A property letting agent has rented out rooms in 17 Dublin properties to between 50 and 80 migrants and foreign students, the High Court has heard.
The agent allegedly divided some of the sittingroom/living spaces into bedrooms and rented the rooms without written tenancy agreements.
Kevin O’Brien, otherwise Kevin Linehan O’Brien, of Mary’s Villa, North Road, Drogheda, Co Louth, and his company Linehan O’Brien Investments Ltd, had entered into the arrangements without the knowledge of the property owners and their agent, it was claimed.
The houses and apartments, in areas including Portobello, East Wall, Capel Street and Ranelagh, were leased through QTX Services Ltd to Mr Linehan O’Brien or his company on behalf of the corporate owners of the properties, Blumay Ltd, Sunchulo Ltd, Maroon Zirconium Ltd and Harts Alexandra Ltd.
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Mr Justice David Nolan on Thursday granted the owners permission to serve papers on the defendants in the proceedings seeking to prevent trespass by them on the properties pending further order.
The application was made by Brian Conroy SC, for the owners, on a one-side-only represented basis.
They seek injunctions restraining the defendants from trespassing, representing themselves as being manager of the properties, and from interfering with the owners’ agent in taking back possession of the properties.
In an affidavit, Padraig Kehoe, a director of QTX Services, which was originally engaged by the owners as letting agent, said notices to quit served on the defendants are not directed at the occupants of the dwellings.
He said the move is intended to respect, regularise and safeguard the position of the occupants.
Mr Kehoe said Mr Linehan O’Brien offered in 2021 to manage one of the properties and sublet it. This was agreed with a then-employee of QTX, and similar arrangements were subsequently made with him for the other 16 properties.
These arrangements went undetected by senior QTX personnel until the employee who dealt with Mr Linehan O’Brien left the firm, Mr Kehoe said.
Last February, QTX undertook an inspection of all the properties and found a number of concerns including modifications to living spaces, overcrowding, poor maintenance, and occupants not having written tenancy agreements, he said.
Mr Kehoe said it appeared the business model of the defendants was to obtain leases of the properties and then, rather than subletting them as a whole unit, granting licences or subleases to individuals to occupy rooms, often on a shared basis.
Mr Linehan O’Brien and his company derive income from the difference between the rent due on the relevant property and the total sums received from the individual occupants, he said.
Notices to quit were served on the defendants. Mr Kehoe said the defendants made multiple complaints to An Garda Síochána and the Property Services Regulatory Authority, and purported to initiate Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) proceedings, notwithstanding that the defendants do not themselves occupy the properties or have residential tenancies.
Mr Linehan O’Brien, in response to communications from QTX, has claimed what QTX were doing was illegal, and insisted the matter falls under the remit of the RTB. He has also claimed it was QTX agents who have trespassed and harassed the defendants. Those claims are denied by Mr Kehoe.
The matter comes back before the court next week.
