A Dublin tenant who allegedly sent “threatening” voice notes to his landlords warning them not to come to the property, has been ordered to pay €32,600 in rent arrears and damages.
A Residential Tenancies Board tribunal heard claims from landlords Anthony Delaney and Damien Chaney that their tenant, Gavin Carey, often did not pay rent “at all”.
Mr Carey, who lived at the three-bedroom house in Springfield, Tallaght since 2017, had garnered rent arrears of almost €42,000 by the time of the hearing in February, according to a tribunal report published this week.
While Mr Carey did not appear before the tribunal, it heard claims the arrears were “always accumulating,” which the landlords attributed to employment difficulties, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Ultimately, the pair ran into difficulty with their mortgage as “many payments were missed” with Mr Delaney saying his credit rating was “now abysmal”.
While Mr Carey would make sporadic payments over the years, he had not paid since June 2023, they claimed.
The ongoing arrears resulted in a “toxic landlord-tenant relationship,” over time, they said, and while they expressed empathy for Mr Carey’s circumstances, the situation had become “unsustainable.”
They claimed their tenant had a hostile attitude and would become “abusive and threatening” towards them when they tried to press him for rent.
The landlords submitted text messages and “many voice notes” from Mr Carey into evidence, which they claimed were “so aggressive at times” they had not entered the house since 2018 or 2019.
They subsequently decided to sell the house last year, describing their landlord experience as a “nightmare”.
They claimed that when an inspection of the property was scheduled in preparation for a potential sale, Mr Carey threatened that he would “be waiting for them” which led to its cancellation.
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The pair said they had not yet taken any steps to prepare the house for sale as they had been unable to get access.
The tribunal described some of the voice messages received as being of an “aggressive and abusive nature,” adding that Mr Carey was afforded an “enormous amount of latitude” by his landlords, “who were patient and accommodating towards him”.
It said it was satisfied that Mr Carey owed €41,600 in arrears, and ordered him to pay two years’ of rent arrears (€27,600), the maximum amount allowable in this case under the Residential Tenancies Act.
Noting that Mr Delaney and Mr Chaney were financially affected, it said the “constant non-payment of rent” was also causing “ongoing stress and hardship,” and awarded them damages of €5,000.
As a valid notice of termination was issued with a vacate date in October, it also deemed Mr Carey to be overholding and ordered him to vacate the property within 28 days.
