Harry Boyle and Paddy Walsh live in University College Cork (UCC) campus accommodation in Victoria Mills.
The rent is €6,206 for each tenant for the academic year.
Last October 27, an incident was reported to the security guard at 10.30pm.
Mohammod Haque told the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal hearing he received a call from two female residents in apartment G06. They reported that a party was taking place next door and damage had been caused to the front door of their property.
The students said they did not feel safe because the door was broken.
Alternative accommodation was arranged for them.
Mr Haque got a second call the following night, complaining of another party in the same apartment.
On October 29, Dominique McLaughlin, the assistant services manager for Campus Accommodation UCC, arranged a meeting with Mr Boyle and Mr Walsh.
They said their friend had admitted causing damage to the door when drunk and that he was willing to pay €1,112.
The licence agreement states that “anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated and any student resident acting in this manner will be fined and may face eviction”.
A solicitor representing the tenants claimed there had been ‘no due process followed’
Ms McLaughlin issued both students with a notice of termination at the end of the meeting.
The reason for the termination of the tenancy was because it was alleged they “breached their tenancy obligations by engaging in serious anti-social behaviour by damaging your neighbours’ door while attempting to gain access, causing a serious risk as we await a replacement”.
The fobs for accessing their apartment were deactivated, but were reactivated once a dispute was lodged with the RTB.
Mr Walsh told the RTB they did not see the door being damaged, but learnt that a friend was responsible.
He thought the tenants would get a warning at the meeting and have to pay for the damage to the door. He did not expect they would be evicted.
A solicitor representing the tenants claimed there had been “no due process followed”. The tribunal found that the tenants did not permit the behaviour of the visitor that damaged the door.
“If the visitor had been persistently harassing the tenants’ neighbours, the tenants may have been held to have ‘allowed’ the anti-social behaviour by failing to take reasonable steps to prevent it, but the tribunal finds, based on the evidence presented, that the tenants could not reasonably have anticipated this incident,” the RTB said.
It was deemed that a warning notice would have been sufficient. The notices of termination were found to be invalid.
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