Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Farhad Noorzie

Monica & Ivor Reilly

Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

Representatives

Andrew Guy, Threshold Ltd.

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 21 Equal Status Act, 2000

CA-00024385-001

20/12/2018

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 21 Equal Status Act, 2000

CA-00024385-002

20/12/2018

In June 2018, the complainant rented a house from the respondent and he moved in with his wife and two children. His agreed to pay rent of €1,850 per month.

With his application to the WRC, the complainant submitted a letter from Fingal County Council which shows that in July 2018, he applied to the council for social housing support.   This letter confirmed that he is on the housing list and that, while he is waiting for a house, he is eligible for the housing assistance payment (HAP) scheme.

In October 2018, the complainant phoned the respondent and asked her to complete his HAP application form, but she said that she would not sign the form. He sent her a text message a few days later and on October 10th, he asked her again to complete the form, this time in person, when she called to the house. The landlord confirmed that she would not sign the form.

On November 2nd 2018, the landlord and her husband wrote to the complainant setting out their reasons for not completing the HAP form. In summary, they said that,

A contract is in place;

The HAP would vary the terms and conditions of the contract;

Any variation of the terms and conditions would affect their mortgage payments.

The complainant responded on November 7th and said that he didn’t want to change their current contract and that acceptance of the HAP scheme would not have any effect on their agreement or on the payment of his rent. He also alerted the complainant to the fact that extra tax relief is available for landlords who rent to HAP tenants.

On December 16th, the landlords sent the complainant a notice of termination, instructing him to move out of the house on January 16th 2019. The complainant said that he sought advice from Threshold and from the Citizens Information Centre, and on December 20th, he submitted this complaint to the WRC. He also made a complaint about his notice of eviction to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). He said that, since November 2018, he has not been able to pay the full amount of rent, but that he pays as much as he can each month. The respondent’s position is that the complainant is in breach of the rental agreement because he has failed to pay the agreed amount of rent in accordance with the contract signed in June 2018.

At the hearing, the complainant said that he is a taxi driver and he moved from Kerry to Dublin in anticipation of earning more money. He said that he was finding things difficult from a financial perspective and he approached the local authority about housing. He is now on the housing list in Fingal County Council and, while he is waiting for a permanent house, he is entitled to receive the HAP payment.

The complainant said that he is grateful for the house he rented from the respondent, and that he treats it as if it was his own. However, he said that he can’t afford to pay €1,850 per month and that he would like the landlords to accept HAP on his behalf. If he is evicted, he said that he and his family will be homeless.

In his evidence, the complainant submitted copies of text messages that he sent to the landlord, asking her to accept HAP. The content and tone of the messages are straightforward and respectful, and, in the messages, he sets out the reasons why he is asking the respondent to co-operate with his application for HAP assistance.

At the hearing, the landlord said that when she was in discussions with the complainant before she agreed to rent her house to him, she asked him if he could afford to pay the rent and he said that he could. She said that he wanted to pay three months’ rent in advance, but she did not accept this offer. When the complainant asked her to sign the HAP forms, she said that she consulted her solicitor and she was advised that acceptance of the HAP payment would change the terms and conditions of her contract with her tenant. She said that she was also informed that the HAP payment came at the end of the month and that, if she accepted this, she would be in arrears with the mortgage on the property. If she accepted the HAP payment, the complainant also said that it would introduce a third party into the rental agreement and that this was not part of the agreement with her tenant.

The complainant was upset by the approach taken by her tenant about this matter, as she said that she is not discriminating against him. At this stage, because of personal difficulties in her relationship, the complainant said that her husband intends to move into the house and that she needs the complainant and his family to move out.

The Relevant Law

Section 6(1) of the Equal Status Act 2000 prohibits discrimination on the ground of being in receipt of rent supplement. This section is to be read in conjunction with Section 3 of the Act which defines “discrimination” in general and specifically defines the new “housing assistance ground.”

Section 3(1) provides that:

“For the purposes of this Act discrimination shall be taken to occur-

(a) where a person is treated less favourably than another person is, has been or would be treated in a comparable situation on any of the grounds specified in subsection (2) or, if appropriate, subsection (3B), (in this Act referred to as the ‘discriminatory grounds’) which-

(i) exists,

(ii) existed but no longer exists,

(iii) may exist in the future, or

(iv) is imputed to the person concerned.”

Section 3(3B) provides that discrimination in relation providing accommodation is prohibited under all the existing protected grounds and inserts the new housing assistance ground as follows:

“For the purposes of section 6(1)(c), the discriminatory grounds shall (in addition to the grounds specified in subsection (2)) include the ground that as between any two persons, that one is in receipt of rent supplement (within the meaning of section 6(8)), housing assistance (construed in accordance with Part 4 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014) or any payment under the Social Welfare Acts and the other is not (the “housing assistance ground.”)

Consideration of this Complaint

From the evidence submitted at the hearing, it is apparent that the respondent refused to co-operate with the complainant in his application for HAP assistance. Because of this refusal, he has been unable to pay the agreed amount of rent in full and he has fallen into arrears. The effect of this is that he has been issued with notice to vacate his rented house.

The intention of the legislation referred to in the previous section is to prevent occurrences of this type and to protect tenants who are in receipt of HAP or who are eligible for HAP.

It is evident that, based on the facts he has set out, the complainant has established that he has been discriminated against on the housing assistance ground.

In response, the landlord said that she was concerned that if she accepted HAP, it would alter the terms and conditions of her contract with the tenant and that she would not receive the rent on time to pay her mortgage. Having considered this matter, I am satisfied that acceptance of HAP does not impact in any way on a tenancy agreement. I am also satisfied that the payment of HAP directly to a landlord may in fact be more of an advantage to him or her than reliance on a tenant and I can see no reasonable explanation for refusing to co-operate with this tenant regarding his request to use HAP to pay a portion of his rent.   On this basis, I must conclude that the landlord has not rebutted the allegation of discrimination on the housing assistance ground.

In accordance with Section 25(4) of the Equal Status Act, I am satisfied that the complainant has been discriminated against on the housing assistance ground contrary to Sections 3 and 6 of the Act.  In respect of redress, section 27(2) of the Act has fixed any potential award at €15,000, which is the maximum that may be awarded by the District Court.

It was apparent at the hearing that the complainant will have to vacate this property at the end of the tenancy in June 2019, if not beforehand. I make an order for compensation of €8,000, an estimate of the amount that the complainant would have received in HAP payments from November 2018 to June 2019, if the landlord had completed his application form as he requested.

Discrimination, housing assistance ground, HAP