The landlord of a Dublin apartment block, who evicted tenants last year claiming he intended to sell up, has been found by Dublin City Council to be using the property for unauthorised holiday letting.
The council has issued enforcement proceedings in relation to Reuben House, a six-storey building on Reuben Street close to the Coombe maternity hospital in Dublin 8, ordering the “cessation of the unauthorised use of the property” for short-term letting purposes.
Marc Godart, of Green Label Properties Investment Limited, last April issued notices of termination to tenants of Reuben House on the basis that he intended to sell the building. Up to 45 people were living in the apartments, sharing rooms, with an average of four bunkbeds per room.
Tenants were evicted last August and their rooms advertised on holiday lettings website Airbnb as “hostel-style” accommodation. Owners of properties in Dublin must secure planning permission from the council to provide short-term or holiday letting, unless it is their own home which they rent out for less than three months a year.
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The council last Wednesday issued its enforcement notice ordering that short-term letting of Reuben House must stop by April 28th. However, rooms in the apartments remain advertised on the Airbnb platform until the end of August costing up to €100 a night for a bunkbed in a shared dorm and €280 a night for a private double room with shared bathroom.
Last month, Reuben Street Hot Desks Ltd, a company also owned by Mr Godart, applied to the council to change the use of Reuben House to an aparthotel. The council’s enforcement section said it has told the planner dealing with the case an enforcement order has been issued regarding the unauthorised use of the property.
“The matter will be forwarded to the senior executive planner, who will be making a decision as to whether the application should be invalidated,” it said.
Is there any relief on the horizon for renters?
Local Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty said the council had already determined that the building was illegally advertised as short-term letting and it should be immediately returned to residential use.
[ Eviction ban lapses making thousands of notices to quit go live for tenantsOpens in new window ]
“This landlord told tenants he was evicting them because he was going to sell, and he didn’t sell. Instead he put their homes up on Airbnb. That is one issue,” he said.
“In terms of the planning application, it is totally the opposite of what the city needs. This is the taking-away of homes that are sorely needed and replacing them with short-term lets which is totally bonkers in the current housing and homelessness situation.”
Mr Godart did not respond to requests for comment from The Irish Times. In December 2020, he featured in an RTÉ Investigates documentary in relation to overcrowding in rental accommodation in Dublin.
