A landlord accused of evicting a family of eight while wielding a hammer has denied the claims against him, describing the allegations as “absolutely outrageous”.
Lawyers for Imtiaz Khan, who is a practising solicitor and principal of Dublin-based IMK Law, told the High Court they would be seeking to cross-examine tenant Muhammad Amjad about his allegations, which they argued were “entirely without merit” and contained factual inaccuracies.
Alan Cormack, for Khan, said he needed time to respond properly to the “absolutely outrageous” claims.
The court heard how Amjad, his wife and six children were on Tuesday morning allowed back into their rental property in Ongar Village, west Dublin, where they had been living since 2013 before allegedly being evicted on Saturday.
Judge Brian Cregan queried why they had not been facilitated to return on Monday, as stipulated by orders he made against Khan and his company IMK Property Investment Limited on Monday afternoon.
Cormack said he did not have an explanation for this, but he was told the property was in an uninhabitable condition according to Fingal County Council.
The judge said it had not escaped his notice that the alleged eviction of the Amjad family appeared to have occurred just before new rent rules came into force on Sunday.
He said this could be viewed as an attempt to avail of the ability to reset the rent to market rates under the reforms.
“I expect your client, who is a solicitor, to set out entirely what his justification for that is,” the judge said.
In an affidavit to the court, Amjad, represented by RNL Solicitors, alleged Khan arrived at the rental property carrying a hammer and was accompanied by eight others.
Amjad claimed Khan issued “explicit threats to strike me if I did not vacate within three minutes” and warned him that he would throw his family’s possessions into a skip.
He said his children were present and “visibly traumatised” by the incident. After this, he said, the family could not regain access, so stayed in the sitting room of a relative’s apartment.
Amjad had been issued with a purported notice of termination, but was advised it was invalid, he told the court.
Khan and IMK Property purportedly took over the lease of the Ongar Village property in 2022, and Amjad said he abided by their preferred rent payment methods even though they allegedly failed to produce proof of title or landlord interest and failed to regularise registration with the Residential Tenancies Board.
On Tuesday, the judge said the case raised the “most serious issues” for Khan and IMK Property if Amjad’s allegations proved to be true. He said these proceedings raised questions about the defendant’s conduct as a solicitor and whether crimes had been committed.
“I am taking this matter extremely seriously. I’m expecting a full explanation from your client as to what happened and why,” the judge told Khan’s lawyers.
He adjourned the case until later this month to give the parties time to submit evidence to the court.
His temporary orders, granted on Monday without Khan or IMK Property represented, restrain the defendants from interfering with Amjad’s quiet enjoyment of the premises or from attempting to exclude them from the premises.
The defendants are also prohibited from harassing or intimidating Amjad or damaging any of his personal property.
The judge’s orders required Khan and his company immediately to restore possession of the premises to Amjad.