The Circuit Court has found that Norman Doody had no tenancy or other cause of action to remain in a Dublin dwelling and held that its registered owner, Phyllis Michael, was entitled to possession.
In a judgment dated 28 February 2025, Judge John O’Connor said Doody was an occupier who paid no rent, not a tenant when his mother Angela Doody died in 2017. The judge said the controlled dwelling tenancy ended on her death and did not accept that an ordinary tenancy continued in another form.
The dispute concerned whether Angela Doody’s tenancy under the Housing (Private Rented Dwellings) Act 1982 survived her death and passed to her estate. Her son argued, among other things, that the tenancy continued without the Act’s lifetime protection and came within the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. He also argued that the Circuit Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the possession claim.
Michael’s position was that the tenancy and associated rights ended on Angela Doody’s death. She relied on her registered ownership and disputed that any tenancy had arisen in favour of her son, who she said had not paid rent.
The judgment records that the parties agreed Doody did not qualify for the statutory succession rights available to certain family members under section 9 of the 1982 Act. The court also noted that Doody had previously claimed he was a tenant in his own right from around 2011, while later relying on his mother’s estate. Judge O’Connor said those claims conflicted and that he could not be both.
The judge rejected the estate claim as well as the claim in Doody’s own right. He said that even if his mother’s tenancy had continued after her death, which he did not accept, the claim was statute barred because the Grant of Administration Intestate issued more than six years after her death. The judgment states that an administrator’s authority begins when the grant issues.
Judge O’Connor concluded that Doody had no cause of action to an interest in the premises and that Michael was entitled to possession. The court did not specify a handover date or decide legal costs in the judgment; it invited counsel to address both matters.