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Ten Students Evicted With Four Hours Notice dublin |
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 Thursday November 18, 2004 01:52 by DIT SU Press Release / Indymedia Editorial - DIT Students' Union info at ditsu dot ie DIT Students' Union, DIT Rathmines, Dublin 6 01 4969740
 'whoop it up for liberty' sez wag 'name and shame'
The landlord is well known to DIT Students’ Union, and other local Students’ Unions, who were involved in a claim against her just four weeks ago. The students had repeatedly asked for the repairs to be carried out and following a written request, the landlord gave the students less than a day to pack up and leave. DIT Students’ Union Vice President Sharon Hughes was contacted by 2 of the DIT students and called to the address, where she assisted the students. Students were attempting to pack their belongings while the landlord accused various parties of trespassing and threatened not to return the students' deposits. All lights in the house were turned off while students were trying to remove their belongings from the premises, with one girl tripping in the blackness. Sharon Hughes called two Gardaí from Whitehall station to the scene. The Gardaí had no comment to make on the legality of any of the landlords actions. When the housing organisation Threshold was contacted by the students, it advised them that the landlord could be acting illegally. One of the remaining tenants said "I had no problems with any of the students, I would stand by all of them". The students currently study in DIT, DCU and St. Pats College. A delegation from the Union of Students’ in Ireland made little impact on the situation, with USI President, Ben Archibald, unable to persuade the landlord to reconsider her decision. The students’ lease was due to run until May 2005. Temporary B&B accommodation and other arrangements were made for all the evicted students by the various Students’ Unions.
Sharon Hughes, DIT Students’ Union Vice President said:
Jarlath Molloy, DIT Students’ Union President said: |
From the Newswire: Ten students were evicted from their house last night, with four hours notice, following a request for their washing machine to be fixed. 
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Comments (33 of 33)
Jump To Comment: 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Write to all the councillors in the area and to the City Council. Visit the councillors' clinics to explain the case and ask them to contact the landlady with letters demanding explanation, etc. As well as plaguing her it is legimately a City Council matter as landlords must register with the council.
Go after this woman where it hurts.. in the wallet!!
What are the chances all ten students were registered by the landlady..and that she declared it for tax. So many landlord are rip-off merchants and the fact that they were thrown out after an official request to fix the washing machine makes me think her dealings are probably shady.
Landlords, especially those of student houses often just sit back and rake in the rent money with little respect back and this case is really appalling.
Go after her and make sure ye get your deposit back at least lads and complain her to all who'll listen.
eh? decypher it. but be careful how you get it back in the envelope coz like if you can read it, others do too.
Well why not just poster her entire suburb with her picture, name/address/phone number and details of her treatment of tenants and even links to any web debates on the issue. Nothing like her friends and neighbours being made aware of what she is like.
First of all the students would be entitled to basic terms and conditions here - which would include at least 28 days notice.
The landlord is obliged to give them their terms and conditions, using a fake name to register on a landlords database is on dubious legal grounds. Besides, why was she registering with DCU if she now doesn't want students?
As for the lodger situation its a bit hairy, but since the students do not share all living accomdation with her I don't think she can argue that they are lodgers. Landlords like that are indeed usually well versed in the law, but it doesn't entitle them to be unreasonable.
Technically I think their best bet is to take a civil action against the landlady. 10 students taking 10 individual actions, resulting in a potential of 10 different settlements against her? I think the landlady would be well and truly winded.
Lastly, the PRTB doesn't cover student tenancies as far as I can see. These are as ambiguous as ever. Its not at all uncommon, by the way, for landlords, even now, to give less than 24 hours notice. My last landlord did it (though in fairness to him, he was quite right as the tenant was mega anti-social and had just smashed up two firedoors and we were all glad to be rid of him), and I've known of other cases.
actaully i'm pretty sure she couldn't shut us down, might be nice to see her try though, the publicity would be much greater than just putting her name up here.
.
We should not try to abuse the service provided by Indymedia by putting the landlady's name on here. If she is the bully she seems to be, she won't like to be exposed and as soon as she learns that her name is on this site, she will have it shut down as fast as a high court judge can be found to sign the order. She won't even have to pay for this action; her fellow property owners are a moneyed lot and they won't leave one of their fellow gentry have a precedent set against her, or we would soon all be posting details of THEIR dark deeds. And that is why any such posting will be deleted as soon as it appears.
Far better to use the legal processes available, with the support of Threshold. Much more effective, and when the matter does come before a judge, we all can read about it then.
I can't believe it is because people are scared? Is it?
