A tenant who was sent eviction notices after putting his landlords on notice they were breaking the law by refusing to sign up for the State Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) has won €23,000 in compensation.
In a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) decision published on Thursday, William Gallagher secured the sum on foot of rulings of discrimination and victimisation under the Equal Status Act 2000 against Jenny Brennan and Matthew Hannigan, from whom he was renting a residential property in Co Kildare.
An adjudicator considered the housing assistance discrimination to be “at the more serious end of the scale”, with Mr Gallagher left €15,000 out of pocket in rent the State should have been paying.
Ms Brennan and Mr Hannigan had denied the discrimination and victimisation alleged in the complaint. They claimed they had a deal with Mr Gallagher not to sign up to the State support on the basis they planned to sell up and there was “no point”.
RM Block
The WRC was told at a hearing last month the landlords still owned the property, while Mr Gallagher had gone without HAP for 15 months.
When he started to pursue the matter legally, he got an eviction notice within eight days, the tribunal heard.
Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) solicitor Anna Sheehan, appearing for Mr Gallagher, told the tribunal that Kildare County Council approved HAP of €1,012 a month in December 2023 towards her client’s €1,300-a-month rent.
The WRC heard that, after Mr Gallagher posted the HAP form to his landlords to complete on January 1st or 2nd, 2024, he and Ms Brennan exchanged texts on WhatsApp and spoke by phone.
Ms Brennan claimed that told Mr Gallagher on the phone on January 3rd, 2024, the landlords planned to sell the property and that he agreed there was “no point” in filling out the landlord section of the HAP form.
Mr Gallagher said in evidence there was no such agreement.
On an unspecified date in the first half of 2024, Mr Gallagher put his landlords on notice that he was pursuing the failure to complete the forms under the Equal Status Act.
Eight days later, they sent him the first of three tenancy termination notices.
Under questioning at the hearing, Ms Brennan accepted when IHREC wrote to her in December 2024, she replied she had not filled out the HAP form because she had “more valid things to focus on”. She sent the completed form to Kildare County Council “some time in February 2025”, the tribunal was told.
Mr Gallagher told the WRC he had been receiving HAP since April 28th, 2025, some 15 months after he first asked his landlords to complete and return the HAP form.
Adjudication officer Valerie Murtagh noted Mr Gallagher’s evidence that he suffered “significant financial and personal strain” during the period while trying to meet his rent every month without HAP.
Ms Murtagh found him a “very credible witness” whose evidence was corroborated by the documents in evidence.
Ms Brennan’s claim that there was a deal in place not to sign up to HAP was “at odds” with what was contained in correspondence, the adjudicator wrote, calling Mr Gallagher’s position that there was no deal to be “more credible”.
Ms Murtagh found the claimant had suffered a quantifiable financial loss of €15,180 on rent paid to his landlords “which would have been covered by HAP ... if his application had not been unlawfully delayed by [their] initial refusal and thereafter their delay”.
Ms Murtagh found the landlords discriminated against Mr Brennan by their “refusal and delay” to sign the HAP form and awarded Mr Brennan €15,000, the legal maximum for a breach of the Equal Status Act.
In view of the “escalation of negative and unlawful conduct” towards Mr Gallagher after he began his legal action, including the eviction notices, Ms Murtagh made a further award of €8,000 for penalisation in breach of the Equal Status Act.
In all, Ms Brennan and Mr Hannigan have been ordered to pay their tenant €23,000 in compensation.
