Gerald Kean owes former landlord €180,000, civil order shows

Solicitor Gerald Kean owes the landlord of his former office building in Dublin city centre almost €180,000 in unpaid rent and other debts.

According to records obtained from the Dublin city sheriff’s office, Mr Kean has a civil order secured against him for €179,317.37, alongside more than €100,000 owed to the Revenue Commissioners.

The civil debt is understood to be owed to his former landlord, a Hong Kong-based property investment fund called Champ Holdings.

It was owed for rent and other issues relating to his tenancy at the Pembroke Street office.

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A repayment agreement has been struck between the pair, and Mr Kean said it was his intention to fully pay back any money he owed.

“If I owe money, I work to pay it off,” Mr Kean added.

“I don’t walk away, I’ll be dealing with all that.”

Sherrif’s office

The civil order was issued on February 1st, records from the sheriff’s office show.

Solicitors acting for Champ Holdings did not comment when contacted.

A security company acting on behalf of the Dublin city sheriff took possession of offices occupied by Mr Kean on Pembroke Street a week ago.

Mr Kean said he had found alternative offices on Trinity Street in Dublin, and was in the process of moving in.

He said there had been an outpouring of support following coverage of last week’s events, and that he had enjoyed a commercial uplift as well.

It was, he said, “the busiest week I’ve ever had”.

Last week Mr Kean said he had left his Pembroke Street office after staying beyond a date on which he had agreed to be out of the premises.

“I needed to find bigger premises and I had agreed with the landlord [to leave], and part of the agreement with the landlord was that I would vacate the building at the end of January,” he said.

However, he had “struggled” to find a new, larger premises in time to meet the January 31st deadline, and the sheriff had arrived after the deadline expired.

The Cork-born solicitor is known for his celebrity lifestyle and the swashbuckling image he curated during the boom years as much for his legal practice.

Celtic Tiger

He boasted a client list during the Celtic Tiger years that reputedly included high-profile footballers and stars of stage and screen.

However, since the collapse of the boom, he has said his practice had become somewhat more prosaic.

In a 2016 interview, he said he had about 5,500 cases on file at his firm, and that far from being a lawyer to the stars, the majority of his work was focused on property and company law, as well as negligence issues.