{"id":676573,"date":"2026-09-07T09:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T09:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/676573\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T09:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T09:05:17","slug":"landlord-whose-tenant-caused-stress-to-heart-attack-victim-must-pay-e10000-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/676573\/","title":{"rendered":"Landlord whose tenant caused \u2018stress\u2019 to heart attack victim must pay \u20ac10,000 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman who said she suffered a heart attack due to the stress she allegedly suffered from a tenant in Co Longford<\/a> has been awarded \u20ac10,000 in damages, after a landlord failed to adequately deal with repeated complaints.<\/p>\n

Janine Maria Bernardi told a Residential Tenancies Board<\/a> (RTB) tribunal she spent three weeks in hospital in March 2024 \u201cas a result of stress endured\u201d from Linas Zaluda\u2019s tenant.<\/p>\n

Bernardi bought her apartment in Prospect Wood, Longford, in 2023, saying after she moved in, she heard frequent noise as though someone had \u201ctaken a hammer and was intentionally banging on the floor above\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also alleged the tenant living above her reacted \u201cvery aggressively\u201d when she asked her to stop smoking outside her window. Bernardi claimed the woman, who is not named in a tribunal report published this week, subsequently used \u201cvulgar, obscene language and gestures\u201d towards her in common areas.<\/p>\n

She ultimately complained to garda\u00ed and Zaluda\u2019s agent, Chazey Properties.<\/p>\n

Less than a month later, she alleged someone knocked on her door and subsequently \u201cpushed\u201d it into her, cutting and bruising her face, saying they \u201cran upstairs\u201d after.<\/p>\n

She reported the alleged incident to garda\u00ed and contacted Zaluda, who told her if he was in her shoes, he would sell the apartment. \u201cIt is your life, good luck,\u201d he told her.<\/p>\n

The noise, smoking and \u201cabuse\u201d continued over the following months, Bernardi claimed, adding that the tenant \u201cfrequently obstructed\u201d her in common areas and made \u201cthreatening gestures\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bernardi told the tribunal that after she returned from the hospital following a heart attack, the noise was \u201cso bad\u201d that she called garda\u00ed, claiming that the tenant kicked and damaged her apartment door afterwards.<\/p>\n

On one occasion in August 2024, she alleged that she was grabbed from behind while opening her door, forced inside and thrown on to her apartment floor, saying her mother was \u201cscreaming\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bernardi said the woman was arrested and legal proceedings were ongoing.<\/p>\n

After telling him of the alleged assault, Zaluda issued a notice of termination, giving seven days to vacate, though the tenant did not leave.<\/p>\n

Bernardi said the landlord issued a second notice in May 2025, on the basis that his family member required the property, and gave the tenant 10 months to vacate.<\/p>\n

The tenant continued to live in the apartment by the hearing in April this year, Bernardi said, claiming the noise and \u201cvulgar abuse\u201d had not stopped \u201cbut have got worse\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bernardi, who said she was \u201cintimidated and anxious\u201d when leaving or entering her home, argued that no effective action had been taken by Zaluda throughout the years, noting she sent him over 20 emails and recordings and videos.<\/p>\n

Zaluda told the tribunal it was his first time with \u201cthese problems\u201d and \u201cdid not know the process\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said issues arose once Bernardi moved into her apartment in 2023, and claimed his tenant was angry because she was \u201cfilming her children\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked by the tribunal whether he believed his comment to Bernardi, in which he said, \u201cIt is your life, good luck\u201d, was appropriate, Zaluda responded that he had spoken to the tenant \u201cmany times\u201d.<\/p>\n

The tribunal accepted that his tenant engaged in antisocial behaviour on a \u201cpersistent basis\u201d, which interfered \u201cquite significantly\u201d with Bernardi\u2019s peaceful occupation of her home.<\/p>\n

It said Zaluda \u201cfailed entirely\u201d to enforce the obligations of his tenant, saying while he issued two notices of termination, he took \u201cno steps to enforce either\u201d.<\/p>\n

Noting that Bernardi was \u201cmade to feel intimidated and threatened in her own home and estate for almost three years\u201d, the tribunal ordered Zaluda to pay \u20ac10,000 in damages within 28 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who said she suffered a heart attack due to the stress she allegedly suffered from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,12736,15,16,5,41275,7,8],"class_list":["post-676573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-longford","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-residential-tenancies-board-prtb","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117228963506063474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676573","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=676573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}