A former tenant of controversial landlord Marc Godart who was illegally evicted from her home has told the High Court she paid her rent every month in cash to another tenant who acted as an agent for Mr Godart or one of his companies and that she never received a receipt.
Lizet Pena-Herrera, who secured an award from the Residential Tenants Board (RTB) for more than €15,000 against one of Mr Godart’s companies, Green Label Short Lets, but has not been paid, is seeking to have Mr Godart called to give evidence about the financial affairs of the company, given its failure to pay the money.
Mr Godart, who is the company’s sole director, has told the court in an affidavit that the company has no assets and has effectively ceased operations. The company is also challenging Ms Pena-Herrara’s right to take the case in the High Court under company law.
The case was mentioned briefly before Mr Justice Brian Cregan on Monday, the fifth time it has been before the judge. Mr Justice Cregan said one of the issues on his mind was that Green Label Short Lets said it had no assets, yet it appeared to have been the landlord that gave notice to Ms Pena-Herrara to quit her room in a property in Vintage Court, Cork Street, Dublin 8.
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He asked that the company, if it so wished, address the issue on affidavit prior to the case coming before him again on Friday. Normally, he said, “if a tenant enters into a tenancy with a landlord, the landlord owns the asset”. It had been asserted that Green Label Short Lets was at all times acting as an agent, but it was not clear who it was acting as agent for.
Ms Pena-Herrera, in her latest affidavit, said she had rented the room from an agent who introduced herself as being from “Green Label Properties”.
“I paid a deposit of €470 in cash on December 20th to Ms [Ingrid] Mazariego and a further €470 in rent on December 26th, after which I was given a key to the property.”
“I say that I and all other tenants in the premises paid rent to Ms Mazariego (who lived in the property) in cash at the property every month on behalf of the landlord. There were no receipts given for same.”
Ms Pena-Herrera, who included with her affidavit a screen grab of her initial December 2020 WhatsApp communication with Ms Mazariego and a copy of the eviction notice she received from Green Label Short Lets in April 2022, said it was only when she received the notice that she first heard of Green Label Short Lets.
Mr Godart, in his latest affidavit to the court, addressed an alleged discrepancy between his earlier claim that Green Label Short Lets had no earnings during 2023 in circumstances where it pleaded guilty in the District Court to criminal breaches of the planning laws in relation to short term lettings at addresses in central Dublin in June 2023.
He said his earlier statements were correct and true. “Shortly after the attendance of the planning enforcement manager at the properties in June 2023, all short term lettings at the properties effectively ceased and hence the operations of [Green Label Short Lets] similarly ceased at that point.”
He said the company “controlled the short-term letting space” at the time and permitted tenants to live at the properties for periods not exceeding 14 days but “did not have any responsibility towards the guests or the collection of payment.” He did not say how payment was collected.
Mr Godart is a director of a number of Irish companies involved in property and property letting, all of which are owned by a company in Luxembourg. He said in his affidavit that he omitted some company names from a list of Irish property companies he was associated with because three of them were owners’ management companies and another “inactive and dormant”.
Ms Pena-Herrera is being represented by John Kennedy SC, with Liam Bell BL, instructed by Eoghan McMahon, of McGrath Mullen solicitors, while Green Label is being represented by Gary McCarthy SC, with Darragh Haugh BL, instructed by Vincent Shields, of Shields Solicitors, Cahir, Co Tipperary.
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