Council ‘guts’ tenant’s home while he is in hospital

The home of an older man living in a Dublin City Council (DCC) flat was “gutted” and all of his belongings thrown out by council staff while he was in hospital, his family have said.

Joseph McGuinness, (64), has lived in a third floor flat in Mercer House, in Dublin city centre for more than a decade.

He had been due to move to a new ground floor council flat in Dublin 8, as he had problems breathing and difficulty climbing the stairs, but the move was delayed after he injured himself falling.

Then in early February he was hospitalised after another fall, his daughter Clare McGuinness told The Irish Times.

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Ms McGuinness said she informed DCC that her father was in hospital and would be unable to move out of Mercer Street for the time being.

However, last week a crew arrived and “gutted” his flat, removing all his belongings, personal photographs, clothes and other items with sentimental value, she said.

“On Friday last I went to collect a few bits for him in the hospital, but the locks had been changed ... I looked into the window and oh my God, the whole place was gutted. I was in total shock,” she said.

One neighbour, Rita O’Reilly, said a crew arrived to empty the contents of the home into a truck over two days last week. “They took everything, all the clothes went in, his life is gone out of that flat,” she said.

“I just seen them throwing everything out,” Jeanette McGrath, who lives in the flat beside Mr McGuinness, said. “It was like wiping his memory clean, they were chucking it out”, another neighbour said.

His daughter said she had signed a document in late November surrendering the Mercer House tenancy on behalf of her father, but later called the council to inform them the move to the new home would be delayed, due to her father’s ill health.

The family were not notified Mr McGuinness’ flat was going to be cleared out and his belongings removed. “I still have the key on my keyring,” his daughter said.

“They had my number, nobody rang me, they did have permission to call me and they didn’t,” she said.

Her father is “on the mend” and his doctors are hopeful he may be ready to leave hospital in two weeks time, she said.

“What’s he going to come out to, he hasn’t got his own stuff ... He hasn’t got a jacket,” she said.

Among the items thrown out were video tapes, family photos, ornaments, a sizeable cash sum of savings for his funeral, and a treasured sofa handed down from his mother, she said.

Many of his belongings had sentimental value and could never be replaced, his daughter said. “My Dad was the eldest so he had all the family heirlooms”, she said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do,” she added.

“All his legal documents, his birth cert, passport, these documents are in a skip somewhere,” she said.

The family believe the crew tasked with clearing out the flat believed the previous tenant had died.

His daughter said it was clear the flat was “lived in”, and it was “appalling” the council did not check with the family before removing everything.

Mark Freeman (51), a brother-in-law of Mr McGuinness, said what happened was “horrendous”.

The council “took every single worldly possession and threw it into a skip,” he told The Irish Times.

“All his mother’s photos, videos of the kids, all the memories. He had everything there,” he said.

“He has absolutely nothing. He hasn’t got a pair of shoes, they’ve just thrown 64 years over the balcony,” he said.

DCC has been contacted for comment.