Family subject to eviction order awarded €40,000 compensation

A Dublin family who won a landmark High Court action against an order for their eviction from their council home over alleged anti-social behaviour have been awarded €40,000 in compensation.

Previously the High Court held that Carol and Laurence Pullen, Cloncarthy Road, Doneycarney, Dublin, rights had been breached because Dublin City Council had failed to grant them an independent hearing into the allegations against them.

However despite the court's ruling the Council intend to go ahead with the eviction.

Last December the High Court ruled that the council did not comply with its obligations under the ECHR Act 2003 and did not perform its functions in a manner compatible with the European Convention of Human Rights.

In 2006, the Council obtained an eviction notice against them under Section 62 of the 1966 Housing Act which allows an official to go to the District Court and say they have to be evicted for "good estate management".

The official does not have to give any other reason and there is no hearing into the facts under the Section 62 procedure.

The family had denied anti-social behaviour and said they were in fact victims of attacks which drove them from their home.

Today at the High Court Ms Justice Mary Irvine said she was making the award of €20,000 to each of the Pullens to compensate them "for all the effects of the wrongful breach of their convention rights" by the City Council.

The Judge said that the violation of the Pullens was substantial in nature. They would be evicted from their home on the basis of a warrant for possession obtained by the Council in breach of the Pullens rights.

"They are now experiencing the awful and unenviable wait for the day they will be evicted," said the Judge, adding that their prospects of returning to they type of accommodation they had previously enjoyed were "uncertain and remote".

The Pullens would also be "at risk of becoming homeless with all the dire consequences associated with such status".