A tenant pensioner was ordered to pay her landlord €6,000 for arrears of rent in a case before the Residential Tenancies Board.
The tribunal heard how both sides were let down by the Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) scheme which took 15 months to process the claim before any payments were made. When the payments did come they were not backdated.
The landlord said the HAP process had broken down after the tenant had moved into the property in 2022. She said that the tenant would do ‘the best she could’ with the rent but the mortgage on the property had since been sold to a vulture fund which put her under pressure as the vulture fund was looking to repossess the house to sell it.
The rent was up to date since the HAP payment came into play but there were pre-HAP arrears of €6,369.50 outstanding.
The tenant told the tribunal that she did not expect the HAP process to be so long and in order to pay the rent she had to sell personal items for the initial period of the tenancy. She said the forms for HAP were sent to the wrong address and she had to get documents translated concerning her German pension.
The tenant did not dispute that arrears were due.
Regarding rent payments made, she paid in cash and did not keep a record of the amount she paid.
The tribunal said evidence given by both sides was not entirely satisfactorily and observed that the record keeping was poor which did not help. They made an award of €6,000 in favour of the landlord.
Roettger v Sheehan Residential Tenancies Board (TR0824-007861) 9 January 2025.