The High Court rejected Daniel Boylan’s claim that he owned a takeaway and two apartments at 116 Ranelagh Road, Dublin, finding that the £173,000 he paid his father was rent in advance and fit-out costs, not the price of the property. The court ordered him to pay receiver Kenneth Fennell €68,100 for apartment rents he had collected, and directed that future rents be paid to the receiver.
Mr Boylan, previously known as Daniel Sacco, claimed he bought the premises from his father, Luigi Sacco, in 1998 or 1999 and that his unregistered interest took priority over a later bank mortgage. He said he and his father signed a deed of transfer at their solicitor’s office, but no copy was produced and the alleged transfer was never registered.
The court found on the balance of probabilities that no transfer was made and that Mr Boylan had instead taken a 35-year lease. It relied on evidence including his solicitor’s account that Mr Boylan had described himself as a tenant, a 2008 lease naming his father as landlord, and correspondence in which Mr Boylan sought a lease and undertook to pay rent. The judge also considered the delay in asserting ownership and the absence of a deed from the solicitor’s files.
After the court’s initial judgment rejecting his ownership claim, Mr Boylan sought possession and damages on the basis that he was a tenant under the lease the court had found existed. The court refused those applications, declared that pursuing possession on that basis was an abuse of process, and held he was estopped from claiming a leasehold interest. It awarded costs to the receiver. The court said Mr Boylan had denied having a lease during the proceedings and had earlier denied it to the receiver.
The rent award was increased from €60,000 to €68,100 to account for about three further months of rent from the two apartments. The court ordered that rent collected from then on, stated to be €2,700 a month, be paid immediately to the receiver.
In a separate ruling on damages against Mr Sacco, who did not participate in the hearing, the court declined to award damages for the £173,000 because it found Mr Boylan had received use of the premises during the rental period. It awarded him €254,000, the equivalent of £200,000 paid for an investment in a Dame Street business from which the court found he received no value. The court made no further orders against his father and said it placed no reliance on alleged evidence or admissions by him.