The High Court has ruled a receiver of the lease on a mews at the rear of a house on Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, must pay thousands in rent arrears to two sons and executors of the estate of the late Renée ffrench-O’Carroll, daughter of a French diplomat.
Ms ffrench-O’Carroll, who died aged 92 in December 2015, was for many years the only remaining owner/occupier of the Fitzwilliam Square Georgian house and also owned the mews which backs on to Pembroke Lane.
Her father, Xavier, the equivalent in the 1940s of what is now the role of French ambassador to Ireland, gave her the four-storey over basement property as a wedding present on her marriage in 1944 to Irish doctor Michael ffrench-O’Carroll.
Michael was one of the founders of the Clann na Poblachta political party in 1947 and later, in 1951, was elected Independent TD for South West Dublin in 1951. He died in 2007.
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In 2020, one of their sons, Donal ffrench-O’Carroll, who along with his brother Paul are executors of their mother’s estate, called on Tom O’Brien, who had been appointed receiver of the lease attached to the mews, to agree a revised rent. Agreement could not be reached and in 2021 an independent valuer determined increased rents for periods since 2013 and since 2018.
The matter eventually came before Mr Justice Oisín Quinn, who was asked to determine the proper construction of a rent review clause in the lease and from what date arrears should be paid.
Donal ffrench-O’Carroll argued that the terms of the lease require the receiver as tenant to pay the arrears due for a period of six years prior to the 2020 demand.
The receiver, Mr O’Brien, argued that the lease, when properly construed, only obliges him to commence paying the increased rent from the date of the next rent day, or “gale day”, following release of the independent valuer’s determinations, which in this case was July 2021.
Mr Justice Quinn said he was satisfied that the interpretation of the lease urged by Donal ffrench-O’Carroll was the correct one and the receiver should make a payment that includes the arrears due from March 2014, based on a first determination, and then from July 2018 based on a second determination.
He adjourned the matter to hear from the parties as to the precise amounts due.
Earlier, the judge said the mews had previously been rented by Ms ffrench-O’Carroll to another son, Arthur, who in 1989 renovated it and opened a restaurant on the ground floor, with apartments above.
As part of that, she granted Arthur a 99-year lease at a nominal £1,000 rent in return for his management assistance to her in relation to her substantial property interests.
The agreement also provided that in the event that Arthur ceased to manage her property affairs, then “with effect from the date of cessation of such services” a “full open market yearly rent” would be due for the first floor (where the apartments were located).
The judge said that while the restaurant was successful, in 1998 Arthur’s personal circumstances and commitments had changed and he decided it would be better for him and his own family to sublet the restaurant.
This triggered a dispute with his mother and he stopped providing his mother with assistance in her property affairs.
Legal proceedings followed between mother and son in the Circuit Court which ultimately ended up in a 2006 judgment from the High Court.
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That court found that in granting the lease to her youngest son, Arthur, with the initial nominal rent, this was intended to be in satisfaction of his one-fifth share of inheritance in the totality of the value of her estate. The ffrench-O’Carrolls had five children.
Mr Justice Quinn said despite the fact that Arthur had stopped providing management services to his mother, no market yearly rent had been paid for the first-floor apartments.
In 2016, some months after her death, a receiver was appointed over the assets of Arthur, including the lease on the mews.
In 2020, the dispute over the call for revised rents began.
Giving his judgment on Thursday, Mr Justice Quinn said while the receiver’s interpretation of the construction of the lease was “somewhat understandable” if one is to focus solely on the words of a certain clause in the lease, it was not ultimately the correct interpretation.
