A landlord who refused to accept State housing supports and threatened a tenant with eviction just two days before the man was due to have surgery has been ordered to pay €20,000 in compensation.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) directed that Muhammad Naeem Aslam pay the sum to apartment tenant Ayodeji Saanu for breaches of the Equal Status Act 2000.
Mr Saanu told the tribunal he was paying €2,100 a month to rent a two-bedroom apartment for himself and his family.
He said that upon qualifying for rent supplement in late 2023, he wrote to Mr Aslam and asked him to fill out the landlord section of the relevant form.
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In replies sent via WhatsApp, Mr Aslam wrote: “We don’t accept Housing Supplement Payment” and “I do not accept HAP, sorry, can’t help you on that”.
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Mr Saanu said he decided not to pursue the matter at that stage because of his “vulnerable position as a tenant”.
However, he said that 10 months later, in October last year, he was facing into having surgery, which meant he would be left without income for a few weeks.
He wrote to his landlord telling him he would be unable to pay his rent out of pocket, but that he had qualified for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).
Mr Aslam replied on WhatsApp, stating: “I don’t accept HAP.” He added that he would “evict” Mr Saanu if he “insisted” on HAP being accepted. Mr Saanu said in reply that the landlord’s actions were discriminatory.
On October 6th, 2024, the landlord sent a message “threatening to end the tenancy” and to eject the complainant and his family, Mr Saanu told the tribunal.
His surgery was meant to take place just two days later, according to the letter he sent his landlord.
He served Mr Aslam with the statutory notice form for initiating a discrimination complaint on October 8th.
“My solicitor will take care of this – if and when needed,” Mr Aslam said in response.
The landlord then told Mr Saanu that an inspection of the property would be carried out on November 6th. Mr Saanu escalated his complaint to the WRC on October 28th, 2024. After that his landlord served him with an eviction notice, giving just 28 days to leave.
When Mr Saanu pointed out that this was insufficient and the notice was invalid, Mr Aslam replied that he was “adept at this sort of thing” as a landlord letting out three apartments.
He followed up immediately by writing: “Unfortunately situation has changed for me, which means I need the apartment for myself.”
Mr Saanu said he felt threatened by what the landlord was doing while he was in a “vulnerable” position. He said he asked the landlord what he was meant to do if he could not pay the rent. He said Mr Aslam’s response was that he should “leave the property”.
Mr Saanu said that as a result, he was forced to go back to work before he was fit to do so and then developed an infection. He told WRC adjudicator Louise Boyle at an online hearing in August that he and his family were under an eviction notice at that time.
In her decision, Ms Boyle noted Mr Aslam had not dialled in for the hearing and had given no explanation for failing to attend.
She found the landlord was on notice of the case and heard the matter in his absence.
Mr Saanu’s evidence was “credible” and his testimony was backed up by correspondence he had submitted, she said.
The tenant was in a “vulnerable position when he required surgery” and had suffered discrimination on the ground of housing assistance when his landlord refused to accept HAP.
She awarded him €12,000 for that breach.
Ms Boyle also concluded the landlord victimised Mr Saanu for initiating an equality claim by carrying out an inspection of the property and continuing to threaten to evict him.
The adjudicator ordered Mr Aslam to pay the complainant €8,000 for this further breach of the Equal Status Act, bringing the total compensation due to €20,000.
