Galway family allowed stay in home as tribunal finds landlord's termination notice 'invalid'
The landlord had sought to terminate the tenancy but the family continued to live at the property for 13 months, a tribunal was told
A Loughrea family has been allowed to stay in their home after a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal found that an eviction notice served on them by their landlord was invalid.
Christina, Samantha, Tom and Bridget Sweeney had been renting a house at 11 Coscorrig View on the Old Galway Road from Niamh McInerney when they received the notice on July 8, 2024.
Ms McInerney had inherited the property from her late great uncle, and had planned to renovate the dwelling and live there herself. She outlined her intention in a statutory declaration attached to the termination notice.
However, the tenants – represented at the tribunal by Threshold – argued that the notice had been invalid because the declaration failed to include a provision offering the property back to the tenants if it were vacated within 12 months, as required by law.
Threshold noted that this specification was required under Section 34 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, arguing that its “deliberate” omission had breached the legislation and rendered the termination notice invalid.
The landlord, represented by Mary McInerney, claimed that the tenants had failed to challenge the notice within the 90 days allowed under the Act. She had also acted reasonably by meeting with Galway County Council and agreeing to extend the original eviction date, Ms McInerney said.
They argued that the Sweeneys were overholding for 13 months, and the statutory declaration did not have to mention the tenants’ right to reoccupy because the landlord intended to live there indefinitely.
The RTB tribunal found in favour of the tenants, ruling that the notice of termination served in July 2024 had been invalid because it did not mention the requirement that the landlord offer the property back to the tenant in certain circumstances.
The three-member tribunal also found that overholding requires a validly terminated tenancy, meaning that the landlord’s claim that the tenants had been overholding could not be upheld regardless of whether they had challenged the notice within 90 days.
It formally determined that the notice of termination dated July 8, 2024 had been invalid, in accordance with Section 108(1) of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004.