A landlord in Co Clare, described as \u201ctotally unreasonable\u201d by a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal, whose former tenant claimed she took photos of her \u201cdirty laundry basket\u201d has been ordered to pay damages.<\/p>\n
Tenant Sarah Hennessy told a tribunal hearing her former landlord, Michelle Cotter, had accused her of a number of \u201cfalse\u201d breaches during her tenancy, including that her partner was living at the property.<\/p>\n
She claimed Cotter went through her personal belongings and took photos of her \u201cdirty laundry basket\u201d in an effort to prove Hennessy\u2019s partner was living in the apartment on Parnell Street, Ennis, according to a recently published tribunal report.<\/p>\n
Hennessy told the tribunal that while her partner stayed from time to time, he was based in Limerick.<\/p>\n
She claimed Cotter took the photos \u201copportunistically\u201d when she accompanied painters to the property in January 2025, who had been hired due to mould issues.<\/p>\n
Cotter told the tribunal she had inspected the property \u201cthoroughly\u201d as she had a \u201cstrong suspicion\u201d a second occupant was living there.<\/p>\n
She said she was \u201cvery worried\u201d about another person living in a small apartment as it would cause further mould.<\/p>\n
She had accused Hennessy of causing the mould by drying clothes inside without proper ventilation, claiming her glasses \u201cfogged up\u201d on entering the property with the painters.<\/p>\n
She told the tribunal she observed a clothes horse being used during the visit while the windows were closed.<\/p>\n
However, Hennessy told the tribunal the dryer was not working, and when it was repaired in January last year, she claimed the mould persisted.<\/p>\n
Cotter ultimately sent Hennessy a list of alleged breaches, which she subsequently used as grounds for a notice of termination. These included that she failed to inform her of an additional occupant.<\/p>\n
Another breach was Hennessy\u2019s failure to pay costs incurred by Cotter, including \u20ac202 for a dehumidifier and \u20ac321.60 for the paintwork within 10 days.<\/p>\n
The tribunal said the landlord was \u201ctotally unreasonable\u201d for seeking such costs, and for using the failure to pay as a reason to terminate the tenancy.<\/p>\n
Cotter had also sought a further \u20ac110 in plumber fees incurred for a leak at the property.<\/p>\n
Noting that the leak was caused by an \u201cold and blocked pipe\u201d, the tribunal said Cotter \u201ctotally unreasonably sought to lay the plumbing costs\u201d on Hennessy, giving her \u201cjust five days\u201d to pay.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, Cotter accepted Hennessy was not liable for the plumbing costs. She told the tribunal she was a \u201cprudent and attentive landlord\u201d and that she was \u201csorry and disappointed that this has happened\u201d.<\/p>\n
The tribunal said Cotter was \u201cwrong\u201d to place all blame on her former tenant for the mould, saying although indoor drying may have contributed, she failed to provide a properly functioning dryer for some time.<\/p>\n
It added that Cotter had \u201cno evidence whatsoever\u201d that Hennessy\u2019s partner was living there, \u201capart from hearsay and suspicions that she herself manufactured from things she observed in the dwelling while accompanying painters\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt that the landlord was not entitled to snoop through the tenant\u2019s belongings and take photos of the tenant\u2019s possessions, to seek to substantiate her suspicion around who was occupying the dwelling,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Hennessy left the property about a month after receiving a notice of termination in April last year. The tribunal heard she used her security deposit as her final month\u2019s rent without consent.<\/p>\n
Deeming the notice of termination invalid, the tribunal ordered Cotter to pay \u20ac500 in damages to Hennessy for the \u201cstress and inconvenience caused\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hennessy had separately alleged a breach of Cotter\u2019s obligations regarding maintenance of the property, but this was not upheld by the tribunal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A landlord in Co Clare, described as \u201ctotally unreasonable\u201d by a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal, whose former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,7486,18,19,17,41275],"class_list":["post-629994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-clare","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-residential-tenancies-board-prtb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629994","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=629994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}