A landlord in Dublin who re-advertised a property at a higher rent after serving a notice of termination on a family has been ordered to pay €12,000 in damages by a Residential Tenancies Board tribunal.
Tenant Natalie Gorghi who lived at the property on Navan Road with her husband and two sons received a notice of termination from her landlord Linda Coate as she required the property for her own occupation.
After a “long and difficult process,” Ms Gorghi found alternative accommodation, to which they moved in December 2023, though it now takes her about 90 minutes to pick her children up from school compared to the previous ten-minute drive.
The rent of the new tenancy, meanwhile, is “extremely expensive” at €2,660, almost double that of her previous tenancy (€1,334), the tribunal heard.
In January 2024, Ms Gorghi received a Daft.ie notification listing the property she vacated at €2,150 per month.
The advertisement, which was supplied as evidence, was taken down a few hours later, she told the tribunal, and believed the “whole process had been a trick” to get them to leave so the rent could be increased.
Ms Gorghi said she was “appalled” to see the advertisement, and that she would have forfeited her current tenancy and accepted the loss of the deposit had she been reoffered the property in which she lived for more than 11 years.
Alan McKenna, a representative for Ms Coate argued that Ms Gorghi had not supplied new contact details, though the tenant argued her contact details had never changed in 12 years.
Mr McKenna claimed that although the property was advertised as being €2,150, this was to receive a “lower level of enquiries” due to the high demand in the rental market.
Mr McKenna told the tribunal that the new tenants were paying €2017.77 per month which included additional services.
Ms Coate told the tribunal that medical issues arose after gaining possession of the property prompting her to stay with relatives instead.
She indicated that if the tenants had wanted the dwelling, they should have replied to the Daft.ie advertisement in January 2024, according to the tribunal report published this week.
The tribunal found that Ms Coate unlawfully deprived Ms Gorghi of possession of the property, having failed to offer her an opportunity to reoccupy the dwelling before re-advertising.
It noted that Ms Gorghi and her family had “suffered loss, inconvenience and expense as a direct result” and in considering the “significant consequences”, it ordered Ms Coate to pay €12,000 in damages in 12 monthly instalments.
A separate RTB tribunal, meanwhile, ordered a mother and daughter, both of whom live with disabilities, to vacate a property after overholding for more than two years.
Landlord Rody Corrigan told the tribunal that he is currently renting and required the property in Ballycullen, Co Dublin back for him and his wife, who has a terminal illness, and their four young children.
Tenant Sabiha Abid Allateef told the tribunal how she could not find an alternative house to rent as “landlords wanted people in employment or the rents were too high.”
Ms Abid Allateef said she had been waiting years to be allocated a house by her local authority, adding that both she and her daughter were living with disabilities.
She asked the tribunal not to “throw them out on to the streets” and to allow them to remain until her daughter had completed secondary school, saying she should not have to “suffer the consequences” of Mr Corrigan’s “problems”.
To allow Ms Abid Allateef a “reasonable period of time” to source alternative accommodation, it ordered her to vacate the property within 42 days.
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