A tenant who reduced her monthly rent payments after claiming her ex-partner was imprisoned has been ordered by a Residential Tenancies Board tribunal to pay almost €6,000 in rent arrears.
Agnieszka Labedzka, one of two tenants living at the property in Newbridge, Co Kildare, told the tribunal held in August that her ex-partner, Daniel Syrek, who also signed the lease, was currently in prison.
She claimed she contacted the agent several times to explain that her ex-partner had previously lived in the dwelling but was “not paying for anything”.
Since December 2023, Ms Labedzka claimed she had solely paid her portion of the rent, telling the tribunal she would not pay for another person “who was not her responsibility”.
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‘We will leave when we die. We will have the real life after that’
We had sex maybe once a month. The constant rejection was soul-crushing, it felt like my ex didn’t even like me
The tribunal heard that Ms Labedzka initially signed a lease for dwelling with her husband in March 2020, before signing a new lease with Mr Syrek in March 2021.
Eva Farragher, the agent for landlord Desmond Diver, claimed rent arrears of €5,726 had accumulated since December 2023, adding that Mr Syrek had not been in contact with her in relation to the arrears.
The tribunal found that Ms Labedzka cannot “unilaterally decide” to reduce the agreed rent regardless of the fact that Mr Syrek is no longer currently residing in the dwelling, and ordered her to pay 18 monthly instalments of €318.11.
Separately, a tenant deemed by an RTB tribunal to be overholding has been ordered to vacate a property and pay €24,667 in rent arrears.
Niamh Carney of Savills, the agent for the landlord ISFII Aderrig 1 Limited, claimed that Jordan Lawrence had not paid rent for 12 months, from August 1st, 2023 to July 31st, 2024.
Ms Carney claimed her office had tried in the months that followed the initial non-payment to contact Mr Lawrence, who was still residing in the property by the time of the hearing last month, but he had not responded.
A 28-day warning letter seeking arrears on October 19th, 2023, had received no response, she claimed, which led to a notice of termination in November giving 28 days to vacate.
Ms Carney, who was seeking a declaration that Mr Lawrence was overholding, claimed there was once again no response from the tenant, and he had not vacated the property by the termination date on December 15th.
She said it was her understanding that Mr Lawrence, who did not attend the tribunal hearing, had changed the locks in the dwelling and that he had a dog, both of which were in breach of his tenancy obligations in addition to the non-payment of rent, she argued.
The tribunal heard two tenants were living at the property in Lucan, Co Dublin at the beginning of the tenancy in March 2023, but the other tenant left in May, leaving Mr Lawrence as the sole tenant.
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