Landlord Evicted Family to House Daughter, Then Advertised Home at Higher Rent and Was Fined €15,000

A landlord who evicted a family on the grounds that he needed the house for his daughter, then put it back on the rental market at a rent 50 per cent higher, has been ordered to pay €15,000 (£12,900, $17,400) in damages.

The order, made by a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal, followed a finding that Padraig Coyne re-advertised the property in Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath, roughly two months after his tenant left. It described his conduct as 'egregious'.

That tenant, Aida Cassiano, had made the house her home since 2017. She moved out in May 2025 after a termination notice cited the landlord's need to house his daughter. Two months later, the same house was back on the rental market.

Cassiano had been paying €1,000 (£860, $1,160) a month. When the listing went up on Daft.ie in July 2025, advertised as available 'immediately', the rent sought was €1,500 (£1,290, $1,740). The notice was submitted to the tribunal as evidence of the increase.

What the Rules Say About Reletting After an Eviction

Ending a tenancy so a landlord or a close relative can move in carries a legal condition. If the property becomes available again within 12 months, it must first be offered back to the former tenant.

Whether Coyne's daughter ever moved in, then left within that period, the tribunal said it could not establish. What it did find was that the house had not been offered back to Cassiano, as the rules require. Coyne attended neither the initial hearing in April nor the rescheduled sitting in May.

The property was later listed for sale in late 2025 and, by Cassiano's account, was still on the market when the case came before the tribunal.

A Family That Kept Moving

Much of the tribunal's reasoning centred on the disruption the eviction caused. Cassiano told it she had lived at three separate addresses since leaving Rochfortbridge, and that she had grown 'tired of constantly moving house.'

The first move took her to a farmhouse in Moate, which she left after several months. There, she alleged, a man living in a shed on a neighbouring farm let himself onto the property uninvited, while the landlord entered the house unannounced. The place, she said, was overrun by mice.

Her teenage daughter returned to Portugal, the family's home country, while Cassiano found a single room for herself, her son, and their three dogs. Another move followed, and by the time of the hearing she was staying with a friend in Co Roscommon.

Her work suffered alongside her housing. Cassiano, who runs an art school in Mullingar, estimated she had lost roughly a fifth of her clients as she moved from place to place, and took out an €8,000 (£6,880, $9,280) loan to rent premises for storing her materials. Moving on from her friend's home was beyond her means, she said, with nothing spare for a deposit and a month's rent.

The tribunal, which described Cassiano as 'understated' in giving evidence, said it was satisfied she had been 'very affected by the actions of the landlord.' It gave Coyne 28 days to pay the €15,000.

Tougher Penalties for Rule-Breaking Landlords

The sum sits close to the ceiling for such cases. Where the RTB finds a tenancy was ended unlawfully, it can order damages of up to €20,000 (£17,200, $23,200), the tenant's readmission, or both.

A separate arm of the board, its investigations and sanctions unit, can go further, fining a landlord up to €15,000 for each proven breach of rental law and a further €15,000 in costs. Failing to offer a home back to a former tenant is one of the breaches it can pursue.

That enforcement machinery is still building. By the middle of 2025, the RTB had published 36 sanctions worth €102,490 (£88,140, $118,890) between them.

Since 14 September 2026, it can also issue fixed fines for certain breaches: €200 for ignoring rent-increase rules and €100 for registration failures, bypassing the slower route of a full investigation.

The board dates to the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 and has held investigative and sanctioning powers since 2019.

A tenant who believes a termination notice was invalid has 90 days from receiving it to refer the matter to the RTB.