![]() ![]() "The case officer called to make sure he was not experiencing any difficulties logging on. However, he said that although various solutions were discussed, and Mr Woodlock's secretary undertook to discuss them with her employer, he got no further response from the landlord and his client filed papers with the WRC.Īdjudicating officer Niamh Byrne noted no appearance from Mr Woodlock for a remote adjudication hearing last month. The secretary told him her boss "wanted to comply, but could not", Mr Duggan said. Mr Duggan said he took a call from Mr Woodlock's secretary, who he said told him that "matters were outside the control" of Mr Woodlock as "Revenue would not issue him with a tax clearance certificate". In submission, Mr Duggan said Mr Woodlock "refused to engage" with him in January 2022 and "refused to sign" a fresh HAP application form sent to him at this time. "She finds the entire situation extremely stressful," he said. Mr Duggan showed the tribunal letters from the landlord, who maintained in them that Ms Kotecka's tenancy was in "arrears" of €19,130 to date. Ms Kotecka said her terminally ill ex-husband helped her meet the payments, but that she "could not afford to pay the full amount" after he passed away in September 2021 and had to reduce what she was paying to €100 a week and then €50. ![]() She said she found her landlord "very intimidating" and paid the full rent starting in May 2020 "because of the pressure" from Mr Woodlock. ![]() Ms Kotecka said she continued to pay her contribution of €24.80 directly to Mr Woodlock from September 2017 to April 2020.Īfter that, Mr Woodlock started calling to her door asking for "the full amount of the rent", Ms Kotecka said in evidence, and she more than doubled what she was contributing to €49.80. Mr Duggan said it was his client's case that Mr Woodlock wrote to her repeatedly telling her he was "unable to get HAP due to his status with the Revenue" and asking her to either pay the balance herself or leave. "It is with regret I have to inform you that unless you are in a position to continue the payments once the HAP payments have finished you will need to vacate the property," Mr Woodlock wrote in a letter in that month, which was opened to the tribunal. Her advocate, Owen Duggan of housing charity Threshold, said there was "no issue" for several months until, in August 2017, Mr Woodlock wrote to her and said the HAP payment was "going to be stopped". The tribunal was told Ms Kotecka had been getting rent supplement in 2016 and was approved for HAP by the Department of Social Protection from February 2017, with her making a weekly contribution of €24.80 and her local council covering her rent of €119.90. The compensation order for the maximum sum permitted under the Equal Status Act 2000 was made against Mr Woodlock in a decision published yesterday on foot of a statutory complaint by Ms Kotecka – with the adjudicating officer in the case writing that she regarded the conduct of the landlord to be on the "upper end of the scale". "We don't do business with HAP," Michael Woodlock told his tenant Magdelena Kotecka in a text opened in evidence before the equality hearing, where he failed to appear, and evidence was taken in his absence.Īn advocate from housing charity Threshold told the tribunal that he had spoken to Mr Woodlock's secretary the previous year and was told the landlord "wanted to comply but could not" as "Revenue would not issue him with a tax clearance certificate". She could not afford to keep paying when her ex-husband passed in September 2021, but Mr Woodlock would still not sign the HAP papers when he was asked to the following January, the tribunal was told. The tenant, Magdelena Kotecka, told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last month that she was able to meet the full rent sought by Michael Woodlock without HAP for a time between 20 with the help of her terminally ill ex-husband. A "very intimidating" landlord said to have called to his tenant's house looking for rent money after telling her that her Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) had "stopped" has been ordered to pay her €15,000 in compensation. ![]()
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