{"id":227719,"date":"2025-12-11T16:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T16:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/227719\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T16:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T16:47:13","slug":"woman-who-lost-tenancy-after-14-years-is-facing-christmas-in-caravan-without-heat-or-power-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/227719\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman who lost tenancy after 14 years is facing Christmas in caravan without heat or power \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who lived with her two dogs for 14 years until her tenancy recently ended is facing Christmas in a caravan with little heating or power.<\/p>\n

Yvette Fouch\u00e9 (54) says it is impossible to find a rental property<\/a> that allows dogs and now relies on the generosity of neighbours to support her.<\/p>\n

She had an informal rental agreement with her landlady, paying \u20ac400 per month for the home from which she also ran her small dog-walking business.<\/p>\n

Her difficulties began when her landlady died in December 2022 and the family needed to sell the property. She was offered the opportunity to buy the home but could not afford it.<\/p>\n

\"YvetteYvette Fouche has been living in a caravan since September but recently had to move her dogs to a friend’s house to avoid the cold weather. Video: Enda O’Dowd <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were not too bad, to be honest. They didn\u2019t pressure me,\u201d she says. \u201cThey would give me a call once in a while to see if I had found something. I\u2019ve been looking for new places since the day I learned that my landlady died.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prices were absolutely crazy<\/a>. It was already, in my opinion, expensive in 2011 when I moved into the house I was in, but it has increased three or four times in basically 12 years. I don\u2019t make that much [money].\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Fouch\u00e9 struggled to find anything affordable and prospective landlords did not respond once they learned about her dogs, Bella (14) and Duchess (19).<\/p>\n

Without options, she continued to live in the house. \u201cI told [the owners] I couldn\u2019t move until I found something.\u201d <\/p>\n

After some time, her tenancy was formally registered with Residential Tenancies Board<\/a> (RTB) and in April 2024, she received a notice to vacate the house by December 6th. <\/p>\n

Following further, unsuccessful efforts to find alternative accommodation, she was given a final deadline of last September.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [RTB] tribunal told me you better accept the landlord\u2019s offer because if we go to the hearing, we\u2019re going to give you a date much shorter, and if you don\u2019t leave the house by the date, the landlord can take you to the civil tribunal, and then your name will be publicly registered as a bad tenant, as somebody who refused to move, and they can call on the sheriff to move you out,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

She has been trying, with some difficulty, to apply for a council home. Emergency accommodation was not available because of her pets. \u201cIf I wanted [the council] to be able to help me, I needed to get rid of my dogs. It\u2019s out of the question. I love them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Faced with little option, she decided to spend her savings on a second-hand caravan which is now located on the same street. She put her belongings in storage and moved in.<\/p>\n

The trailer is not well insulated and for safety reasons she avoids using the gas system. She cannot use the toilet inside and relies on the generosity of the neighbours for basic needs. She has a chargeable portable battery for appliances.<\/p>\n

When winter started, the temperature dropped. \u201cIt\u2019s as cold inside as it is outside. It\u2019s horrible. I had to send my dogs to a friend because it\u2019s too cold. They\u2019re old dogs. So that part is quite difficult,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Ms Fouch\u00e9 said that on a night of heavy rain in December, a couple of homeless people knocked on her door, offering to pay to spend the night. \u201cThey knocked heavily and asked me lots of questions, including how long I planned to stay,\u201d she recalled. <\/p>\n

On another occasion, she said a man attempted to get inside. He \u201cknocked at the door and try to see if it was open\u201d, but she was relieved that several neighbours were outside at the time, which she believes likely prevented him from entering.<\/p>\n

\"YvetteYvette Fouche pictured beside her caravan in Dublin 7. Photograph: Enda O’Dowd. <\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed have visited her three times, by a request from Dublin City Council<\/a>, asking her to remove the caravan from the street and go elsewhere.<\/p>\n

In November, the Government included in the Housing for All Action Plan 2025\u20132030 a move to end blanket bans on pets in social housing. The plan would mean local councils and Approved Housing Bodies would have to evaluate pet requests on an individual basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who lived with her two dogs for 14 years until her tenancy recently ended is facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,52,784,18,13,14,6,8752,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,4097,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-227719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-dublin-city-council","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-housing-crisis","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-renting","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115701956439639147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}