Dublin landlord evicts tenants to put apartments on Airbnb

Dublin City Council has told a landlord to take his property down from Airbnb after the local authority found he was using apartments for unauthorised short-term letting.

The council has issued enforcement proceedings in relation to Reuben House, a six-storey building on Reuben Street close to the Coombe maternity hospital in Dublin 8, according to The Irish Times.

Officials ordered the “cessation of the unauthorised use of the property” for short-term letting purposes.

Marc Godart, of Green Label Properties Investment Limited, had reportedly evicted his tenants claiming he was selling, but then made the property available for holiday rentals.

Up to 45 people had been living in apartments in Reuben House when last August they were issued with notices of termination as the landlord wanted to sell.

However the rooms were then advertised on Airbnb as hostel-style accommodation.

A number of the former tenants then complained.

Local councillor Darragh Moriarty said the woman who initiated the complaint was very angry.

He told Newstalk radio: "Disgust is the word I would use, that instead of selling up as the landlord told [the tenants], he has gone and turned it into Airbnbs. And now he is trying to apparently turn it into an aparthotel. These are actually people's homes that they were living in."

Mr Godart did not respond to requests for comment from The Irish Times. In December 2020, he featured in an RTÉ Investigates documentary in relation to overcrowding in rental accommodation in Dublin.