A tenant who said he "could not live" on the €80 a week he had left over after paying rent to a landlord who had refused to accept the housing assistance payment (HAP) has won €7,500 in compensation.
Daniel O'Brien told a tribunal that he was eventually forced to give up his room in a shared house in Wilton, Cork City, after 48 weeks of paying a weekly rent of €140 out of his social welfare entitlement of €220.
In a complaint alleging discrimination on the grounds of housing assistance under the Equal Status Act 2000, Mr O’Brien said he had been put in a position of "economic unsustainability" because of the actions of his landlord, Seán O’Riordan.
At a hearing of the Workplace Relations Commission in July this year, at which the landlord entered no appearance, Mr O’Brien said that at the time he took up the lease in March 2023 he was unemployed and receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance.
His evidence was that he was told the following month that the landlord "would not accept HAP" and that he would be evicted if there was "any trouble in the house".
Housing charity Threshold made representations on Mr O’Brien’s behalf and issued letters telling the landlord about his legal obligations in regard to accepting HAP, the tribunal noted. Mr O’Brien went again to his landlord in July 2023 and gave him another HAP form, but again "heard nothing back", he said.
Mr O’Brien said he had previously been in receipt of HAP in support of his tenancy for an apartment in west Cork and had contributed €30 a week to his rent, with the rest covered by the support payment.
The complainant estimated that he had paid €4,600 out of pocket which would otherwise have been covered by HAP.
"I just moved out because it was not affordable," he told the tribunal, adding "[I] can’t live on 80 quid a week."
WRC adjudicator Lefre de Burgh considered Mr O’Brien’s oral evidence "credible and cogent" and noted that it was backed up by supporting documentation.
"I accept the complainant’s evidence that he made concerted efforts to get the landlord to sign the necessary forms, including requesting he do so on several occasions, and engaging with Threshold, which itself sent correspondence to the landlord outlining his obligations," Ms de Burgh wrote.
She found that Mr O’Brien suffered "hardship" as a result of discrimination when the landlord refused to accept his tenancy under the HAP scheme in breach of the Equal Status Act.
Noting that she was required to make an award which was "effective, persuasive and dissuasive", Ms de Burgh ordered the landlord to pay €7,500 in compensation.
