A man has failed to convince a tribunal that 46 audio recordings he made, including of a ticking clock and a dog barking, proved he was subjected to unnecessary noise disturbance at his south Dublin flat.
Tadeusz Mirocha asked a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal to find that his landlord, Ocp Belgrave II General Partners Limited, breached its obligations to allow him to enjoy peaceful occupation of his home at Rathgar Road, Rathgar, Dublin, where he has lived for nearly five years.
The board found against him on this but held that the landlord’s eviction notice, issued to him in February 2025, was invalid. He has remained living at the flat.
Mirocha had applied to the RTB in the weeks after receiving the lease termination notice, which cited alleged antisocial behaviour towards other residents of the building. An RTB adjudicator last July upheld the notice as valid and ordered Mirocha to vacate within 14 days, but Mirocha appealed against this to the tribunal.
In a determination published this week, the tribunal said it listened to 33 of 46 audio recordings Mirocha made and could hear “the sound of a ticking clock and a dog barking”.
Via a Polish interpreter, Mirocha alleged the landlord failed to take action against constant noise and that false accusations were made against him by tenants in neighbouring flats. He claimed the landlord was trying to disturb him and that there was an unethical conspiracy against him.
The tribunal said he received four warning letters, including one after a verbal altercation occurred when he asked a neighbour to reduce his music and voice. He accepted he sent letters to neighbours expressing his concerns about noise, but contended this did not constitute harassment.
An agent for the landlord told the tribunal that tenants of four other flats had complained about Mirocha. The agent contended the tenant is sensitive to noise, as other tenants were asked about noise levels and nothing was reported.
Mirocha said he is not antisocial, has a good reputation and cannot be evicted for trying to live in peace in his flat, for which he pays €1,212 per month. He fears he could not talk to his neighbours any more as he was afraid he would be reported for harassment.
The RTB tribunal noted a warning letter to Mirocha, issued in May 2023, referred to a claim he used derogatory racial language and intimidated another tenant, while three other warnings, issued in 2024, referenced reports of him allegedly harassing multiple tenants with unsolicited letters and engaging in threatening behaviour. Mirocha denied the claims.
The tribunal said the landlord did not take any “thorough investigative action” in the form of speaking to the tenants or seeking to resolve the issues via mediation. The evidence of these other tenants was hearsay, so could not be relied upon, the tribunal found, adding that it could not fairly conclude Mirocha’s behaviour was antisocial.
Given the severity of the outcome for a tenant – the requirement to vacate a property and the consequences for one’s good character – the tribunal said there was a high burden for proving antisocial behaviour. The landlord had not met this threshold, it ruled.