Landlord’s firm hires lawyers despite claiming it can’t afford €15k unlawful eviction award
A company run by controversial landlord Marc Godart has hired a high-powered legal team to fight a bid to force it to pay €15,000 in compensation to an illegally evicted tenant – despite claiming it does not have the funds to cover the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) award.
A solicitors’ firm, a senior counsel and a junior barrister all appeared in the High Court yesterday for Green Label Short Lets Limited.
The firm is being pursued by former tenant Lizet Pena-Herrera after it failed to pay an award of €15,433 made in her favour in 2022 for what the RTB described as an “egregious unlawful eviction”.
Ms Pena-Herrera, a psychologist from Bolivia, was turfed out of accommodation in Cork Street, Dublin, after raising concerns about overcrowding.
The court heard that while she was at work, and without warning, her possessions were packed up by an employee of the company.
Some items were broken. Others were notrecovered.Herdepositwaswithheld.
The court is considering an application from Ms Pena-Herrera to have Luxembourg citizen Mr Godart (35) and his parents René (71) and Denise (64) cross-examined over the affairs of the company as part of her efforts to execute a District Court judgment she obtained on foot of the RTB award.
The application is being resisted by Mr Godart, who claims the company cannot afford to pay as it had no earnings for 2023 and had effectively ceased operation.
He claims to be the sole remaining director of the firm and that his mother, although previously a director, was not involved in an executive capacity.
Mr Godart said that if the court were minded to make an order against him it should be for interrogatories – the provision of written answers to Ms Pena-Herrera’s questions – rather than cross-examination, which he claimed would be “disproportionate”.
In the legal action, Ms Pena-Herrera is also seeking the disclosure of certain documents.
Her lawyers say Mr Godart’s claims about the earnings of the company were “inconsistent” with available information about its activities, including it pleading guilty in the District Court to breaching planning laws in relation to short-term letting between June 4 and June 6, 2023. John Kennedy SC, for Ms Pena-Herrera, told the court it must have been receiving income at the time as it was operating an Airbnb business.
Former tenant in court bid to make Marc Godart’s company pay up
“Instead of paying my client, they are paying solicitors, senior and junior counsel, to come in here today to fight the application,” Mr Kennedy said.
He said his client was “a normal person with a normal job”.
“She is just looking for justice. She doesn’t have the resources available to Mr Godart,” Mr Kennedy said.
In an affidavit, Mr Godart said the company’s inability to pay was due to the Covid pandemic, which he claimed had greatly reduced demand from international travellers, as well as shortterm letting regulations introduced by Dublin City Council. Mr Godart said he had been “open and honest as to the current financial standing” of the company.
However, Mr Kennedy said averments, or statements, made in Mr Godart’s affidavits were “misleading” as it was clear from recent media reports he and his wider group of companies were still involved in the same type of business.
Those companies were actively trading and Mr Godart had also established new ones, the barrister said.
Mr Kennedy said it was “crystal clear” from the affidavits there was “no recognition or acknowledgement” by Mr Godart it was “inappropriate not to pay” the award or “of the awful situation” Ms Pena-Herrera had been left in.
The barrister hit out at what he described as “a deep sense of entitlement” displayed in Mr Godart’s affidavits.
The court heard Mr Godart had supplied the court with a list of 22 companies he was a director of.
In one of his affidavits, he said Green Label Short Lets was an Irish subsidiary of a Luxembourg parent company called Itzig SARL. He said he held all the issued share capital in the Luxembourg firm. Mr Godart said subsidiary companies abroad remitted revenue to the parent company.
But Mr Kennedy said Mr Godart’s business had “an unusual structure”.
He said the Irish company formed part of a “Byzantine set of companies” and that Ms Pena-Herrera would benefit from understanding the structure.
Opposing the application, Gary McCarthy SC, for Green Label Short Lets, said a creditor could not seek reliefs sought by Ms Pena-Herrera under the Companies Acts.
He also argued the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the application.
The case was adjourned until next week to allow Mr Kennedy to address objections raised by Mr McCarthy.