A tenant of an apartment in Bandon, Co Cork, caused “endless problems” and “distress and misery” to the wife of her landlord who had to deal with her, a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal has said.
The tribunal made the finding in relation to tenant Siobhan O’Donovan, who rented an apartment at The Mill, MacSwiney Quay, Bandon, at a rent of €160 a week, from landlord Shane O’Donnell. She had moved into the property in 2004.
Mr O’Donnell’s wife, Fionnuala O’Donnell, told the tribunal she handled the property as her husband worked long hours. She said she had been “put through hell” and that the couple wanted the apartment back so they could sell it.
She said they had numerous problems with Ms O’Donovan’s “antisocial behaviour”, that the tenant had changed the locks to the apartment, the gardaí had been in contact on numerous occasions about the tenant’s behaviour, and other tenants in the building and the management company had also complained about her.
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Ms O’Donnell said Ms O’Donovan had been asked to leave several times but refused and from the beginning the tenant had not paid her HAP (Housing Assistance Payment) contributions, which could mean that “for months at a time” the landlord would not receive the rent from the local authority.
“The trouble from the tenant is endless,” the tribunal was told by Ms O’Donnell. The owners “have mortgages to pay and they have children” and “just want their apartment back to sell it”.
Ms O’Donovan, who did not attend the hearing, was served with a notice of termination in November 2021, but was still in occupancy.
The tribunal, comprising Maureen Cronin (chair), Finian Matthews and Healy Hynes, noted the “distress and misery suffered” by Mr O’Donnell in dealing with Ms O’Donovan and the financial pressures arising from the “uncertainty of irregular payments” from the tenant. It accepted as genuine the evidence that the couple intended to sell the apartment and decided Ms O’Donovan should vacate the property within 35 days.
In another decision, a tribunal decided that a tenant in a shared apartment in Dublin 8 had brought her case against the wrong respondent.
Deborah Sa had alleged an unlawful eviction against corporate landlord iLiv Apartments Ireland Ltd but the tribunal found she did not have a tenant/landlord relationship with the company.
Speaking through a Portuguese interpreter, Ms Sa said she paid €650 a month to stay in a shared apartment at Bertram Court, Lamb Alley, Dublin 8, having made contact over Facebook in September of last year with the “head tenant” at the property who interviewed her and said he would send her identity documents to the landlord, iLiv.
Ms Sa said she was told by this tenant the landlord had stipulated that he would decide whether she would be added as a tenant and that she had not realised until January that he was subletting rooms without the consent of the landlord.
She paid her rent into the bank account of the head tenant. She had not named this man as a respondent in the case because the RTB had advised her not to, she said. She said she was “thrown out” of the property by the head tenant in January 2024 and went to live in a hostel.
Conor Kenny, letting manager of iLiv Apartments, said they had not known the tenancy was being let by the head tenant and that a written warning had been issued to him.
The full rent – €2,023 per month – on the two-bed property was paid to them each month by the head tenant, he said. The tribunal was told single beds had been put in a room where there had been a double bed and that iLiv did not inspect properties during tenancies.
The tribunal, comprising Karen Ruddy (chair), Fintan McNamara and Dervla Quinn, found there was no tenancy in existence between the tenant and iLiv Apartments and the dispute did not come within its jurisdiction. The tribunal “cannot understand” why the tenant chose to bring her case against iLiv when she had no contract whatsoever with them, it said.
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