The High Court has ruled that Lucy Friedman’s appeal against a Residential Tenancies Board determination was filed within the statutory 21-day time limit and can proceed.
The underlying dispute arose after an RTB tenancy tribunal decided it had no jurisdiction to deal with Ms Friedman’s complaint because she had named the wrong people as her landlords. The tribunal hearing took place over March 4th and May 13th, 2024.
The RTB posted its determination order on July 30th, 2024. Ms Friedman received it the following day and filed her High Court appeal on a point of law on August 20th.
The RTB argued that the 21 days began on July 30th, when the order was posted, and expired on August 19th. It relied on a series of earlier High Court decisions which had interpreted an RTB determination as being “issued to the parties” when it was sent.
Mr Justice Barr departed from that line of authority. He held that section 123 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 had to be read together with section 25 of the Interpretation Act 2005. Under that provision, a document sent by post is generally treated as delivered when it would arrive in the ordinary course of post, unless the contrary is proved.
The judge also relied on the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Kirwan v O’Leary, which recognised that a statutory appeal engages a constitutional right to litigate. Provisions restricting that right should therefore be strictly construed.
In Ms Friedman’s case, delivery was proved to have occurred on July 31st. Her August 20th filing was consequently within the 21-day period.
The judgment changes the approach previously taken in several High Court RTB cases, where posting had been treated as the decisive date.
It does not decide whether Ms Friedman should succeed in her underlying appeal against the RTB determination. It only resolves the preliminary timing objection. Final orders and costs were left for further submissions and a later court mention.