A landlady’s claim that her former tenant left her house in a “filthy” state when exiting the tenancy was hotly denied by the tenant during a contested hearing at Navan District Court. Dylan Casey, c/o Kearney Catering Charleville, Dunleer, Co Louth brought a claim to the Small Claims Court for the return of a rental deposit of €1,150 he had paid to Jacinta Lord of Old Fair Green Dunboyne.
Dylan Casey said he signed a tenancy agreement in August last year. He gave a month’s notice of leaving. The agreement was that the deposit would be returned if there was no damage to the furnishings and fittings. Ms Lord contacted him and she terminated the contract and he vacated inside a month. He contacted her two weeks later about the return of the deposit and she sent him photographs of what he said were “minor cleaning issues”. She also claimed damage to a couch
“which I did not do”.
Ms Lord said that the tenant had left on a Saturday night leaving the key in the letterbox. There was no “walk through” as she had requested to see if the house was in its original state. She claimed the contract was breached. When she carried out an inspection the next day she found the premises “absolutely filthy”. She said she had to replace the bed, settee, curtains. “There was mould all over the place”. Ms Lord said she had “before and after” photographs while Mr Casey said he had a video of the time he left the premises. He said he had lots of photos of the time he was there for three years and three months.
Ms Lord said when she pulled out the couch there was mould behind it. She said she had “consistently asked” the tenant to ventilate the room and he failed to do this. “He never ventilated the room, I was always asking him to do it”. She disputed the judge’s opinion that what was shown to her constituted “ordinary wear and tear”.
She said there had been a ventilation issue in the en suite bathroom before Mr Casey moved in but this had been fixed. There had been an issue with a fan. When Mr Caseu was asked by the judge to comment on the ventilation issue he said “The mould was an ongoing issue. I had the windows open 24/7”. He said there was mould in other parts of the house not occupied by him. He said when he went into the utility room he could see mould on the walls. He denied the claim that the premises was “filthy”
