A gentleman claims to have been residing in a six-bedroomed property in southern Dublin without paying any rent for over a decade and a half. He has managed to convince the High Court to reverse the claim that he was lawfully issued a notice to terminate his lease.
John O’Gara successfully put forth an argument stating that there was no definitive proof to validate the Residential Tenancies Board’s (RTB) conclusion that he was a tenant of the isolated property located in Rathfarnham, which is spread across half an acre.
O’Gara contests the existence of any tenant agreement and insists that he is the lawful owner of the Ballyboden Road property through adverse possession.
Detailing the case’s backdrop, Justice Anthony Barr mentioned that O’Gara chose not to participate in the RTB hearing last September as he asserts there was no tenancy agreement between him and Patrick Fitzgerald, who procured the property from a receiver in June 2022.
The property, having a suggested lowest price of €1 million, was advertised.
Fitzgerald stated to RTB that the property was advertised as being subject to an unspecified tenancy and no viewings were conducted before the internet auction. Fitzgerald mentioned that he had a conversation with the property’s previous owner who claimed to have leased the property to O’Gara in 2007.
He said the man was rather unclear about the specifics, only recalling that the rent was allegedly €2,000 monthly. He reportedly stated that the rent was collected by AIB monthly for about a year to one and a half years, after which neither he nor his co-owner retained any involvement.
Fitzgerald stated that two weeks post the property purchase, he issued a rental demand of €4,500 to O’Gara, this value being contingent on the current rental income for comparable properties. He stated registering the “tenancy” with the RTB.
Fitzgerald says O’Gara has neither paid any rent nor granted him access to the property ever since.
The judicial authority announced that a warning letter was issued to Mr. O’Gara by Mr. Fitzgerald in August 2022, followed by a notice of termination in the consecutive month. The Residential Tenancies Board’s tribunal authenticated a notice about the rental arrears and confirmed the termination notice’s legitimate service. Consequently, they resolved that Mr. O’Gara ought to leave the premises by September 13th, 2023.
However, on appealing to the High Court, Mr. O’Gara discovered on Wednesday that no proof of an existing tenancy between him and Mr. Fitzgerald had been presented at the RTB tribunal. According to Mr Justice Barr, a tenancy registered in 2007 under the names of Mr. O’Gara and two others, then another was registered solely in Mr. O’Gara’s name in 2011. Nevertheless, it is agreed that RTB registration doesn’t by itself establish a tenancy.
Given the lack of sanctioning evidence for any tenancy agreement post 2007, it was considered that the RTB had exceeded its terms of reference and was incorrect in its assessment of the termination notice’s legitimacy. Therefore, the judge decreed that Mr O’Gara’s appeal must prevail. He annulled the report of the RTB tribunal and returned the case back to the RTB for reconsideration.