A French student who received “abusive and incessant” demands from his landlord to pay a 17-page-long invoice for “additional charges”, including use of the dining table for studying, has been awarded €7,000 in damages.
Laurent Stacchetti, who came to Ireland to study at Maynooth University, agreed to rent a room from Gabriela Hennigan and Michael Hennigan for €850 per month in 2023.
He believed the house in Clonsilla, Dublin 15, would be shared with other students, though the couple, who were primarily based in Poland, opted to rent out the other rooms on Airbnb after a lack of interest from other students.
It was agreed Mr Stacchetti, who lived at the property with the couple’s daughter, would not have to pay for certain utilities in exchange for carrying out some Airbnb-related tasks.
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However, messages and calls from Ms Hennigan requesting him to carry out said tasks for guests became “constant”, he said, referring to phone records showing more than 20 calls in quick succession on some occasions.
One night, he said, he was asked to get a label printed so she could return a purchased item. While he refused to do this as it was late at night, he often carried out the tasks “for fear of reprisal”, he said.
During a busy St Patrick’s weekend last year, when about 10 guests were staying at the property, Ms Hennigan believed Mr Stacchetti was “disrespectful” and “unhelpful”.
She added there had been a loss of income on Airbnb because of his “lack of help” which she claimed had caused bad reviews. She subsequently decided to “charge him for every single service he used”, she told a Residential Tenancies Board tribunal.
While Mr Stacchetti was in France during the Easter break, she emailed him a 17-page-long “bill” demanding €5,255.50, warning he would be denied access to his room unless it was paid in full.
The bill, described by the tribunal as “quite extraordinary”, charged the student for studying at the dining table rather than in his bedroom.
Ms Hennigan also charged him for each time she believed his girlfriend came to visit, saying she was told by neighbours and cleaners of said visits.
She also charged for his girlfriend’s use of the dining table for eating, and for his use of the fridge, telling the tribunal that “just like a hotel”, there are charges for “additional amenities”.
Mr Stacchetti was also charged for professional cleaning done in preparation for Airbnb guests, the tribunal noted.
Ms Hennigan claimed she was entitled to charge him for “breaches” of his obligations and he was liable for additional charges “the same as any other guest staying at the house”.
She maintained he “owed a debt” and had since “calculated” that he owed €14,565.50.
The tribunal believed the landlords sought to impose a different type of arrangement on the tenancy agreed, “and blame him when things did not run smoothly with the Airbnb business”.
“Most egregious of all”, however, was Ms Hennigan’s “relentless barrage of increasingly aggressive emails” to Mr Stacchetti after he failed to respond to demands for payment while he was in France, it said.
It described the correspondence as “abusive and incessant”.
In one email sent on March 31st, Ms Hennigan said: “We are going to do whatever it takes to pull every single pence out of you, even if it involves our physical presence in your apartment in France as you will not be manipulating and arrogantly ignoring our demands to pay.”
She went on to inform him that the locks had been changed, saying it was “in your arrogant arse best interest – trust us as we live longer in this world than you”.
Ms Hennigan advertised his room on Airbnb, and subsequently contacted Maynooth University, alleging that he owed her and her husband money, which must have caused “extreme embarrassment, stress and upset” for the student, the tribunal said.
It said the overall conduct amounted to a “very severe” breach of his peaceful occupation of the house, and ordered the couple to pay €3,500 in damages.
It ordered them to pay a further €3,500 for unlawfully terminating the tenancy, alongside the return of his unlawfully retained deposit of €850.
