The High Court dismissed Christopher Sciberras’s appeal against a Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) determination, finding that he had advanced no stateable point of law. The court did not rehear the tenancy dispute or alter the determination order.
Mr Justice McDermott delivered judgment on 21 May 2015 in an appeal under section 123(3) of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. The appeal concerned a PRTB order made on 4 April 2014 after a tribunal hearing on 12 March 2014.
Mr Sciberras rented a room at 31 Reuben Avenue, Dublin 8. He challenged a proposed rent rise from €250 to €285 a month, along with charges for gas and refuse, and complained about the condition of the house and other tenants’ smoking. A termination notice served in June 2013 was accepted by both sides at the tribunal hearing to be invalid.
The tribunal set the rent at €285 a month from 1 April 2014. It awarded Mr Sciberras €300 in damages for the landlord’s failure to ensure his peaceful occupation, but directed him to pay €180 in gas arrears and a €40 refuse charge. The resulting payment due to him was €80. The tribunal found the proposed increase had not taken effect in June 2013 because the notice did not provide the required 28 days’ notice. It considered €250 a month the market rent up to the tribunal hearing and €285 thereafter.
In the High Court, Mr Sciberras argued that the tribunal lacked authority to set the later rent and that it had breached the rules on how often rent could be reviewed. The judge rejected those arguments, noting that the rent increase had been discussed at length and that the order dealt with the same rent dispute Mr Sciberras had referred to the PRTB.
Mr Sciberras also alleged wrongdoing by the landlords and said the tribunal and Board should have pursued action over alleged false statements and other offences. The judge said the appeal was limited to points of law concerning the determination order. Decisions about prosecuting alleged offences were for the Board, and the court found no evidence of bad faith by the tribunal or Board.
The court concluded that the appeal raised no point of law on which it could set aside or vary the determination order, and dismissed it.