Tenant forced to ‘walk the streets’ after illegal eviction awarded €8,000 in damages

A tenant who had to “walk the streets” of Dublin overnight after finding that his locks had been changed €8,000 in damages for the “egregious breach” of rental laws. A Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal said it was satisfied the illegal eviction of tenant Whiston Tonassi Falcao da Silva was “traumatic”, after hearing claims his landlord turned off the electricity in an effort to force him from the property. His landlord, Future Forge Investment Ltd, did not attend the tribunal hearing. Tonassi Falcao da Silva received a WhatsApp message on December 9th, 2024, from his landlord’s agent, Jun Su, telling him the property was being sold as there were “too many problems in that building”. He was told to vacate the apartment above a pub on Grattan Crescent, Dublin 8, within a month. Neasa Brennan, a representative from housing charity Threshold, told the tribunal that the landlord subsequently turned off the electricity in an attempt to “coercively end the tenancy”. The tribunal heard that when Tonassi Falcao da Silva returned home from work on January 8th, 2025, the locks had been changed. Noting it was “very late”, he said he called to a friend’s home but could not make contact and “had to walk the streets” until the next morning. He was unable to contact the landlord as his number was blocked, he said, adding that he subsequently sent a letter . His landlord later requested that he attend the property at night to collect them, though when he arrived, three men unknown to him were inside the apartment, which remained without electricity and dark. Tonassi Falcao da Silva said he felt “intimidated” and called gardaí, which prompted the men to leave. His landlord then organised to meet several nights later, with the tenant recalling him arriving in a “van” with “black plastic bags” that he left on the footpath. The tenant claimed his landlord retained his new Samsung projector worth €700 and his baseball bat. A laptop worth €1,050, which contained photographs of “emotional value”, was also missing, he said. He told the tribunal the black bags also contained clothes that did not belong to him, alongside food that had “gone off”. Tonassi Falcao da Silva spent about a month sleeping “on the floor” of his friend’s home until he found alternative accommodation, he said. The tribunal described Future Forge Investment’s unlawful termination of the tenancy as an “egregious” breach of the Residential Tenancies Act.