(in case you thought I was just here to complain)
The tenants share nothing with her, not even a door. I know all the arguments lads I'm just doing my best to prove them. This woman is someone who hides behind legalities, not even the law.
The other complaint was similiar. The student was evicted because her friend turned the oven off because something was burning. Its against 'house rules' for guests to use any electric appliances apparently. We were involved in trying to get the deposit back, which we did in the small claims court less than 3 weeks ago, so imagine my surprise when she popped up on the radr so soon
We press released on it last wednesday, we have been contacted by most of the sunday papers and hopefully your college papers will cover it too
then each tenancy will have its own lease and own utility bills with meters.
If she is renting out rooms, and has provided sanitation to each and a kitchen it would seem more like she lives "free" in one of her own flats. If her tenants are sharing her toilet, kitchen and bathroom then they are lodgers.
Anyone over the age of forty will get the difference between B&B, lodging, bedsit and flat.
Name her please.
Then we work on punishing her.
also how much has she charged her tenants? And how much did they pay?
And how other tenants are there?
and what was the other complaint that the SU handled?
Unless a landlord can prove, by producing a licence agreement or some other agreement, that the normal landlord/tenant arrangements don't apply, insist that they're trespassing. And insist to the garda that they're trespassing, and insist that the garda do something about it.
Ideally, if the tenants want to get out, and who can blame them, get them to pack bags but leave most of their stuff their, and get a couple of people from the union to stay there to make sure the stuff isn't touched. And get a garda to stay there too, if necessary/possible.
I'm sure you realise this yourself, but as long as you have a foothold in the house, you have something to bargain with. Once you're out, all you can do is call in lawyers, which is expensive and takes too long to be much of a threat.
In the meantime, on this case, have you considered going to the rest of the media?
This woman is unscrupulous Ray. Even though she resides in a segregated section of the house, she claims it is all one building, therefore protecting herself by a grey area of the law. As the landlady to lodgers, if this is what she is, she has the right to access her own property, its only if they're tenants can they accuse her of trespassing.
Shes protecting herself by claiming they have a license agreement instead of a tenants lease. Thats what we'll have to try and prove now. But believe me, no-one would want to be around this woman any longer than necessary!
I accept your point on the legal stance thing, but they were all so frightened and stressed it was the easiest thing to do. The power was stopped at one point when they were trying to move their stuff. Thank God everyones safe
But if she was in the students' house without their permission, she was trespassing. If she attempted to throw out any of their stuff, she was breaking the law. If she hasn't registered the tenants, she's breaking the law. If she's trying to evict them without sufficient notice, she's breaking the tenancy agreement. If a garda on the scene won't tell her to get out of the house, you ask for his name, number and station, and tell him you're going to phone his sergeant to complain. The dispute over the tenancy agreement may be a civil matter, but trespassing isn't.
Again, I'm not criticising people for how they reacted in this case, just saying that in future, its best to stay put. Once you're out you can be ignored.
God knows if I could have I would have asked them to stay, but at that point all the students were so scared they wouldn't stay anyway. This woman followed me round for 4 hours just shouting at me, and if I was as shook as I was after 4 hours you can imagine how they felt after their time in the house. We have sought legal advice. I took an inventory of all the rooms and also photos of everything. We'll do our best to prove her wrong yet. There's nothing the Gaurds could do to stop her because it was considered a civil matter, although some of her behaviour was questionable.
Check the DITSU homepage for a different picture than the link
Instead of saying "Okay, we'll come help you pack", they should be saying "Okay, we'll come stop you getting thrown out". If you can get down there to do one, you can do the other (especially since the SU were also able to call gardai to the scene).
Its not a permanent solution, but if you're still in the house you can get letters from Threshold, photographers, solicitors letters, whatever to support your case, and make sure that if you do have to get out, it'll be on better terms, and with no arguments about your deposit.
I don't want to be too harsh on the students, or SU officers, in this case, because obviously it was completely unexpected and they didn't have much time to think about it. I'm saying that the next time something like this happens, the advice should be to stay put (with support from, and the physical presence of, SU officers) rather than to move out and then look for redress.
Everything about this landlord suggests that she is the type to go mad, perhaps even get violent, if the students didn't get out. She doesn't seem to care much about the law, and being such a rotten landlord she probably has the phone number of a few local thugs on her fast-dial too. Get out. Be safe. Take it up with the small claims court.
