Landlord who argued tenant’s rent covered by State payment for hosting Ukrainian told to make repayments

A landlord who argued his tenant’s rent was “fully covered” by the monthly State payment she was receiving for hosting a Ukrainian woman has been ordered to repay overpayments after imposing several invalid rent reviews.A Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal heard tenant Mary Ann Barry had been renting the house on Kilrush Road in Ennis, Co Clare, since 2013, with rent initially set at €550 per month.Her landlord, Vincent Kelly, who did not attend a tribunal hearing held in July, increased Barry’s rent three times between February 2021 and February 2025, ultimately raising it to €750.Sarah Bergin, a representative of Kelly, accepted the rent increases had been communicated verbally only and that the correct rent review process had not been followed.READ MOREHowever, she argued the rent charged by Kelly had been consistently and “substantially” below the market level.She added the house was Kelly’s “only property” from which he was “barely covering his costs”, according to a recently published tribunal report.Bergin also told the tribunal a Ukrainian woman had been living at the property since November 2023 under the Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) scheme, and that Barry had been receiving €600 per month for this arrangement.The ARP has since been reduced to €400 since September and is due to be phased out by March 31st next year.Bergin said the landlord did not consent to this arrangement and had been unaware of it until June 2025, when he attended the property to find the woman living there.Noting that Barry had been receiving €600 per month at the time of the hearing in July, Kelly’s representative said the payment meant her rent was “fully covered”.Barry told the tribunal the Ukrainian woman had moved into the house in April 2024, adding that she remained living there by the time of the hearing.She also claimed there had been a verbal agreement with Kelly which allowed her to have other people live in the house to assist financially.The tribunal separately heard Kelly served a letter on Barry in June 2025, stating he would be terminating the tenancy in a year’s time as he required the property for his nephew, though he accepted the notice was invalid.Deeming the rent reviews invalid, the tribunal ordered Kelly to pay his tenant €852.06 within 28 days.While Barry had made overpayments amounting to €4,730, the tribunal offset the sum against more than €3,300 in rent underpayments and deducted a further month’s unpaid rent.Although Barry “failed” to notify Kelly in writing that she was availing of the ARP, the tribunal said it was not satisfied this gave rise to “any entitlement to a further allowance or set-off”.It said the payments made to Barry did not “affect the calculation of the sums due between the parties under the tenancy”.It separately ordered Kelly to pay a further €550 in damages to his tenant for failing to carry out necessary repairs, noting that Barry was without central heating for about four or five weeks.Barry had told the tribunal that when the central heating stopped working in December 2024, it was not repaired until about a month later, despite reporting the issue to Kelly at the time.Bergin said there were “difficulties” securing a contractor at the time.The issue occurred “during what would ordinarily be one of the coldest times of the year”, the tribunal noted.Other breaches alleged by Barry, including that Kelly had breached her right to peaceful occupation of the property, were not upheld by the tribunal.