A Donegal landlord who terminated the tenancy of a family of seven, claiming his daughter required the home to live in, has been ordered to pay €15,000 in damages after a tribunal heard she never moved in full-time but only stayed at the property “for weekends regularly”.
A Residential Tenancies Board tribunal described as “profound” the consequences suffered by Claire Friel and her family who resorted to living in two separate mobile homes after their tenancy was terminated.
Ms Friel, who lived at the house in Termon, Letterkenny, with her partner, David McLaughlin, and their five children since 2015, received a notice of termination in October 2022 from their landlord, Declan Breslin, who claimed he required the property for his daughter.
Ms Friel claimed Mr Breslin subsequently began to engage in “intimidating behaviour” after her partner requested more time to find alternative accommodation before the May 2023 vacate date.
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This, she claimed, included blocking her car on the road with his car, calling her on the phone “without saying anything” and threatening them with legal action.
Ms Friel also alleged that Mr Breslin told locals the tenancy was being terminated due to rent arrears, which was “completely untrue”.
After vacating the house in November 2023, the family of seven purchased and moved into two mobile homes located on land belonging to a relative, at a cost of about €35,000.
She told the tribunal she had been in “constant contact” with Donegal County Council about accommodation, adding “there simply were not any suitable houses to rent”.
The cost of the “cold and damp” mobile homes, she said, “drained” the couple’s savings, adding that they, and her mother, also took out loans.
Ms Friel also claimed her mother and former neighbours described no signs of anyone living in the house after the family vacated.
She added that her former landlord retained the deposit of €500, which Eimer Taylor, a solicitor representing Mr Breslin, attributed to “confusion” surrounding Housing Assistance Payments.
Ms Taylor claimed Bredagh Breslin, Mr Breslin’s daughter, was in the house from December 2023 until December 2024.
She added that Ms Breslin “works all over” and was in Florida in the United States at the time of the hearing and could not attend to give direct evidence.
Mr Breslin, who said his daughter now lived in Athlone with her husband when not travelling, claimed she moved in before Christmas 2023, stayed for about a week, “and was then away again, travelling”.
He said his daughter had not stayed full-time in the house but “went for weekends regularly”.
Mr Breslin argued he had been “very fair” to Ms Friel in giving an extra period from May until November, but that it was not his responsibility to house his former tenant’s family.
Noting the reason for the termination being that his daughter required the house, expecting to occupy it indefinitely, which would be a valid ground for termination, the tribunal said it was “not convinced by the bona fides of the landlord’s intentions” and deemed the notice of termination to be invalid and unlawful.
Noting Mr Breslin’s evidence that his daughter “spent weekends on and off in the dwelling”, the tribunal said: “He gave no evidence and none was provided that Ms Breslin required it for her occupation on an indefinite basis.”
Describing the consequences of the termination for Ms Friel’s family as “profound,” it noted the costs incurred in establishing new living arrangements, which were “entirely inappropriate living conditions for a family of seven people with young children”.
The tribunal ordered Mr Breslin to pay his former tenant €15,000 in damages for unlawfully terminating the tenancy, alongside the €500 deposit and a further €500 for unlawfully retaining the deposit.