In a situation where landlady is live in, she is still obliged to give a "reasonable" notice to quit period and it must also be in writing. I am fairly sure that a court would not classify 4 hours notice, written or otherwise, as "reasonable. As it happened at night, Threshold were probably contacted the next day and so could not then advise the students to not leave the premises, which would of course be the right thing to do.
Fair enough, I don't expect them to think of simply refusing, but I'd have thought either the union or Threshold should have advised them to stay put. They'd have a much better negotiating position if they did. If the locks haven't been changed, they could go back in?
never heard of the'they're not tenants but lodgers' defence before, so can't comment on that.
I do know a tennant must be given 28 days notice in writing before they have to quit, and even if they don't go then landlord still has to get an eviction order through the courts.
I would have thought a court injunction should be easily available to stop a landlord evicting without a proper eviction order.
"The students’ lease was due to run until May 2005. "
If they had a lease surely they would have tennants rights???
The scumbag so others don't get stung
Paste this hags mug all over the net. A name is feck all use, she should have her picture pasted on to every lamppost in Europe!
I told the tenants involved about your support and we appreciated it all thanks. We have arranged temporary alternate housing for all of them and hope to have a permanent solution by the weekend.
There was actually 13 tenants in the house, it is huge, however she agreed to keep all 'non-students'. We are currently representing 9 of them.
In relation to the law, this woman is smart. She lives in a granny flat next door and has a connecting door that she can access but the tenants can't, so she claims they have lodgers rights not tenants, we are currently trying to prove our point legally.
In relation to 'not recommending' her on accommodation lists, I did this in DIT in September. She registered using a fake name. We're not the only college that 'doesn't recommend' her. Goes to show some people have no shame.
And please be assured, they have FULL support of their Union.
anyone who thinks they can give four hours notice.
even if she was getting the rent paid on a two hourly basis. This has been illegal for well over ten years.
She intimidated those students and their representatives and she deserves to be punished.
oh yea that we sitteth in judgement now,
where as only a decade ago we would have thrashed the gaff and glued the locks.
... this is totally f'ing reprehensible. I thought these days were over. Call the cops. Report the illegal eviction.
Also, notify the tax authorities the amount of rent you were paying and to whom. You may cause him a lot of trouble!
TEN students , big house?
You may obey the highwayman who puts a pistol to your head and demands your money or your life. Similarly you may obey the landlord who orders you to pay more rent or move yourself and your brats into the street. But that is not obedience to authority: it is submission to a threat.
p.53
When Faust asked Mephistopheles what he was, Mephistopheles answered that he was part of a power that was always willing evil and doing good; and though our landlords and capitalists are certainly not always either willing evil or doing good, yet Capitalism justifies itself and was adopted as an economic principle on the express grounds that it provides selfish motives for doing good, and that human beings will do nothing except for selfish motives. p.287
My landlord's business is to screw out of me the uttermost extractable farthing of my earnings for his permission to occupy a place on earth. p.456
George Bernard Shaw _The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism & Fascism: with additional chapters specifically written for this edition_ Pelican Books, 1928
As a veteran of many houses myself, it seems that the landlord acted completely outside the confines of the law. (not that i have a whole lot of respect for law at the moment - shannon, mary kelly, donal corcoran etc etc) but anywho heres some info that you might be able to use to screw that son of a bitch over:
all tenancies must now be registered with the private residential tenancies board (PRTB) within one month of the commencement of the tenancy. this is a legal requirement, with a fine of up to €3,000 for non-registration applying. This registration data is very important in relation to termination, notice periods etc so thus will no doubt be of importance if you choose to pursue this matter, or you simply want to see him done!
to contact the PRTB phone 01-8882960 or email tenancies_board@environ.ie and goodluck
just do it. landlords like that are lower than the stuff that gets stuck to shoes. Landlords should be forced to have a licence-any crap and it should be revoked.I have had it up to here with Irish landlords, they are disgusting sub human filth, I'll be sensible now and take a deep breath and act mature...
But they stink. I think many dark things about landlords. I hope someone acts on this in their own capacity.
Written agreement or otherwise, this is an illegal eviction. Landlords must give 28 days notice in writing. If the landlord was on the premises last night without the tenants permission he was trespassing. Contact a solicitor if any of the tenants wants to get something done about it.
All you have to do is state that the students are involved in a dispute with Mrs.X.Y. The students claim that ...... Isn't there a registry of "landlords we have a problem with"? Seems like the surest way to nip the problem in the bud. It doesn't have to get into specific legally defensible positions. An alternative would be to have a list of "landlords we like" and just drop anyone that more than a certain number of students complain about.
If they have a written agreement, then they should go after her, the union should support them in those efforts.