‘I can’t find anything else’: Father of four pleads with court enforcing eviction orders

“I’m a hard-working man. I’ve four kids at school,” the man says.Facing an application to enforce a vacant possession order so his landlord can sell the property, he also tells the court he never missed a rent payment. The man is among several tenants appearing at Dublin District Court’s September hearing of applications to enforce orders of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), the State body that arbitrates in disputes between landlords and tenants.“I don’t want to be in dispute. I don’t want to be here at all,” the man tells Judge Michael Ramsey. READ MOREHe says he would leave the west Dublin house “straight away” as soon as he found somewhere else, but, despite extensive searches by his wife and about 20 property viewings, the family were unable to get another house. “I am desperately trying wherever I can,” he says. He also says he is prepared to pay higher rent to stay where he is. Niall Quinn, for the landlord, says the tenant was told in February 2025 the landlord wanted to sell and the matter went through dispute resolution and adjudication, leading to an RTB determination last February granting vacant possession.An application under section 124 of the Residential Tenancies Act for enforcement of that order does not involve a rehearing and, while appreciating the “accommodation shortage”, it is “not a landlord’s job to find alternative accommodation”, Quinn says. When the judge makes an order for possession, with a stay to January 31st to allow the man more time to source accommodation, he asks for a longer stay, saying: “I can’t find anything.” A longer stay was “not possible”, the judge says.Of about 20 enforcement applications before the court, four come from housing charities or trusts and one by the State’s Land Development Agency (LDA). Most are by private or institutional landlords, including Highgarden Real Estate Ltd, Xerico Ltd, Yinghying Properties Ltd and Louisiane International Properties. The legal costs awarded in most applications are €650, plus VAT and outlay.In one application, the judge is told the joint owners of a private rental property received an RTB determination against two male tenants for vacant possession and payment of rent arrears. The tenancy began in May 2024 and the tenants made one rent payment before they eventually left the property late last July when rent arrears stood at €74,400. The judge directed enforcement of the arrears payment order.In another application, Highgarden secures enforcement for vacant possession of an apartment in Belmayne, Dublin 13, plus for payment of rent arrears of €46,428. There is no appearance by the tenant who, the court is told, had not complied with a July 2025 agreement reached after the RTB determined in favour of the landlord. That agreement provides for her to vacate the property and pay some arrears, but she is still there and the arrears have increased, the court hears. No rent has been paid since January 2025, the court is told.Separately, an application by Oaklee Housing Trust was adjourned to January after the judge was told a woman tenant is in residential treatment for addiction issues.In another application by the trust, the judge is told the tenancy of a Dublin 24 property was terminated in March 2025 and the RTB made orders last December for vacant possession and payment of rent arrears at €1,700. The home “has been taken over by others”, there was serious antisocial behaviour, it is “almost uninhabitable” and the tenant is in effect out of the property, Oaklee’s solicitor tells the judge. Her client wants enforcement of the vacant possession order plus, “for what it’s worth”, an order to pay arrears by October 9th, along with legal costs. The judge makes those orders.Respond, a not-for-profit housing body, seeks to enforce a vacant possession order against a tenant over almost €4,000 in rent arrears. The tenant, its solicitor says, was given “lots of chances” and warnings about the consequences of not complying with an agreement to pay about €105 rent weekly, plus €74 towards arrears, and provide documents concerning her household bills and income. Respond has “a long list” of people seeking housing and is “at its wit’s end” with this tenant who has “failed to help herself”, the solicitor says.The tenant, who lives with her two adult daughters in the property, says she receives a €263 weekly social welfare payment and hopes to get into treatment for addiction. “I’m not working. My money has gone down. I can’t handle or manage money,” she says. “I’ve nowhere to go.” Granting enforcement of the vacant possession order, the judge puts a stay on the order until December to give the tenant a “last chance” to engage and pay regularly. “Otherwise, you will be out of the property,” he warns her.The LDA secures a vacant possession order, also with a stay to December, to give a respondent tenant an opportunity to pay outstanding rent arrears of about €7,500. He made an agreement last July with the agency concerning rent arrears, then about €9,500, under which he was to pay €1,000 rent, plus a minimum €500 towards arrears, every month, but had not kept up the minimum arrears payments, the judge was told.The tenant says he was out of work for a time and had undergone counselling for personal issues. He entered into the July agreement “basically out of fear of losing the apartment”, but hopes to get back to work soon and to have the payments made by mid-December, he says. After the hearing, Quinn, who regularly represents landlords as well as tenants, tells The Irish Times the lack of rental properties, particularly in Dublin, means tenants often ask judges to allow them to stay on as they have been unable to get alternative accommodation. Where this arises, enforcement will still be granted because the legislation restricts the District Court from going beyond a valid decision of the RTB dispute resolution process, even where the tenant has demonstrated the ability to continue to pay rent, he says.Overholding – when a tenant stays on in rented accommodation after the tenancy termination date – can have “very significant” financial implications for landlords, he says.This is particularly a problem for those who need to sell the property because they have come to the end of an interest-only mortgage payment period and are unable to afford increased mortgage payments.The enforcement order applications follow “a very rigorous and extensive process” with the RTB, including a dispute resolution process and the possibility for appeal to the RTB’s three-person tenancy tribunal, Quinn says. The tribunal’s determination of that appeal may also be appealed, but only on a point of law to the High Court. If no appeal is taken, the determination order is binding. If it is not complied with, an order must be sought from the District Court to enforce.Most enforcement applications by landlords seek payment of rent arrears or enforcing tenancy termination notices where the tenant is “overholding” either paying rent or in rent arrears, Quinn says. Tenants may also be ordered to vacate over antisocial behaviour or causing property damage.Landlords seeking enforcement include large institutional landlords, housing charities and approved housing bodies, professional landlords with multiple dwellings and “accidental” landlords. Some enforcement proceedings are by executors of an estate to secure vacant possession or payment of rent arrears, Quinn says. From a tenant’s perspective, the RTB process may have determined they were evicted illegally; a termination notice was invalid; a landlord had not complied with their obligations; not returned a damage deposit or retained property belonging to a tenant after a tenancy.Many landlords and tenants resisting enforcement believe the case they made to the RTB can be reheard by the District Court.However, the law requires a District Court judge to enforce the determination order “save for very limited reasons”, including a lack of procedural fairness during the RTB’s process, Quinn says.