{"id":469346,"date":"2026-05-27T10:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T10:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469346\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T10:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T10:09:18","slug":"landlord-required-property-as-sisters-family-living-in-small-caravan-tribunal-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469346\/","title":{"rendered":"Landlord required property as sister\u2019s family living in \u2018small caravan\u2019, tribunal hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An overholding tenant has been ordered to vacate a property in Co Limerick<\/a> after a Residential Tenancies Board<\/a> tribunal heard her landlord required the property for his sister\u2019s family, who were living in a caravan in his garden.<\/p>\n

Landlord Cornelius Quilligan was previously ordered to pay \u20ac2,000 in damages to his tenant, Joanne Hogan, after he entered the property in Rathkeale in August 2023 and changed the locks.<\/p>\n

Quilligan had also \u201cdrilled the windows shut\u201d and put Hogan\u2019s belongings in bags, after he had \u201cgotten angry\u201d about the condition of the property, he said.<\/p>\n

Describing how he treated Hogan as \u201cvery poor\u201d, the tribunal fined him for attempting to carry out an illegal eviction, with his actions being \u201conly slightly mitigated\u201d by the fact Hogan was allowed to re-enter the home.<\/p>\n

Quilligan subsequently issued a notice of termination in February 2024, which resulted in another dispute being lodged with the rental watchdog.<\/p>\n

The landlord told a new tribunal hearing that he required the property for his sister, who had been living in a \u201csmall caravan\u201d with her husband and four children in his garden.<\/p>\n

Quilligan said his sister\u2019s family was using his water, toilets and electricity, adding that they had \u201cno privacy and no bedrooms\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that Hogan had not paid the top up to her rent since July 2023, saying he was \u201cout of pocket from then\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite the notice being issued in February 2024, Hogan still occupied the property by the time of the hearing in November 2025, according to a tribunal report published on Friday.<\/p>\n

Timothy Hogan, a witness for the tenant, alleged it was \u201ccomplete lies\u201d that Quilligan\u2019s sister required the home, claiming her husband owned \u201ca number of properties\u201d.<\/p>\n

He further claimed Quilligan failed to comply with the previous order to pay damages, which also included a further \u20ac3,000 for failing to carry out necessary repairs for the tenant.<\/p>\n

Quilligan accepted that his sister\u2019s husband owned a property, but it was derelict and had \u201cno sewerage or ESB or water\u201d.<\/p>\n

The tribunal said it was satisfied that Quilligan required the property, saying his sister \u201ccannot continue to live in a caravan indefinitely\u201d.<\/p>\n

Noting that Hogan had been overholding, it said it \u201ccannot be blind to the general nature of the rental property market\u201d and the \u201cpotential difficulties\u201d in securing alternative accommodation.<\/p>\n

However, it said the matter could not be \u201cdelayed indefinitely\u201d and ordered Hogan to vacate within 28 days.<\/p>\n

It also found her to be in rent arrears of \u20ac3,969 and ordered her to pay the sum in 12 monthly instalments.<\/p>\n

In a separate case, a mother who was overholding for 16 months after her landlord wished to sell the property in Ballina, Co Tipperary, was also ordered to vacate.<\/p>\n

Her landlord, John Lyons, said he was selling the property as it was held in a \u201cpension structure\u201d that was due to be wound up, saying the overholding had \u201ccost him money\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tenant Liz Carroll told a tribunal she accepted she was overholding, but it was \u201cnot out of bad faith\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said she was unable to secure alternative accommodation, despite being in contact with local estate agents and politicians.<\/p>\n

There was \u201ceffectively nothing\u201d available to rent in the area, she said, and when properties did arise, the rents were about \u20ac2,500, which she could not afford.<\/p>\n

She said her personal circumstances made it an \u201cespecially difficult\u201d year to move, given that one of her children was due to sit the Leaving Certificate.<\/p>\n

The tribunal acknowledged the \u201cparticular difficulty posed by current rental market conditions\u201d, though it noted Carroll had been overholding for more than a year and ordered her to vacate within 28 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An overholding tenant has been ordered to vacate a property in Co Limerick after a Residential Tenancies Board…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,1396,13696,9123],"class_list":["post-469346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick","tag-residential-tenancies-board-prtb","tag-tipperary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469346","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=469346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469346\/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=469346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}