A landlord who complained to the Teaching Council about his tenant after she questioned his tax compliance with colleagues has been ordered to pay damages after sending her a “barrage” of texts.
A Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal in May heard the tenant, a teacher who had been living in the property in Dublin for almost three years, had received a notice of termination in January 2023 which was later found invalid.
The landlord told the tribunal that his brother required the apartment three nights a week as he worked between Dublin and London.
The teacher, however, did not believe the landlord’s brother required the property, saying she received a message in January in which he wished to put another tenant in the dwelling with her, which she refused as she was renting the entire apartment.
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Soon after, the landlord told her she would have to find somewhere else to live by the end of 2023.
The day after, however, he sent another message asking when she intended to leave before later issuing the notice of termination.
On one occasion in May, the landlord offered her €2,300 to vacate the apartment within less than two months.
A month later the landlord texted saying her teaching colleagues suggested he report her to the Teaching Council, claiming she had alleged that he was a tax evader. He went on to say that if she did not co-operate with him, he would be forced to make the complaint, the tribunal heard.
Although saying she would never use the phrase “tax evader”, the tenant admitted questioning his tax compliance with colleagues.
The tenant received another message in July threatening to report her to the Teaching Council if she did not reply with her plans to move out of the dwelling.
The landlord said he was contacted by the tenant’s colleagues, who were unknown to him, saying she had alleged that he was a tax evader. This prompted him to eventually complain to the council and send a solicitor’s letter to the tenant.
The landlord again messaged in August stating that he had suicidal thoughts and it would be her fault if his children were made “fatherless and homeless as he was afraid that he was going to lose his own house because she would not move out of the dwelling”, the tribunal report reads.
The landlord told the tribunal he had a “nervous breakdown” at the time and regretted sending the text messages which were “out of character” for him.
He issued a second notice of termination on September 1st, 2023.
The tenant said she did not respond to the landlord for three months due to the “vitriolic nature” of his text messages and wished to conduct herself with “some level of decorum under enormous pressure from the landlord”.
The tribunal described the complaint made to the teaching council as “vexatious” and “not the correct forum for making a complaint” though it was not a breach of her rights as a tenant as she did question his tax compliance.
“While the tribunal accepts the landlord’s evidence that he was suffering from mental strain, the tenant was on the receiving end of a barrage of texts which interfered with her right to enjoy peaceful occupation of the dwelling,” the report reads.
The landlord was ordered to pay €500 in damages for interfering with the tenant’s right to enjoy peaceful occupation within the dwelling while the tenant was ordered to vacate and give up possession within 42 days as she was overholding since March 2024.
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