The High Court has temporarily barred a landlord from entering or re-entering a Stepaside GP clinic to enforce a lease forfeiture notice, pending trial of the landlord’s rent claim.
Ms Justice Hyland made the interlocutory order on 18 January 2024 in proceedings brought by Gradual Investments against Fiona Grant. The injunction applies until the trial or further order. It does not determine whether the forfeiture notice is valid, and the judge said the injunction would not continue automatically until judgment after trial.
The dispute concerns an alleged breach of a rent abatement agreement, which set reduced rent on a sliding scale until 27 July 2019. Gradual Investments sought summary judgment for €275,884.82, plus further rent and service charges that might accrue, and interest. On 25 July, a judge refused summary judgment and sent the case on for a plenary hearing.
Grant sought the injunction after receiving a forfeiture notice dated 3 October 2023. It cited alleged monthly rather than quarterly rent payments, a rent shortfall of €55,818.03, unpaid service charges of €10,553.40, and subtenants allegedly occupying without the landlord’s consent. Grant said two earlier notices had been withdrawn. She maintained that rent had been paid under the abatement agreement, apart from minor administrative issues, and that she continued paying rent while the application was before the court.
The landlord argued that the injunction concerned the notice’s validity, which was not an issue pleaded for trial, and that there was no fair issue to be tried. It also relied on an alleged undisputed underpayment of €38,500 and said it had offered an undertaking not to enforce the notice until trial. The parties did not agree on how long that undertaking would last.
The judge found that the trial would determine at least some issues underlying the notice, including rent, service charges and subtenants. If the clinic were forfeited before those disputes were heard, disruption to Grant and her patients could cause harm not fully compensated by damages. The judge also noted the notice was served shortly before trial and that the landlord had given no reason for that timing.
The court therefore ordered the landlord, its servants or agents, and anyone with notice of the order not to enter or re-enter the clinic to execute forfeiture until trial or further order. The parties were directed to make submissions on costs on 24 January 2024.