‘It’s a huge relief’: Tathony House residents react as eviction notices are ruled to be ‘invalid’

The remaining residents of Tathony House, an apartment block in Dublin 8, have won a series of Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) cases against their eviction. Letters arrived on Thursday evening declaring the notices of termination to be “invalid”.

“It didn’t arrive with the regular post, it arrived at half five or six pm by special delivery, registered mail,” says James O’Toole, a community worker and activist who lives in Tathony House with his wife, People Before Profit Councillor Madeleine Johansson. “It’s a huge relief.”

On October 20th, 2022, residents were given notice to quit by Tathony Holdings, a company owned by Ronan McDonnell. After receiving their notice, O’Toole and Johannson set up a whatsapp group for the tenants, in order to organise a response. They organised protests outside the building and outside Dublin City Council and six households ultimately appealed their evictions to the RTB.

They also lobbied the council to purchase the site with a housing body under the recently expanded Tenant in Situ scheme. The housing body, the Iveagh Trust, had expressed interest in purchasing the property “if the local authority were supportive, subject to all the required due diligence”.

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The council itself has not commented on the proposal but it previously made five unsuccessful attempts to contact McDonnell in order to query his plans for the property. He also did not respond to a request for comment.

[ Facing eviction from Tathony House: ‘Not-very-militant people have been forced to do militant things’ ]

[ ‘I’m not moving out’: Tenants plan to stay in Dublin apartment block past eviction date ]

The eviction date was originally meant to be June 2nd but on the week of May 27th, at the scheduled hearings, the landlord submitted evidence that the tenants needed time to review and so proceedings were adjourned until the week of June 6th.

At the time the households first took their cases, more than ten of the 34 apartments were occupied. The residents’ initial arguments were predicated on the fact that not all the tenants received written notices to quit. Some were informed of the eviction by text message. They also cited an amendment to the Residential Tenancies Act – called the Tyrrelstown Amendment – that forbids evictions of more than ten households at once, unless having tenants in situ would cause a more than 20 per cent drop in the value of the property and that the sale would be “unduly onerous” or cause “undue hardship” to the landlord.

Only five households are left in the building. O’Toole puts the dwindling numbers down to the tenants’ fears of being suddenly evicted into an already overburdened housing market. It’s most worrying for people with children, said O’Toole. “Staying beyond June 2nd was a big deal for a lot of people ... A lot of people were getting very nervous.”

The landlord has ten days to appeal the findings. If he does so, an RTB tribunal will be established. “If he appeals,” said O’Toole, “we’re going back in ... but then the arguments will all be public because it’s an open gallery when there’s a tribunal.”

Depending on the length of their tenancy, the various tenants are entitled to between six to eight months of notice if the landlord reissues notices to quit. O’Toole and Johannson are still hopeful that the council can engage with McDonnell about purchasing the property.

“Me and Madeleine are entitled to 224 days,” said O’Toole. “In that situation, it looks like trying to force us out will take at least another year. Selling to the council would take a much shorter period than that ... I’m going to email Dublin City Council now and say that now is the time to contact the landlord again.”

For now, the remaining residents feel relief. “I put it in the ‘tenants chat’ when the letters arrives but because everyone works shift work, no one was home,” said O’Toole. “I was just sitting with Madeleine waiting for the others to get home and see the letters. The Mexican girls [who live] upstairs were saying they were doing a dance at work. We all had a drink last night in the pub next door to Tathony house. The relief of some of the stress being lifted ... It was celebratory.”