Luxembourg landlord Marc Godart, who has evicted tenants and listed their homes on Airbnb, is now fighting eviction from a Dublin house he rents.
Mr Godart (34) began renting the house in Kilmainham from Dublin couple Irene Hayden and Frank Kavanagh in October 2019. During the Covid-19 pandemic they allowed him a rent reduction when he said he was struggling to make ends meet. They were unaware at the time he owned property companies with millions of euro in assets.
Last May, the couple discovered the house was listed on holiday let site Airbnb without their permission. It is understood Mr Godart was using the house as his Dublin base but also renting a room on Airbnb. Ms Hayden and Mr Kavanagh issued warning letters directing him to stop the unauthorised letting at their two-bedroom house. They said they did not receive responses to the letters, and subsequently served him with notice to quit.
Mr Godart did not leave the house by his termination date in early October of last year, and the couple initiated proceedings against him with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). Mr Godart is contesting the case.
The same month, Mr Godart carried out an eviction of his own tenants from a north Dublin house. The tenants in Fairview said at Halloween he locked them in the kitchen while a number of men removed their belongings. He had some months earlier begun operating Airbnb from rooms in the house while long-term tenants were still living there.
Ms Hayden and Mr Kavanagh had been renting out the house near St James’s Hospital for more than 20 years.
“It used to be my home,” Ms Hayden said. “We didn’t actually meet Marc, it was an estate agent who vetted him for us, he didn’t have landlord references because he said he hadn’t rented before, but everything else seemed fine, and we hadn’t had a problem before that in the 20-odd years we’d been renting it out.”
During the pandemic Mr Godart asked the couple for a rent reduction, which they granted for two months. At the time Mr Godart was running companies with several million euro in assets. Last year his company Green Label Properties paid director’s remuneration of €298,410 to Mr Godart.
“We feel he was really playing us for eejits in hindsight, looking back on it,” Ms Hayden told The Irish Times, “but at the time he was nice and polite and seemed genuine.”
At the start of last year, things began to change. “There was a constant flow of people in and out of the house on a daily basis, a lot of noise, keys were being left on the floor in the porch. Then in May we discovered it was listed on Airbnb and it was fully booked up to the end of October.” While the precise address of the house was not listed on the rental platform, the couple could see from the interior photos that it was their house. “To add salt to the wounds, there were also several reviews, saying what a wonderful host Marc is.”
The couple made an announced visit to the house, and subsequently wrote to Mr Godart about the unauthorised Airbnb use. He did not respond immediately but some weeks later sent an email stating the house was not on Airbnb.
“He had taken it down,” Mr Kavanagh said, “but we wanted a statement saying it wasn’t up on any other house-sharing site and would never be, or any notice board, and we wanted information on what people he might have given keys to.”
Mr Godart did not respond to this email so the couple sent him a letter warning of termination, to which again they said they received no response, followed by a notice of termination, with both letters sent by registered post.
Rental crisis: why can't Ireland put limits on AirBnb?
An adjudication hearing has been held by the RTB and the couple are waiting to hear if they can evict Mr Godart, Mr Kavanagh said.
“It’s just galling that he can go and throw 45 people out of their apartments by forced eviction while we are doing everything for him legally.”
The Irish Times earlier this month reported that Dublin City Council had issued enforcement proceedings ordering the cessation of unauthorised short-term letting of Reuben House, an apartment block with up to 45 tenants in Dolphin’s Barn.
Tenants of Reuben House were last August evicted and subsequently found their rooms advertised on Airbnb as “hostel-style” accommodation.
Mr Godart has not responded to requests for comment.
