Landlord must pay €20,000 for evicting tenant from property she then used for short-term lets

A landlord in her 80s who said she intended to occupy an apartment after evicting a tenant, but instead used it for short-term lettings following her husband’s death, has been ordered to pay almost €20,000 in damages.A Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal heard that Gerda McLoughney issued a notice of termination to Fernando Lima in July 2024, which said she planned to move into the apartment on Stephen Street Lower, Dublin 2, with her husband.Lima said he “became aware” in July last year, months after he had moved out, that the apartment in Drury Hall appeared to be occupied by someone else.He submitted a video that “clearly” showed another person staying in the apartment and said this person confirmed he was there on a short-term basis.READ MORELima argued that McLoughney was offering “short-term lets despite the false claim that she needed it for her own occupation”. He said he believed she wanted to “rent at a higher price to someone else”.McLoughney’s representative, Anne-Marie Matthews, told the tribunal her intention to move into the apartment was “genuine” when she issued the eviction notice.However, she said McLoughney’s husband died in May last year and this caused a “significant change” in her circumstances and delayed her moving.[ Landlord claimed she issued termination notice to use property during ‘heavy traffic’Opens in new window ]Matthews said McLoughney did not deny using the apartment for short-term lets but that this was arranged “in the meantime” so the property would not be vacant for an extended period.“In hindsight”, Matthews said, she accepted that Lima should have been offered an opportunity to move back in. However, she said McLoughney was never motivated by “personal gain” and had “never put pressure” on Lima to leave.Asked why a “couple in their 80s” would want to occupy the apartment, Matthews said McLoughney and her late husband “always intended to use it in later life”.Lima said he was seeking more than €30,000 in compensation, telling the tribunal the episode and related financial pressure “significantly worsened” his stress and anxiety. He said he was already receiving treatment for an anxiety disorder at the time.Lima had been paying €1,200 in rent at Drury Hall until he left in January last year. He moved to a two-bedroom apartment in Grand Canal Harbour, which cost him €2,650 per month for a year until another tenant rented the second room, and he has been paying €1,550 per month since. [ ‘My landlord has died and their spouse has taken over. Can they increase my rent?’Opens in new window ]Lima was seeking more than €10,584 for the increased rent, alongside €10,000 for “stress, anxiety and pressure” caused by the “urgent relocation”. He sought a further €9,500 in “aggravated damages”, though the RTB does not have jurisdiction to make such an award.Noting that Lima had been paying a higher rent, Matthews argued his new tenancy was an “improved one” and that the accommodation was “better”, which she believed was relevant to his claimed loss.She said she did not believe Lima had “suffered the harm that he has claimed for”. She also argued Lima had pre-existing anxiety and McLoughney should not be “responsible for his upset”.Although it accepted the death of McLoughney’s husband may have caused a “genuine change in her plans”, the tribunal said this did not relieve her obligation to offer the apartment back to Lima.The tribunal said the apartment should have been offered back to Lima on May 18th, 2025, the date of her husband’s death, adding that Lima was “unjustly deprived of possession” from this date onwards.Given that the tenancy would have run until 2027, the tribunal awarded Lima €19,522.50, which was the difference in the rent he had paid and will have paid by then. The sum also includes €2,500 in damages for the “exacerbation of an existing stress disorder”.