antisocial behaviour as its reasoning for the eviction which both tenants denied and the tribunal also found to be false.
The tenants recalled being “humiliated” by the eviction and left without access to their belongings which they later discovered were moved to a storage unit. Three pairs of sunglasses were missing while other items were damp, they said.
The couple tried to contact the landlord in the immediate aftermath to no avail.
The tenants and their baby then moved in with a brother for more than a month before subsequently moving into one of their parents’ homes where they still resided at the time of the hearing in May.
The landlord, a single mother of three living in the UK who stated she held down three jobs, said rent payments were frequently late over the course of the tenancy which became a concern in November when no payment was made.
She described the tenants as “elusive and evasive” as they were not responding to her messages and she felt “helpless”.
However, based on text messages shown during the hearing, the tribunal said it appeared as though the tenants had communicated with the landlord at the time.
The landlord issued a notice of termination from the UK by post which gave seven days’ notice, with the tribunal hearing that the tenants were told it was “waiting for them” at a local post office to collect.
The landlord then flew to Ireland seven days later on December 15th when she hired a moving van and movers to remove their belongings while the tenants were at work.
[ Landlord ordered to pay €5,000 over ‘black bag eviction’ of father and childOpens in new window ]
She said she later received some missed calls from them along with some “profanity” in messages, adding that she was “fearful” to attend the property.
The landlord recalled returning to the UK before seeking rent payment for the first two weeks of December. She also retained the tenants’ deposit of €1,470 since the eviction.
The tenants argued that when rent was late, it was by three or four days “at the most”, adding that the missed payment in November was addressed in December.
The landlord apologised for the “inconvenience” caused to the family and acknowledged it was an error to describe their behaviour as antisocial.
“The manner of the tenants’ eviction is stark and merits an award of compensation for the undoubted distress and inconvenience that they faced as a result of the landlord’s actions,” the tribunal said.
It said the landlord should have issued a warning letter concerning late payments first, but instead rendered the family “homeless” and carried out an eviction on an “entirely false basis”.
“The tribunal finds that the nature of the eviction is egregious in all the circumstances and reflects a situation where the landlord had little regard for the tenants’ welfare,” the tribunal said.
Alongside ordering her to return the tenants’ deposit, the tribunal ordered the landlord to pay €15,000 in damages to reflect the nature of the eviction and “the blatant disregard” shown to the tenants in the lead-up to Christmas.
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