{"id":507690,"date":"2026-06-19T09:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T09:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507690\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T09:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T09:29:13","slug":"tenant-forced-to-walk-the-streets-after-illegal-eviction-awarded-e8000-in-damages-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/507690\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenant forced to \u2018walk the streets\u2019 after illegal eviction awarded \u20ac8,000 in damages \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tenant who had to \u201cwalk the streets\u201d of Dublin<\/a> overnight after finding that his locks had been changed by his landlord has been awarded \u20ac8,000 in damages for the \u201cegregious breach\u201d of rental laws.<\/p>\n

A Residential Tenancies Board<\/a> (RTB) tribunal said it was satisfied the illegal eviction of tenant Whiston Tonassi Falcao da Silva was \u201ctraumatic\u201d, after hearing claims his landlord turned off the electricity in an effort to force him from the property.<\/p>\n

His landlord, Future Forge Investment Ltd, did not attend the tribunal hearing.<\/p>\n

Tonassi Falcao da Silva received a WhatsApp message on December 9th, 2024, from his landlord\u2019s agent, Jun Su, telling him the property was being sold as there were \u201ctoo many problems in that building\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was told to vacate the apartment above a pub on Grattan Crescent, Dublin 8, within a month.<\/p>\n

Neasa Brennan, a representative from housing charity Threshold, told the tribunal that the landlord subsequently turned off the electricity in an attempt to \u201ccoercively end the tenancy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The tribunal heard that when Tonassi Falcao da Silva returned home from work on January 8th, 2025, the locks had been changed.<\/p>\n

Noting it was \u201cvery late\u201d, he said he called to a friend\u2019s home but could not make contact and \u201chad to walk the streets\u201d until the next morning.<\/p>\n

He was unable to contact the landlord as his number was blocked, he said, adding that he subsequently sent a letter by post about recovering his belongings.<\/p>\n

His landlord later requested that he attend the property at night to collect them, though when he arrived, three men unknown to him were inside the apartment, which remained without electricity and dark.<\/p>\n

Tonassi Falcao da Silva said he felt \u201cintimidated\u201d and called garda\u00ed, which prompted the men to leave.<\/p>\n

His landlord then organised to meet several nights later, with the tenant recalling him arriving in a \u201cvan\u201d with \u201cblack plastic bags\u201d that he left on the footpath.<\/p>\n

The tenant claimed his landlord retained his new Samsung projector worth \u20ac700 and his baseball bat. A laptop worth \u20ac1,050, which contained photographs of \u201cemotional value\u201d, was also missing, he said.<\/p>\n

He told the tribunal the black bags also contained clothes that did not belong to him, alongside food that had \u201cgone off\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tonassi Falcao da Silva spent about a month sleeping \u201con the floor\u201d of his friend\u2019s home until he found alternative accommodation, he said.<\/p>\n

The tribunal described Future Forge Investment\u2019s unlawful termination of the tenancy as an \u201cegregious\u201d breach of the Residential Tenancies Act.<\/p>\n

It described the steps required to recover his belongings as \u201cintimidatory\u201d, while the eviction had \u201csignificant consequences\u201d for the tenant.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this occurred in the midst of a housing crisis and during the winter period, which further exacerbated the situation,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Alongside \u20ac8,000 in damages, it ordered the landlord to return Tonassi Falcao da Silva\u2019s belongings and his deposit of \u20ac900.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tenant who had to \u201cwalk the streets\u201d of Dublin overnight after finding that his locks had been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,615,3662,61,60,3665,13696],"class_list":["post-507690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dublin","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-renting","tag-residential-tenancies-board-prtb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507690","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=507690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507690\/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=507690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}