The High Court has rejected a tenant’s appeal against a Residential Tenancies Board determination upholding a notice to end his tenancy in Burtonport, Co Donegal.
In a judgment delivered on 31 May 2022, Ms Justice Bolger found that the tenant had not shown an error of law in the RTB process or decision. The appeal was brought under section 123 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, which allows the High Court to consider a point of law and to cancel or vary the RTB determination. The judge said that was the court’s sole remit in the case.
The landlords served a notice of termination on 18 January 2021, citing six grounds. Following hearings, the Tenancy Tribunal upheld two grounds, numbered 2 and 5, finding that the tenant had engaged in anti-social behaviour under section 17(1)(b) of the Act.
For ground 2, the Tribunal considered the tenant’s presence at a neighbour’s house at about 2.15am on 17 January 2021. The accounts differed on whether he went on foot with a torch or drove there using his car headlights. The Tribunal accepted the neighbour’s evidence that his behaviour caused fear. The High Court noted that the tenant had confirmed attending the house without permission at that time.
For ground 5, the Tribunal found that the tenant went to retrieve a spade taken from the dwelling to a neighbouring house and was carrying a garden fork or pitchfork. It concluded that he threatened the landlord’s wife and put her in great fear. The High Court noted the tenant had confirmed carrying a pitchfork. Justice Bolger said the Tribunal’s findings were based largely on undisputed evidence or conclusions reasonably open to it.
The tenant raised a number of procedural and evidential complaints, including the refusal to adjourn for a Garda investigation, the handling of witness evidence, cross-examination, the burden of proof, access to an audio recording and alleged bias. The judge found no legal error in the Tribunal’s handling of those matters. She said the tenant had been given an opportunity to be heard and to cross-examine the landlord and witnesses. The Tribunal had given reasons for refusing the adjournment, and the later letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions did not establish that a Garda witness had given false evidence.
The court disallowed the appeal and left the RTB determination in place. On an indicative basis, the judge considered the RTB entitled to its costs of defending the appeal, but did not consider the landlords entitled to costs. She set 15 June for any oral submissions on costs and final orders; the judgment does not record the outcome of those later submissions.