Masked men and angle grinders: How not to repossess a property

Andrew Butler was one of four housing activists sitting around a table, drinking tea, at 34 North Frederick Street on Tuesday evening when they heard an angle grinder at the door.

Activists had been occupying the vacant property, at the northern end of O’Connell Street in Dublin, for three weeks to protest against the housing crisis, defying a High Court order the owner had secured for its occupiers to leave the building.

Butler, who is 22 and a student at Maynooth University, says he ran up to the first-floor window to see who was outside. Several men in black balaclavas were at the front door, using power tools to cut their way into the building.

The four activists sent a text to alert other members of Take Back the City, the group they belong to, to what was happening.

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Butler says he was pushed and fell against a saw that one of the masked men was holding. It cut his hand, leaving a wound that needed four stitches

Butler says he was injured as the men came into the house and up the stairs. He was pushed and fell against a saw that one of them was holding; it cut his hand, leaving a wound that needed four stitches.

The masked men worked for a private firm acting for the owner of the premises, Patricia Ní Greil, who had obtained her injunction against the protesters on August 28th. The four activists left the building soon after the balaclava-wearing men entered it.

The Garda public-order unit was on standby outside during the repossession. A dozen gardaí who were also wearing what the protesters say were balaclavas – the Garda called them operational hoods – stood in a line in front of the house, to separate the men inside from a crowd of housing activists who had gathered outside as word spread about what was happening.

Five people were arrested as protesters tried to demonstrate on the road. Gardaí used batons and threatened to use pepper spray. Civil-liberties groups and politicians were appalled by the evening's events. Amnesty International Ireland and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties have called for an investigation of the Garda response to the protest.

On Thursday the new Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, said he would be requesting a report from his assistant commissioner for the Dublin metropolitan region, Patrick Leahy, "to see what lessons can be learned from the event".

The public-order unit had been deployed to “ensure public safety” as tensions rose, Harris said. Even so, gardaí’s wearing of fire-retardant hoods was “not correct”, he added; the force’s policy is to wear them only under protective helmets.

The Garda Representative Association, which represents rank-and-file gardaí, defends the unit's use of hoods. Videos and photographs of Tuesday's confrontations were widely shared on social media. In other cases, too, the association says, footage of gardaí has been posted online, leaving its members open to "at best trolling and, at worst, violence or threats of violence", John O'Keeffe, a spokesman, says. "No other public servant in Ireland would ever have to leave themselves open to such potential dangers to themselves or their loved ones."

The men in the black masks were inside the building for more than an hour; then they boarded up the front door and drove away in a white van that was displaying neither a tax disc nor a front number plate. According to a check of the vehicle's status, using the British registration on its rear number plate, the van had not been taxed in the UK for four years.

The Garda press office said the force was “satisfied that the vehicle in question is tax and insurance compliant”. When asked to clarify how it came to be satisfied, the press office reiterated its earlier statement.

The North Frederick Street house was the second building in Dublin that Take Back the City activists have occupied in recent weeks. The protest movement started in early August, when a coalition of campaign groups took over a property on Summerhill Parade, in Ballybough.

The umbrella group, which includes Dublin Central Housing Action, Dublin Renters' Union and the student group Take Back Trinity, as well as several People Before Profit activists, wants to highlight the large number of vacant properties in Dublin during the housing crisis.

The group is currently occupying a third property, at 41 Belvedere Place, not far from North Frederick Street. The property is owned by a UK-registered firm, MJH Property Management, of which Irish-born Michael Joseph Horgan is listed as the sole director. Lawyers acting for the company told the protesters that if they didn't leave by 6pm on Thursday they could face a High Court injunction. The activists did not leave.

It can be very expensive for property owners to seek High Court injunctions, according to a legal source familiar with recent court cases against the activists. Legal fees and other costs, such as for securing the property afterwards, can add up to more than €10,000, and even with an injunction it is a “complicated procedure to get people to comply with the law”.

Property repossession can also be a “dirty business”, according to the manager of one of the small number of asset-recovery firms operating in Ireland. In many cases they act for banks repossessing homes whose mortgages are in arrears. The manager says his company takes part in about five repossessions a week.

“We would carry out two months of investigation prior to a job. When we go in, we enter and we talk to them. We would give the occupant 15 to 20 minutes to get out,” he says. Typically, eight staff members – often they are former soldiers or gardaí, or moonlighting serving members, he says – will take part in an eviction.

“We don’t want anyone to go lone wolf. You need people who can keep the head, follow orders,” he says. His employees wear body armour but never cover their faces. “When people see someone in a mask or a hood, it annoys them.”

A standard job from a professional asset-recovery firm might take 20 minutes, assuming there were no complications, and cost €2,000, the manager says. Had he been in charge of the North Frederick Street repossession he would have sent his team in at 6am, to avoid the kind of public protest that developed.

Repossessions carried out by “rogue” individuals not linked to official firms can give the industry a bad name, he says.

We always try to carry out repossessions on a low-key basis... I've had occasions where staff had to withdraw for fear of the threat of violence

James Barry, who has been Dublin city sheriff for the past six years, is also familiar with repossessions. The Circuit Court granted 878 possession orders last year, and 1,088 in 2016. Barry’s office is charged with executing such orders. Of the 25 repossessions his bailiffs have carried out so far this year, 20 were done on an “agreed basis”, without disruption. In most cases occupants can be persuaded to comply without the need for a physical removal, he says.

“I would sit down with them and advise them that I have an obligation to carry out this court order, and if necessary I can call the gardaí if there is a breach of the peace . . . We always try to do it on a low-key basis.” Local TDs or councillors might be asked to try to mediate difficult cases, Barry says.

The use of smartphones to video bailiffs as they attempt to carry out evictions has become an increasing problem, and can be intimidating, Barry says. “I’ve had occasions where staff had to withdraw for fear of the threat of violence.”

When a repossession order cannot be carried out peacefully, the sheriff employs a security firm, which arrives without warning to enforce it. The company's staff never cover their faces, Barry says, and adhere to Private Security Authority standards, which include wearing identification badges.

Take Back the City activists say they will not comply with any High Court order to vacate 41 Belvedere Place, and “encourage groups across the country to take similar action to ours”. They will not reveal if they plan to occupy more buildings, but say they are aware of several other vacant properties in Dublin.