Westmeath Landlord Ordered To Pay €15k In Damages For "Egregious" Actions

Aida Cassiano was served a notice of termination for her rented Rochfortbridge home in October 2024.

A Westmeath landlord has been ordered to pay €15,000 in damages to a single mother who had to leave her long-term rental property to allow his daughter to move in only to discover to the house advertised two months later with a rent hike of 50%.

A tribunal of the Residential Tenancies Board upheld a claim by the tenant, Aida Cassiano, that her landlord, Padraig Coyne, failed to comply with a statutory declaration he made to offer her the opportunity to re-occupy the dwelling if his daughter, Amee, vacated the house at Gortumly, Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath within 12 months of the termination of her tenancy.

Tribunal chairperson, Anne Leech, described the actions of the landlord as “egregious.”

Ms Cassiano, an artist from Portugal who runs an art school in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, claimed she had been unjustly deprived of possession of the dwelling by her landlord under Section 56 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004.

Mr Coyne twice failed to attend a hearing of the dispute before the RTB tribunal earlier this year, despite signalling on the second occasion that he would attend.

He had told a mediation hearing of the RTB last year that he could not afford to pay any compensation.

Ms Cassiano told the tribunal that her landlord had served a notice of termination on her in October 2024 that she would need to vacate the property by the end of May 2025 as he required the house for his daughter.

The tribunal heard Ms Cassiano had been living in the house with her two teenage children and three dogs since March 2017 and had acquired a tenancy of unlimited duration.

She gave evidence that she accepted Mr Coyne’s reasons for seeking to terminate the tenancy and had even assisted him in getting the proper paperwork.

The tribunal heard she lodged her claim with the RTB two days after she found out that the house was up on Daft.ie on July 27, 2025 for immediate occupation at rent of €1,500 per month.

Ms Cassiano said had been paying a monthly rent of just €1,000.

The tribunal heard that she had seen the property for sale online at the end of 2025 and it was still on the market on the date of the hearing on May 26, 2026. (The three-bed bungalow is currently listed as “sale agreed”.)

After vacating the property, Ms Cassiano said she initially rented a farmhouse in Moate, Co Westmeath but left after six months as it was infested with mice and a man living in a shed on the farm as well as her new landlord kept coming into the house unannounced and uninvited.

Ms Cassiano said her daughter decided to go back to Portugal while she and her son rented a room in a friend’s house in Killucan, Co Westmeath for a few months before moving in with a friend in Donamon, Co Roscommon where she currently resides.

She testified that she remained very affected by what had happened to herself and her family and was tired of constantly having to move home.

Ms Cassiano pointed out that she had stored materials for her art classes in the rental property and had to take out a loan of €8,000 in order to move to a larger, more expensive business premises that had storage space.

She said she had also lost 20% of her clients because of having to move the location of her art school.

Whether the landlord’s daughter had ever occupied the dwelling or not, Ms Leech said it was clear that Mr Coyne had failed to comply with the terms of the statutory declaration he had made about offering Ms Cassiano back her tenancy.

Ms Leech said it was reasonable to assume that the landlord had never thought about his statutory declaration or a reference he had written for Ms Cassiano in which he praised her as a reliable, highly disciplined tenant who paid her rent on time when the property was placed back on the market for rent in July 2025.

In assessing damages, she said the claimant had lost the benefit and security of a tenancy of unlimited duration which had caused her to live at several different locations including a clearly unsuitable farmhouse in Moate for six months.

The tribunal directed the landlord to pay his former tenant €15,000 within 28 days.