{"id":245910,"date":"2026-01-15T10:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/245910\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T10:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T10:46:07","slug":"couple-who-left-rented-home-due-to-cost-of-rent-and-childcare-ordered-to-pay-e3400-for-not-giving-proper-notice-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/245910\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple who left rented home due to cost of rent and childcare ordered to pay \u20ac3,400 for not giving proper notice \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple who sought to terminate their tenancy after finding it \u201cimpossible\u201d to pay high rents alongside new childcare<\/a> costs have been ordered to pay more than \u20ac3,400 after failing to provide proper notice.<\/p>\n

Patrick McHugh told a Residential Tenancies Board<\/a> (RTB) tribunal that he and his partner, Genevieve Gleeson, had been renting the property in Lucan, Co Dublin, since 2022.<\/p>\n

By the time they vacated the property almost three years later, the couple had paid \u20ac58,000 in rent to their landlord, Feargal Condron, he said.<\/p>\n

Mr McHugh said that after the birth of their child, they found it \u201cimpossible\u201d to pay the monthly rent of \u20ac1,900 alongside new childcare costs.<\/p>\n

He added that the property had become too small for their needs and he sought a rent reduction, but this was declined.<\/p>\n

The couple subsequently informed a managing agent by text in December 2024 that they intended to vacate the property by the end of February. <\/p>\n

After receiving no response, they contacted the agent again in January but again received no reply, he said.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Condron told the tribunal no formal notice was given by the couple, and the agent messaged by Mr McHugh had left the management agency a year before.<\/p>\n

During cross-examination of Mr McHugh by his former landlord, the tenant said he was unaware of the agent\u2019s departure but was aware that a second agent was working in the office.<\/p>\n

Mr Condron told the tribunal that rent arrears of \u20ac1,900 for the month of February also remained unpaid by the couple, for which he retained their security deposit.<\/p>\n

He argued he was entitled to a further \u20ac3,423 in rent for the required notice period of 56 days, which Mr McHugh described as \u201cgouging and deeply unfair\u201d.<\/p>\n

The tenant said he expected the couple\u2019s deposit to cover February\u2019s rent, and accepted that they had not given notice in the proper format, but said they were \u201cdisappointed at the way the situation had evolved\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr McHugh said he had been communicating by text and thought all was \u201cin order\u201d, adding that after leaving the property at the end of February, they had dropped the keys into the agent\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The tribunal said the couple were required to give 56 days\u2019 notice at the time, being a tenancy of between two and four years in duration.<\/p>\n

However, the couple failed to give proper notice of their intention to terminate the tenancy, the tribunal said, and deemed them to be liable for a further \u20ac3,435.85 in rent for the notice period.<\/p>\n

It said the \u201cpersonal circumstances\u201d of Mr McHugh and Ms Gleeson \u201ccannot be considered by the tribunal in arriving at its decision\u201d and ordered them to pay the sum in six instalments of \u20ac572.63 per month.<\/p>\n

It added that Mr Condron was entitled to retain the couple\u2019s security deposit of \u20ac1,900 due to non-payment of one month\u2019s rent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple who sought to terminate their tenancy after finding it \u201cimpossible\u201d to pay high rents alongside new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,9687,3662,61,60,13696],"class_list":{"0":"post-245910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-childcare","10":"tag-housing-crisis","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-residential-tenancies-board-prtb"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}