PR guru gets damages of nearly €18k over tenant’s rent arrears

Caroline Kennedy sued property management firm after ‘assurances’

An apartment owner has been awarded damages after the boss of a property management firm vouched for a tenant who went on to default on his rent.

Public relations executive Caroline Kennedy was awarded €17,996 by Dublin Circuit Civil Court after successfully suing Owen Reilly Property Consultants Limited.

Judge Christopher Callan found the firm’s managing director Owen Reilly vouched for businessman Tevian Mirrelson when Ms Kennedy raised concerns about taking him on as a tenant in 2020.

She raised questions about Mr Mirrelson after seeing newspaper articles about court cases he had been involved in.

The judge said Mr Reilly ought to have advised her “to disengage or at the very least pause” plans to sign the lease.

Instead, Mr Mirrelson, who ran a sports marketing company and founded donkey charity Asal Ireland, was taken on as a tenant.

He soon became late with rent payments and subsequently stopped paying altogether, saying his income had collapsed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ms Kennedy, founder of Kennedy PR + Brand, was awarded €26,400 after taking a Residential Tenancies Board case with the assistance of Mr Reilly.

While Mr Mirrelson eventually vacated the apartment, he never paid what he owed and his current whereabouts are unknown.

Ms Kennedy subsequently sued the property management firm for negligence, claiming she relied on its assurances when she agreed to take on Mr Mirrelson as a tenant.

While the court yesterday ruled in Ms Kennedy’s favour, it only awarded her 66pc of what she had been seeking.

The judge said she “must take some responsibility” for what happened, noting she was a successful businessperson and “must have had serious reservations of her own” about Mr Mirrelson.

Judge Callan also said it was to Mr Reilly’s credit that he went to great lengths to assist Ms Kennedy in seeking to recover her losses.

He refused to put a stay on the award while Mr Reilly’s firm considers an appeal.

The trial of the action last month heard Mr Mirrelson moved into a two-bed Georgian apartment owned by Ms Kennedy on Heytesbury Street in central Dublin on January 28, 2020.

Although he was identified as a potential tenant by the property management firm on January 10, Ms Kennedy said she only learned of his name the day before he moved in.

At that stage, no lease had been signed. Ms Kennedy googled Mr Mirrelson and found two articles about court cases he had been involved in.

The court heard she raised the newspaper reports with Mr Reilly, who later came back to her after having spoken to Mr Mirrelson.

Ms Kennedy said Mr Reilly told her Mr Mirrelson had explained that one of the matters was down to a mistake with a credit card number, while the other article had been incorrect.

She testified that Mr Reilly offered to ensure the tenant account would be managed properly and that she had relied on his assurances.

Mr Reilly denied putting any pressure on Ms Kennedy to agree the lease, claiming he told her the tenancy was not without risk and that it was her decision to make.

He also denied vouching for Mr Mirrelson, despite a text in March 2020 in which he told the tenant: “You have really let me down. I vouched for you. You can’t blame the crisis on this.”

Siding with Ms Kennedy, the judge said a first “warning sign” was that there had been a delay in the receipt of Mr Mirrelson’s security deposit.

An email exchange involving Mr Reilly and a colleague showed this was something he had been concerned about. But, the judge said, this concern was not relayed to Ms Kennedy.

Judge Callan also said information on a bank statement provided by Mr Mirrelson had warranted further investigation as, on the face of the statement, he did not have sufficient funds to pay the security deposit and a month’s rent.

The judge said the newspaper articles discovered by Ms Kennedy were “a red flag”.

Notwithstanding this, the judge said, he was satisfied Mr Reilly vouched for Mr Mirrelson “so as to assure Ms Kennedy”.

The judge said the “adverse media publications”, coupled with the delay in paying the security deposit, should have led to Mr Reilly advising Ms Kennedy not to go ahead with the tenancy or to pausing it.

“Without the benefit of such advice, Ms Kennedy was not fully informed,” the judge said.

“To simply state that the proposed tenancy is not without risk and ‘the decision is yours’ is not sufficient in all the circumstances of this particular case.”

Addressing an argument put forward by the company’s lawyers that Ms Kennedy’s loss was due to Covid-19 and Mr Mirrelson’s loss of his business and income, the judge said risks about the tenant were evident before the onset of the pandemic.

Judge Callan said Mr Mirrelson never set up a standing order for payment of the rent.

While he paid rent five times, each payment was late and no further payments were made after July 1, 2020. By the time Mr Mirrelson vacated the apartment the following year, arrears amounted to over €27,000.

‘The judge said the articles discovered by Ms Kennedy were “a red flag”’