Legislation “did not intend” for students to have the power to control who enters, leaves or occupies their accommodation, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) argued before a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal.
The argument was made as a result of a dispute lodged by former TCD Student’s Union president László Molnárfi, who claimed the university’s “paternalistic” overnight guest policy stripped students of their autonomy and their privacy.
The tribunal heard that students living in TCD accommodation were required to register guests before 11pm at the Trinity Hall off-campus accommodation and before midnight on campus on any given day, essentially prohibiting last-minute guests at night.
Mr Molnárfi said the policy was a “de facto total ban on overnight guests” as it was not possible to sign in guests on the online platform after the deadlines, meaning they would be refused entry by security.
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He argued that “just because the students were in an academic environment that did not grant the landlord college extra privileges to apply this overbearing restriction”, according to a tribunal report published this week. “Students did not shed their constitutional rights upon entering the university’s gates,” he told the tribunal.
While the complaint was brought by him alone he said it was a collective complaint, one supported by TCD Student’s Union, adding that “hundreds and hundreds of students had signed a petition asking for a change”.
Representing TCD, barrister Ruadhán Ó Ciaráin said although students might not like the condition, “it remained the case that Trinity had an entitlement to put that condition in place”.
Mr Ó Ciaráin claimed that without the registration system there would be no way to ensure third parties were not occupying accommodation for any amount of time, further arguing that the university would have no legal basis to remove them.
In 2019 the Residential Tenancies Act was extended to cover student-specific accommodation, with Mr Ó Ciaráin arguing that the legislation did not intend for students to have the right to exclusive occupation.
He noted that the Act refers to peaceful occupation only for students, while all other tenants have an explicit right to both peaceful and exclusive occupation of a rented property.
He told the tribunal that entitlement was “expressly removed from the students” and remained with TCD, adding: “The Oireachtas did not intend for students to have that power of being able to control who comes in, who comes out and who occupies a particular residential unit.”
Mr Ó Ciaráin argued that peaceful occupation and exclusive occupation must be considered separate rights when it comes to students, “because the Oireachtas is presumed to legislate intentionally”.
However, Alex O’Connor, an adviser with housing charity Threshold which assisted Mr Molnárfi in his dispute, understood the deletion of the right to “exclusive occupation” was to prevent students from being able to replace other students who had left accommodation.
The tribunal did not share Mr Ó Ciaráin’s view that the concepts are mutually exclusive, adding that there is some overlap between both concepts.
The tribunal upheld the complaint lodged by Mr Molnárfi, ruling that the lack of provision to sign guests in after a certain hour is a “disproportionate interference” with his use of the dwelling, and constituted a breach of his peaceful occupation.
Noting that it was unclear in the agreement that there were designated cut-off times for signing in electronically, the tribunal said this led to students believing guests could be signed in 24/7, “resulting in stress and anxiety”, a further breach to peaceful occupation of the accommodation.
The ruling resulted in TCD changing its policy last month, allowing students to register guests at any time.
