A landlord has been ordered to pay \u20ac5,000 damages to a family of six who claimed their health suffered due to mould, mildew and damp at the property.<\/p>\n
A Residential Tenancies Board<\/a> (RTB) tribunal held that Tempus Realty Holdings (Ireland) Limited failed to properly maintain the property and was liable for the \u201cinconvenience, stress and upset\u201d caused to tenants Radu Alexandru Szakacs and Jennifer Howe and four children. <\/p>\n An eviction notice served on them in January 2025 was invalid as it was served 27 days, rather than the required 28 days, after an initial rent<\/a> arrears warning, the tribunal found.<\/p>\n The tenants were ordered to pay the landlord some \u20ac9,700 in rental arrears for the apartment at New Seskin Court, in Tallaght<\/a>, Dublin<\/a>. In September 2023 they stopped paying their top-up rent that supplemented the State-provided housing assistance payment after allegedly encountering issues with the unit\u2019s cooker and mould.<\/p>\n Szakacs, a smoker, claimed he had breathing troubles and his family had suffered major health issues due to seven years of mould problems. He said there was mould on their towels, blinds, in the bathroom and on the balcony. They had to leave windows opening continually to ventilate the home, he said. Howe claimed they slept on mouldy beds and had mould in their water. They alleged their children suffered skin ulcers and have had to sleep on the floor.<\/p>\n Tempus Realty\u2019s agent said two attempts had been made to fix a leak in the roof but the problem came under the apartment management company\u2019s remit. The landlord did as much as it could to maintain the dwelling, and there were no mould issues in any of its apartments, the agent contended.<\/p>\n