Gardaí warned to avoid illegal evictions

GARDAÍ HAVE been warned not to participate in illegal evictions following allegations that members of the force have been assisting landlords to wrongly remove tenants from premises.

The Garda ombudsman has confirmed that it has received about 20 complaints or allegations that gardaí illegally assisted in the evictions of tenants.

In addition, the tenants’ rights group Threshold says the issue is a growing concern and has passed a number of complaints directly to the Garda Commissioner and the Private Residential Tenancies Board.

In the absence of a Circuit Court order, it is illegal to force a tenant from their home. Legal evictions may only take place by the local county sheriff and may not be carried out directly by a landlord.

The Garda Press Office did not comment on the issue over the weekend.

Threshold said the former Garda commissioner Fachtna Murphy sent a directive to Garda superintendents last year reminding members of the force not to attend or participate in illegal evictions.

Kevin Baneham, legal officer at Threshold, said Mr Murphy’s intervention was welcome. “For tenants it can be very intimidating to have a landlord accompanied by a garda.”

He said illegal evictions could cause tenants to become homeless, and some of its clients have ended up sleeping in cars or on the street. Others have lost possessions such as children’s clothes, legal documents or photographs.

“Given that landlords have recourse to the Private Residential Tenancies Board for legitimate disputes with tenants, illegal eviction is never a solution.”

He said Threshold received 14 complaints in 2009 regarding the involvement of gardaí in illegal evictions. In most of these cases the allegations related to uniformed gardaí either assisting or facilitating the removal of a tenant or, in some instance, threatening to arrest a tenant.

While in some cases gardaí said they were present due to a breach of the peace or a public order issue, Mr Baneham said this would not arise on private property.

“We welcome the initiative taken by the former Garda commissioner clarifying the law in this area and reminding gardaí of their role. Gardaí have no legal jurisdiction in private rented disputes, which are solely a matter for the Private Residential Tenancies Board.”

Threshold says most tenants threatened with eviction have not breached their obligations. In many cases they relate to tenants who say they asked their landlord to carry out repairs or provide their PPS number.

Threshold describes illegal evictions as “where a landlord forces a tenant out of a rented dwelling, for example by changing locks, cutting off the utilities or physically removing the tenant”.