Tenants in entire Dublin apartment block face eviction

Tenants living across more than 30 apartments in a Dublin city property have been served eviction notices, as the landlord intends to sell the entire building.

Earlier this week, residents living in Tathony House, a three-storey apartment complex in Kilmainham, Dublin 8, were served eviction notices to vacate the property by the start of next June.

Gurpreet Kaur, a single mother from India living in the building with her daughter Kainaat, who is nearly four years old, said it would be “very difficult” to find alternative housing.

“I started looking on Daft.ie, first thing, I can’t find [anywhere], if we find, it is very expensive, which I can’t afford,” she said.

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Daniela Martinez, a tenant renting in Tathony House for five years, said she was also concerned about whether she would be able to afford current rental prices in the market.

“Housing is a big big situation, it is not a problem anymore, it’s an emergency. I don’t have any family here,” she told The Irish Times.

Originally from Mexico, she is renting with two friends, and said she currently pays €400 a month in rent. “I felt I was settled, we love living here, it’s a quiet, nice area, but now everything is changed,” she said.

“To get one room for you, you need to queue with another 40 people, even outside the city centre. It is hard to find something even if you have seven months,” she said.

The flat complex is owned by Tathony Holdings Ltd.

Under a law introduced in recent years, known as the Tyrrelstown Amendment, a landlord cannot terminate 10 tenancies in a property at the same time to sell, without the tenants staying in place.

However, the landlord told tenants the evictions were not subject to this law, due to an exemption that the price would be 20 per cent below market value selling with the tenants in situ. In the eviction notices, seen by The Irish Times, the landlord cited another exemption that complying with the amendment would cause the landlord “undue hardship”.

Madeleine Johansson, a tenant renting in the property since 2009, said the Government’s forthcoming eviction ban would make no difference to their situation.

“I’m actually a county councillor myself, so obviously I deal with people all the time who are in this situation and then to end up in that situation myself, it’s really shocking,” she said.

Ms Johansson, a People Before Profit representative on South Dublin County Council, said residents in Tathony House were “really upset” and worried for the future.

“Everyone knows the private rental sector is at crisis, there is just nothing [available]… It is basically a lottery as to whether you can get a place or not,” she said.

Murilo Mantovani, from Brazil, has lived in an apartment in the property with his wife and two boys, aged 9 and 8, since late 2020. The eviction notice had derailed his family’s plans for the future, he said. “We are near Christmas and nobody wants to hear this kind of news,” he said.

“Being homeless was not being planned for anyone, but that’s not so far from now,” Mr Mantovani said.

Residents are planning to appeal the evictions to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), who rule on disputes between tenants and landlords. The tenants are also planning to hold a protest outside of Dublin City Council offices next Saturday over the eviction.

The landlord did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.