Cases · Cautionary — the line
Fortlawn Drive, Dublin 15. September 2025. The line shelter.ie does not cross — and won't help any client cross — illustrated by what happens when a landlord crosses it himself.
In September 2025, the Residential Tenancies Board issued a determination order against Afrim Hoxha, the landlord of a property at Fortlawn Drive, Dublin 15. Hoxha was found to have changed the locks of the property during the course of an active RTB tribunal proceeding initiated by his tenants. The RTB tribunal characterised the conduct as "particularly egregious." One of the affected tenants, the Irish Times reported, was forced to sleep rough in a park as a result of being locked out.
Three former tenants of the property had brought the case. The RTB tribunal found multiple statutory breaches: interference with peaceful occupation under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, illegal eviction, and conduct contrary to the obligations of a landlord. The total damages awarded across the three tenants came to €34,800.
The award was on the high end of what the RTB will issue — the statutory cap on damages is €20,000, and only "particularly egregious" conduct breaches that ceiling — and the determination was published on the public record.
Source: Irish Times, "Landlord who changed locks forcing tenant to sleep in park is fined €34,800", 11 September 2025.
A landlord cannot change the locks on a tenanted property without the tenant's consent or a court order — full stop. Several overlapping legal frameworks were breached:
A landlord doesn't need to satisfy all five frameworks to lose. Hoxha satisfied at least three, and the RTB exercised its damages ceiling-breaching discretion to mark the conduct accordingly.
What Hoxha is now out of pocket on:
| RTB damages award (three tenants, joint) | €34,800 |
| Estimated legal costs (defending the RTB hearing) | €5,000–€15,000 |
| "Particularly egregious" finding on the public record | Reputational, follows him through any future tenancy |
| Total estimated direct cost | €39,800–€49,800 |
What the alternative (Cash-for-Keys at the same starting point) would have cost:
| shelter.ie Cash-for-Keys Negotiation Pack | €1,500 |
| Agreed exit payment to three tenants | €3,000–€5,000 |
| Deposit returned (already paid) | — |
| Total estimated direct cost | €4,500–€6,500 |
The legal route was somewhere between 6 and 11 times cheaper than the route Hoxha actually took. And it would have been faster.
If Hoxha had been a shelter.ie client at the point he was tempted to change the locks, the engagement would have proceeded as follows.
Our engagement letter explicitly prohibits clients from instructing us to do, recommend, or facilitate any conduct that breaches the Residential Tenancies Act, the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, or the Criminal Damage Act. Lock-changing while a tenancy is live falls into all three categories.
Many landlords who cross this line believe the worst case is a low-value RTB damages award. The Hoxha case is published precisely because the RTB can and does exceed its statutory ceiling for "particularly egregious" conduct. It also opens criminal exposure under multiple statutes. Insurance won't cover it. That conversation, conducted at the point of temptation, often suffices to redirect the client.
A multi-tenant property where the landlord wants the tenants gone is the classic Cash-for-Keys scenario. Three tenants × €1,500 average exit payment = €4,500 in cash, plus our €1,500 fee = €6,000 all-in. Six weeks to clean handover. Property back on the market, no RTB record, no public-press coverage of the landlord's conduct.
If the tenants had refused to engage (rare in multi-tenant cases where the landlord is offering exit payments), we would have escalated to RTB Acceleration. €2,000 fee, properly drafted Notices of Termination, full evidence bundle. 6–10 month timeline to determination + vacant possession. Total cost: €2,000 fee + RTB filing fees. Still a fraction of €34,800.
If both pathways had failed (extremely rare), we would have referred to our partner solicitor for Circuit Court possession proceedings. The most expensive route, but even there the cost would have been recoverable in part via judgment for costs, and Hoxha's record would have been "ran a clean RTB and court process," not "fined €34,800 for forcing a tenant to sleep in a park."
The point is: at no stage in this five-step playbook does anyone change a lock.
The Hoxha case has the unusual quality of being unambiguous in its illegality and clarifying in its commercial logic. Most cases involve some judgment call — was this notice properly served, was that breach material, would this offer have been accepted. The Hoxha case has none of that. He changed the locks. The tenants were locked out. One slept in a park. The RTB awarded €34,800.
The legal route is also the cheaper route. We say that on a lot of pages on this site, and the Hoxha numbers are why. It's not a moral argument; it's a commercial one. Legal pathways are productised, scoped, and predictable. Illegal pathways are open-ended and uninsurable. The Hoxha case study is the cleanest demonstration we have, in recent Irish public record, of what happens when a landlord acts as if the second route is cheaper than the first. It isn't.
If you read this case and your reaction is "yeah but Hoxha was reckless, I'd never do that" — you're probably right. Most landlords reading this page would never change the locks. The reason we put this case at the top of our case studies is not that we expect our clients to be lock-changers. It's that the trust signal works in the other direction: if our line is at the Hoxha case, you know our line is well clear of anything you'd actually be tempted to do.
Our service is for landlords who want the tenant out, the money back, and no Hoxha-shaped articles ever written about them. The flat fee, the productised packs, the engagement letter clauses, the partner solicitor review — all of it is designed to keep both you and us on the side of the line where the Irish Times doesn't run your name.
If that's what you want, the consult is free.
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