One of Ireland's biggest landlords gives young family 56 days to leave Galway home

A couple with young children have been given 56 days to vacate their home in Galway after a tribunal upheld the validity of a termination notice served on them by one of Ireland’s largest landlords.

Dragan and Sejla Tomic had been renting Apartment 169 at Tí Dháithí in Gleann na Rí, Murrough since January 2020, paying €1,115 a month in rent to Xerico Limited.

Xerico is a Cyprus-based subsidiary of Luxembourg fund, LRC RE-1, which owned more than 2,000 residential properties in Ireland in 2023.

The tenants challenged a notice of termination issued by the landlord dated October 6, 2025, which had set a termination date of May 21, 2026.

Neasa Brennan of Threshold told a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal that the notice had been received in the tenants’ post box on October 7, whereas it had been emailed to the RTB on October 6.

Referring to a previous High Court ruling, Ms Brennan argued that the document had not been served on the same day as it was sent to the RTB, and an accompanying statutory declaration had omitted a passport issue date.

However, a representative for Xerico submitted that the landlord was not resident in Ireland and that the statutory declaration had been signed, witnessed, stamped by a certifying officer in Cyprus, and formally apostilled.

On the issue of service, Ms Savage noted that the agent in Dublin had dispatched the notice via tracked post on October 6 and emailed the RTB on the same date, providing 227 days of notice – well in excess of the statutory requirement.

She added that the landlord’s intention to sell the property was genuine, that Galway County Council had not engaged regarding the Tenant in Situ scheme, and that the owner planned to sell to an owner-occupier who required vacant possession.

The tribunal ruled in favour of the landlord, accepting the bona fide intention to sell. It held that the absence of the passport’s issuing state did not affect the core substance or mislead the tenants.

Addressing the issue of the postal date, the tribunal determined that service is effected once all steps within the landlord’s control are completed upon posting. As the notice was posted to the tenants and emailed to the RTB on October 6, 2025, the statutory same-day requirement under Section 39A was satisfied.

Finding the tenants to be overholding since May 21, 2026, the tribunal ordered them to deliver vacant possession of the Galway apartment within 56 days of the determination order, citing the presence of a young family.

The tenants were directed to pay accruing rent from the hearing date at the monthly rate of €1,115 until possession is handed over, following which Xerico Limited must refund a €994 deposit subject to lawful statutory deductions.