Dublin City Council has contacted the owners of Tathony House apartment block five times in advance of the mass eviction of tenants in June but has received no response, the local authority’s assistant chief executive has said.
Last October, tenants living in more than 30 apartments received an eviction notice to vacate the property in Kilmainham, Dublin 8, by June 2nd, as the landlord intends to sell the entire building.
Many of the tenants, some of whom have resided there for more than a decade, are campaigning for the block to be purchased by the council so they can remain in situ.
They are currently undergoing the dispute resolution process through the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
In response to a question from Cllr Deirdre Cronin on May 8th, Coilín O’Reilly, assistant chief executive with responsibility for housing, said the council and the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) have “contacted the owner of Tathony House and their solicitor over email on five occasions over the last four months”.
“No response has been received,” he said.
The tenants had their first hearing at the RTB on Monday. It was adjourned and will be heard at an unannounced later date.
The eviction notice sent to tenants stated it was not subject to the Tyrrelstown Amendment, a law introduced to prevent the termination of 10 or more tenancies in a property at the same time in order to sell without the tenants staying in place.
The eviction notices stated there was an exemption if the sale price would be 20 per cent below market value with the tenants in situ, and because complying with the amendment would cause the landlord “undue hardship”.
The tenants are arguing that the Tyrrelstown Amendment should still apply to the property.
Speaking at a press conference following the RTB hearing, Madeleine Johansson, a People Before Profit councillor and resident in Tathony House, said it is “extremely stressful to go through this”.
James O’Toole, one of the tenants, and a People Before Profit activist, said the stress of the last few months for residents in the complex “cannot be underestimated”.
He cited a valuation provided by the landlord which said the property was worth €6 million vacant, but €4 million with the tenants remaining in situ.
“This is going to be a real test of the Tyrrelstown clause. The Tyrrelstown clause was brought in when a vulture fund attempted to evict dozens of families out in Blanchardstown. And if the clause is easy to get through ... if a landlord can just say ‘hardship, your honour’, then the clause isn’t really worth the paper it’s written on,” he said.
A large proportion of tenants have already vacated the building in advance of the eviction date, but 13 tenancies remain in place, campaigners have said.
The flat complex is owned by Tathony Holdings Ltd, a company owned by Brendan McDonnell and Ronan McDonnell.
Ronan McDonnell, with whom tenants said they had dealt concerning Tathony House, did not respond to a request for comment.
