A Cork landlord, a tenant who stopped paying in June 2024, an RTB tribunal validation in December 2024, and an enforcement order in October 2025 — and the tenant is still in the property. The case is the textbook argument for early Cash-for-Keys.
This case was not handled by shelter.ie. Facts below are sourced from the Irish Times coverage of 5 February 2026, in which Eoghan O'Mahony was interviewed about his experience. The "What shelter.ie's playbook would have been" section is our analysis of what the productised service would have done — not a claim that we did it, and not a critique of how Mr O'Mahony has handled it.
In June 2024, the tenant of Eoghan O'Mahony's Carlow property stopped paying rent. By September 2024, the arrears had crossed the 28-day threshold, and O'Mahony served a formal Notice of Termination giving the tenant 28 days to vacate. The tenant did not vacate.
The case proceeded to the Residential Tenancies Board. In December 2024, an RTB tribunal deemed the Notice of Termination valid and ordered the tenant to leave the property within 28 days. The tenant did not leave.
In June 2025, O'Mahony commenced legal enforcement proceedings. In October 2025 — four months later — he was granted an enforcement order requiring the tenant to vacate by 1 December 2025. The tenant did not vacate.
As of 5 February 2026, when the Irish Times published its interview with Mr O'Mahony, the tenant remained in the property. Arrears had reached €20,000+. The tenancy had been broken for 17 months. O'Mahony described the experience as "traumatic."
The case may yet have resolved between the date of that interview and the date of this page. The fundamentals of the timeline are what matter for our analysis.
Source: Irish Times, "Man describes experience as landlord as 'traumatic' after overholding tenant", 5 February 2026.
Nothing in this case suggests either party did anything legally questionable. The Notice of Termination was properly served and validated. The RTB tribunal made its determination in due course. The enforcement order issued in proper form. The tenant has — at every stage — taken the option that requires the next action to come from someone else, which is what the Irish system permits and which is precisely the structural problem.
Relevant frameworks:
This is not a case of a landlord doing something wrong. This is a case of a landlord doing everything right and still waiting 17 months — which is the argument for not running cases this way in the first place.
What the actual route has cost so far (estimated, based on standard assumptions):
| Item | Estimated cost |
|---|---|
| Lost rent (June 2024 to Feb 2026, ~20 months) | ~€20,000+ |
| RTB filing fees | €15 (adjudication) + €100 (tribunal if appealed) |
| Court enforcement application fees | €50–€200 |
| Solicitor fees for enforcement (if used) | €1,500–€3,500 |
| Property off-market for 17+ months | Hard to quantify; significant on resale or re-let |
| Total direct cost so far | ~€22,000–€25,000+ |
What an early-stage Cash-for-Keys would likely have cost (if engaged in September 2024):
| Item | Estimated cost |
|---|---|
| shelter.ie Cash-for-Keys Pack fee | €1,500 |
| Agreed exit payment (typical Sept 2024 stage, single tenant on HAP) | €2,000–€3,000 |
| Two months of foregone rent during negotiation period | ~€2,000 |
| Total direct cost | ~€5,500–€6,500 |
Property re-let from approximately week 6, vs still un-let at month 17.
The legal route was likely 3–4 times cheaper, completed in 6 weeks rather than 17+ months, and would have left O'Mahony in a position to pursue any unrecovered arrears via judgment mortgage (subject to whether the tenant has any property to attach — typically not).
If O'Mahony had retained Shelter in early September 2024, when the arrears reached the point of no return and he was preparing to serve the Notice of Termination, the engagement would have looked like this.
Step 1 — Parallel-track strategy at the consult. We would have explained that the cleanest play in early-stage cases is to run Cash-for-Keys negotiation in parallel with the formal Notice of Termination, not as an alternative to it. The Notice protects the legal position. The negotiation aims to settle the matter before the Notice's 28 days run out.
Step 2 — Notice of Termination drafted, served, documented. Properly worded notice for arrears ground. Service captured by registered post + in-person + email. This is what O'Mahony did anyway — we'd have done it on a similar timeline.
Step 3 — Cash-for-Keys negotiation commenced Week 1. Letter from shelter.ie to the tenant: a structured exit offer. Cash incentive (typically €2,000–€3,000 at this stage), deposit returned in full despite arrears (the deposit becomes part of the deal), neutral reference, exit date 4–6 weeks out.
Step 4 — Negotiation rounds. Most cases that engage at all close in two rounds. The tenant's position softens once they see that the alternative — RTB tribunal then enforcement then bailiffs — is going to land on them with damages on top of arrears. Shelter mediates the rounds and drafts the deed of surrender.
Step 5 — Handover supervised. A Shelter representative present at the property on the agreed exit date. Keys returned. Condition photographed. Exit payment made on handover, not before. Property re-marketable from Week 7.
Step 6 — If negotiation had failed (say 1 in 5 cases at this stage). Escalate to RTB Acceleration Pack. €2,000 fee. Properly drafted application, full evidence bundle (already assembled during the negotiation phase), advocacy at adjudication. Determination order in 6–10 months. Vacant possession via the formal route.
Step 7 — Post-recovery enforcement (if applicable). Whatever arrears remained beyond the cash-for-keys settlement waiver, pursued via judgment mortgage if the tenant has property (rare for typical renters), instalment order if the tenant has employment, or written off if neither applies.
The realistic timeline: vacant possession at week 6. Total cost: €5,500–€6,500.
This case is the cleanest argument in recent Irish public record for early intervention. O'Mahony did everything right. He still waited 17 months. The system wasn't working against him; the system just isn't structured to deliver fast outcomes through the formal route alone.
The negotiated route exists for exactly this reason. Cash-for-Keys is not a moral compromise — it's an arithmetic one. The €4,000 cost of a negotiated exit at month two is a fraction of the €20,000+ cost of waiting 17 months for the formal route to deliver. The reason productised landlord help has been missing in Ireland is not that the playbook isn't known. It's that nobody had built the brand, the pricing, and the operational capacity to make the negotiated route accessible to small landlords who don't have the time or the market knowledge to do it themselves.
That gap is what shelter.ie is for.
If you're a landlord whose tenant has just stopped paying and you're weighing whether to "give them another chance" or to act now, the O'Mahony case is the answer. The window for cheap, fast resolution closes very quickly. Within two months of the first missed payment, the option set narrows from "negotiated exit at €4,000" to "formal RTB route at the system's pace, with arrears growing monthly." After six months, "enforcement and possibly Circuit Court."
We tell every consult caller the same thing: the right time to call us was three months ago. The second-best time is today.
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