A Dublin landlord has been ordered to pay a tenant €17,500 in compensation over his repeated refusal to complete forms to enable his tenant to claim a Rent Supplement payment.
The Workplace Relations Commission ruled that the landlord had discriminated against his tenant by treating him less favourably than a tenant not in receipt of a social welfare payment.
The WRC also found that the landlord had victimised the tenant through his abusive conduct towards his tenant which had escalated following his complaint to the WRC.
The landlord did not attend a hearing of the case before the WRC in November 2023 and was not legally represented.
The tenant told the WRC that he has a tenancy for a bedsit in a house owned by the landlord since December 2009, which he claimed was “in poor condition.”
The tenant, who is in receipt of Disability Allowance due to significant health problems, said he initially paid a weekly rent of €109 which was increased to €160 in 2012.
The WRC heard that the tenant was entitled to a weekly Rent Supplement payment of €128 with the landlord collecting the remaining €32 in cash from the tenant.
It was informed that the landlord had completed and signed all necessary forms for the Department of Social Protection up to February 2022.
The tenant said the landlord subsequently refused to sign new forms required as part of a review by the Department and replied angrily to him: “Just pay me cash or leave.”
The tenant said he asked the landlord repeatedly on a weekly basis to sign the forms when he called to collect his rent, but his requests were met with outright refusal and verbal abuse.
The tenant said he had also received repeated warnings from the Department of Social Protection that he would lose his Rent Supplement if he did not return the required forms.
The WRC heard his Rent Supplement payment was suspended on February 28th, 2022 and closed on July 13th, 2022.
The tenant said the landlord then refused to accept his portion of the rent and retained his rent book.
He claimed the landlord also became increasingly abusive and demanded that he should leave the property without notice of termination of his lease.
The tenant said he had nowhere else to go and had become so afraid that he left the bedsit on Fridays in order to avoid further confrontation with his landlord when he came to collect the rent.
He told the WRC that the landlord had opened the door to his bedsit with a key without notice on several occasions and shouted expletives at him and threatened to replace him with another tenant, while the electricity had also been disconnected on a few occasions.
The WRC heard that the tenant felt pressured to pay his landlord €480 in cash for three weeks' rent in May 2023 after the landlord had been particularly threatening.
The tenant said he became extremely unwell and required admission to hospital for 11 days that month as a consequence of the stress and anxiety he experienced.
A representative of the housing charity, Threshold, in a submission on behalf of the tenant said he was in a particularly vulnerable and precarious situation as he could not afford to pay the full rent without the Rent Supplement to which he was legally entitled.
WRC adjudication officer, Aideen Collard, noted legislation clearly imposes a legal obligation on landlords to accept recipients of housing assistance as tenants.
Ms Collard said she was satisfied on the evidence that the landlord had refused to complete and sign the required forms since February 2022 which has resulted in the tenant losing his Rent Supplement payment.
She said the tenant was a very credible witness whose evidence had been corroborated by a representative from Threshold as well as by documentation and contemporaneous notes he and his brother had taken of meetings with their landlord.
Ms Collard said she was satisfied that the landlord had discriminated against his tenant and also that he had victimised the tenant by his conduct towards him after the tenant had sought to enforce his rights under the Equal Status Act.
The WRC ruled that the landlord’s discrimination was “at the more serious end of the scale” and awarded the tenant compensation of €12,500.
It ordered the landlord to pay his tenant a further €5,000 for the effect of victimisation arising from the escalation of his abusive conduct after being informed of the WRC claim against him.
The WRC also directed the landlord to complete all required documentation to allow the tenant to have his Rent Supplement reinstated.
