Foreigners more vulnerable to illegal eviction

ILLEGAL evictions are still being carried out by landlords and foreigners are particularly vulnerable, housing agency Threshold warned yesterday.

It dealt with 200 cases of illegal eviction last year and also received 230 enquiries.

Threshold’s Dublin service co-ordinator Stephen Large said it was regrettable that some landlords engaged in illegal evictions.

“The majority of landlord-tenant relationships are fine. But illegal evictions do happen and it’s surprising, given our history, that it’s still happening in 2004.”

Tenants who do not have a long-term lease are entitled to four weeks’ notice from a landlord. If they fail to move out, the landlord must obtain a court order and then rely on the county sheriff to carry out the eviction.

Mr Large’s comments come after a circuit court case where a Sri-Lankan couple was awarded €25,000 after being thrown out on the street by their landlord.

Krishnakularajah Ponnudurai and his wife Anulawathi believed they had four weeks to find alternative accommodation after their landlord, Dr William Whatley from Dundalk, Co Louth, had obtained a court order for them to move out.

But Mr Whatley arrived at the apartment in Woodstock Gardens, Ranelagh, at 8am in September 2001 with up to 10 security men.

Mr Ponnudurai returned from dropping his two young sons to school to find his wife and 16-year-old daughter out on the front lawn. All their belongings, including a holy Hindu shrine, had been packed into black plastic bags and left in the garden.

In awarding the family €25,000, Judge Olive Buttimer said the days of a landlord going into a property, bundling up the possessions of a family and evicting them, were “hopefully long past”.

Although the Ponnudurais are Irish citizens, Threshold believes non-nationals are particularly vulnerable to illegal evictions, because of language difficulties and a lack of knowledge of their rights.

The Irish Property Owners Association, which represents landlords, said Dr Whatley had made a blunder which had not helped the reputation of landlords.

However, spokesman Fintan McNamara described the size of the fine as “highly unfair”. He said Dr Whatley had been unable to rent the property by court order since the eviction in 2001 and had lost out on three weeks’ rent.

The Dáil is discussing legislation which will give powers to the recently established Private Residential Tenancies Board. It will draw up a register of landlords, provide rent price information and adjudicate in landlord-tenant disputes.