A couple and their five children aged between four and 14 have been given seven days by a judge to vacate their €500-a-week rented home in Foxrock, Co Dublin.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane said that although Robert and Angela Fubara were up to date with rent payments they were holding up the sale of 3 Kerrymount Rise, Foxrock, Dublin 18 in breach of an order to quit by the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB).
The Circuit Civil Court heard the property belonged to the late Marie Donegan, of Belmont House, Galloping Green, Stillorgan Road, Co Dublin.
Tony Lord, a chartered engineer of Limmer Lane, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, England, who is one of three executors administering the late Mrs Donegan’s estate, applied to the court for an order enforcing a determination of the PRTB directing the Fubaras to quit and pay €1,000 damages for overholding.
Mr Lord told the court the Kerrymount Rise property had originally been rented to the Fubaras on a short term lease from October 2912 to September 30th, 2013 after which the tenancy would continue on a monthly basis.
He said that in June 2014 he and co-executors Bolton based chartered accountant John Shaw and Lucie Duffy, Belmont Gardens, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 had decided the house should be sold.
The tenancy had been lawfully terminated and the Fubaras had been overholding since September 4th, 2014. The PRTB had directed that the Fubaras vacate the property within seven days and ordered them to pay €2,000 per month from October 2014 and up until today at a daily rate of €65.75.
Angela Fubara said she and her husband Robert lived at Kerrymount Rise with their five children who attended local schools. They were owners of a house currently under construction at Hainault Road, Foxrock, into which they intended to move.
She said construction had been delayed by a difficulty in planning permission and due to a dispute with the building contractor which had “drastically delayed” the work. They had made numerous unsuccessful attempts to secure alternative short term local accommodation.
Ms Fubara said building was now at an advanced stage and a new firm of builders believed they could move into their new house within eight weeks. She had made payment of €4,000 on February 27th in respect of rent which was fully up to date and undertook to pay future rent and vacate in eight weeks’ time.
A solicitor for the Fubaras said they had no objection to an order to vacate being made with a stay.
Judge Linnane, ordering the Fubaras to vacate the property within seven days, said they were holding up the sale of the Kerrymount Rise property which was “sale agreed.”
The judge said no-one would enter into a contract where they could not be assured of vacant possession. The Fubaras were preventing the executors complying with their duties to administer the estate and they had failed to pay the €1,000 penalty for overholding.
Accepting an undertaking that the €1,000 would be paid forthwith, Judge Linnane said if the court had to grant judgment for the amount against the Fubaras it would affect their credit rating.