The most serious end of the tenancy-turned-toxic spectrum. When safety is the priority, money is secondary. The playbook becomes Garda-led — and the recovery of arrears, if it happens at all, happens after everyone is safe.
This case was not handled by shelter.ie. Facts below are sourced from Irish Times reporting of the RTB eviction hearing. The "What shelter.ie's playbook would have been" section is our analysis. We treat this case category with particular care because of the personal-safety stakes involved.
In March 2026, the Residential Tenancies Board held an eviction hearing in which the landlord stated that her tenant had threatened to murder her and her children. The press coverage was brief; the determination outcome was not the focus. What was instructive — and what made the case newsworthy — was the category: a tenancy dispute in which the landlord's physical safety had become the primary concern.
This category is rare but not vanishingly so. The RTB hearings of 2024–2026 included several cases in which threats to landlord safety were the subject of evidence; the murder-threat case is the most extreme reported instance.
Source: Irish Times, "Tenant threatened to murder landlord and her children, RTB told during eviction hearing", 7 March 2026.
When threats reach the level of threats to kill or cause serious harm, multiple legal frameworks engage at once:
1. Section 5 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 creates the criminal offence of threatening to kill or cause serious harm. This is more serious than general harassment under section 10 of the same Act. Maximum sentence: up to 10 years on indictment.
2. Section 6 of the same Act — coercion — applies where the threats are used to compel someone to act against their will (e.g., to drop tenancy proceedings).
3. The Domestic Violence Act 2018 does not apply to landlord-tenant relationships in most circumstances, but its safety-order architecture has parallels in inherent court jurisdiction. The District/Circuit Court can grant emergency orders restraining a person from contacting another in appropriate circumstances.
4. Residential Tenancies Act 2004 section 67 — anti-social behaviour grounds for termination — allows accelerated termination procedures in cases of serious threat or violence.
5. The Gardaí have powers of arrest for threats to kill that are independent of any civil tenancy proceedings.
The structural point: in a case like this, civil tenancy proceedings are secondary to criminal investigation and personal protection. The RTB outcome matters, but it doesn't matter most.
This is a case category where the conventional financial framing fails. The arithmetic is:
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Recovery of any arrears | Possible but not the primary objective |
| Cost of personal safety planning | Whatever it takes |
| Cost of Garda involvement | Free; the State pays |
| Cost of safety/barring order via solicitor | €1,500–€3,500 typical for application |
| Insurance value of avoiding harm | Incalculable |
| Long-term impact on landlord's willingness to remain in the rental market | Often the case where landlords exit the market entirely |
Money is not the headline of this kind of case. We're explicit about that in our consult: if you're hiring us for this, the goal is safe vacant possession, not maximum recovery.
A safety-critical case is the most resource-intensive engagement we run. Documentation & Evidence (€750 setup + €250/month) + RTB Acceleration (€2,000) + solicitor partner fees for safety-order application (charged separately by partner solicitor). Total Shelter cost over engagement: ~€3,500–€4,500. Solicitor partner fees: case-specific.
Step 1 — Immediate Garda referral. Day one of engagement: we accompany the landlord (or their nominated representative) to the local Garda station to make a written complaint under section 5 NFOAP. All threats with full chain of custody. The criminal investigation runs in parallel with civil proceedings, not after them. The Gardaí decide what to charge — but the complaint is on the record from day one.
Step 2 — Personal safety protocol. No solo property visits. Change of routines. Awareness training for any family members who might encounter the tenant or be at the same property. Phone contact protocols in case of emergency. The shelter.ie engagement letter includes a personal safety annex for cases in this category.
Step 3 — Application for safety / barring order via partner solicitor. Where threats are sustained or escalating, our partner solicitor applies for a court order restraining the tenant from contacting or approaching the landlord. This is District/Circuit Court work, beyond shelter.ie's scope, handled at standard solicitor rates (typically €1,500–€3,500 for the application).
Step 4 — RTB application on anti-social behaviour grounds. Notice of Termination served on ASB grounds, which permit shorter notice periods than standard arrears grounds — sometimes as little as 7 days for serious conduct. Application drafted with full evidence of threats, Garda complaint reference, witness statements where available.
Step 5 — Property security assessment. Locks, CCTV, alarms — not as a substitute for the legal process, but to ensure the tenant cannot return post-vacate. Coordinated with our PSA-licensed PI partner where surveillance during the engagement is appropriate.
Step 6 — Counsellor referral. Landlords going through this experience report severe stress, including PTSD-equivalent symptoms in serious cases. We maintain a referral list of verified Irish counselling practices and offer it as part of any safety-critical engagement. This isn't a service we charge for — it's a duty of care.
Step 7 — Post-vacate engagement continues. The engagement does not close when the tenant leaves. Ongoing safety planning continues until the criminal proceedings (if charged) resolve, and until the landlord feels stable enough to re-let or sell the property.
The murder-threat case sits at the limit of what residential tenancy law was designed to handle. The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 imagined disputes about rent, deposits, notice, repair obligations — civil matters between two parties capable of negotiation. It did not imagine a tenancy in which one party threatens the life of the other.
The Irish system handles cases in this category by routing them through parallel tracks: civil tenancy proceedings at the RTB; criminal investigation by the Gardaí; safety/barring orders at the District or Circuit Court. Each track operates independently. The landlord — or, more usefully, their representative — is the person who has to coordinate across all three.
That coordination is itself the case. Without it, important elements get dropped. The criminal complaint never gets made because the landlord is focused on the RTB. The safety order doesn't get applied for because the solicitor wasn't briefed. The RTB hearing happens but the Garda investigation hadn't started, so a key piece of evidence is missing. Productisation, with one project manager tracking all three tracks, is what prevents that.
If your tenancy has reached the point where you're afraid for your safety, please do two things tonight:
1. If you're in immediate danger, call 999 or 112. 2. If the threat is non-immediate but real, write down everything you can remember about every incident — dates, words used, witnesses, screenshots if any. That document becomes the foundation of the Garda complaint and the RTB case.
Then, when it's safe and reasonable, book a consult. We'll extend it to 30 minutes for safety-critical cases, free of charge. We'll talk through the immediate steps, the Garda referral, and the parallel-track strategy. The RTB process can wait until tomorrow. The safety planning starts tonight.
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