Landlord must pay €10,000 after tenant allegedly caused stress to heart attack victim

A landlord has been ordered to pay €10,000 after a tenant’s alleged conduct caused prolonged stress for a woman in County Longford and the landlord failed to deal adequately with her complaints.

Janine Maria Bernardi told a Residential Tenancies Board tribunal that she spent three weeks in hospital in March 2024 because of stress caused by the tenant living above her. After buying an apartment in Prospect Wood in 2023, she said she experienced frequent noise, as if someone were deliberately hammering the floor.

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as a result of stress endured

Bernardi also alleged that the tenant reacted aggressively when asked to stop smoking outside her window. She said the woman later used obscene language and gestures in shared areas. Bernardi reported the complaints to gardaí and to the landlord’s agent, Chazey Properties.

She alleged that someone later pushed her door into her face, causing cuts and bruising. After she returned from hospital following a heart attack, she said the noise became so severe that she called gardaí, and claimed the tenant then kicked and damaged her apartment door. In another alleged incident in August 2024, Bernardi said she was grabbed from behind, forced into her apartment and thrown onto the floor while her mother screamed.

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It is your life, good luck.

Bernardi said the tenant was arrested and legal proceedings were continuing. After she reported the alleged assault, landlord Linas Zaluda issued a seven-day notice of termination, but the tenant did not leave. He later issued a second notice in May 2025, saying a family member needed the property and giving the tenant 10 months to vacate.

Bernardi told the tribunal that the tenant remained in the apartment by the hearing in April and that the noise and abuse had worsened. She said she felt intimidated and anxious entering or leaving her home and had sent the landlord more than 20 emails, recordings and videos. Zaluda said it was his first experience with such problems and that he did not know the process. He also claimed the tenant was angry because Bernardi had been filming her children.

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intimidated and anxious