A tenant who said he was detained by gardaí during a “traumatic” incident after his landlord claimed he was attempting to break into his Dublin home has been awarded €6,500 in damages.Brendan Wall, who had been renting the property in the Kenilworth Manor development in Harold’s Cross, told a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal he arrived home in January 2025 to find the locks changed.After calls to his landlord, Noel Larkin, went unanswered, Wall said he attempted to gain access through a window.Within “two minutes”, he said gardaí with “batons drawn” attended the property, believing he was attempting a burglary.Describing the incident as “traumatic”, Wall said he was “detained” in a patrol car for two hours.After eventually being allowed to enter the property, he said gardaí were satisfied he was the lawful occupant after he showed them his personal belongings, including family photographs.Larkin told the tribunal he was alerted by a neighbour that someone was attempting to gain access, adding that he “immediately” requested that gardaí attend the property.Despite assuming the person trying to get in was his tenant, Larkin said he did not inform gardaí of this when he called for assistance.The tribunal said it was “unsurprising” that gardaí believed Wall was attempting to burgle the home, noting that Larkin had phoned emergency services claiming someone was “attempting to break into the house”.“The landlord did this despite knowing, or at least assuming, that it was in fact the tenant trying to gain access to the dwelling,” the tribunal said in its report on the case.The tribunal said “the landlord had not shared this information with the gardaí when he rang”, describing these actions as “particularly aggravating factors in what was already an illegal eviction”.Larkin had previously served an eviction notice that gave Wall until January 25th, 2025, to vacate the home. He then changed the locks on January 25th while Wall was out, claiming he had assumed he had vacated the property.The eviction notice, which gave 50 days’ notice, was previously deemed invalid by a separate RTB tribunal.Larkin believed he was “entitled to change the locks”, telling the tribunal he did not attempt to contact his tenant before doing so, despite his belongings being in the property.Noting that Larkin had been a landlord for some 30 years, the tribunal said it did not accept that he believed he was entitled to change the locks on the termination date.“In any event, such extraordinary ignorance of the law would offer no defence to the landlord,” it said. Believing Larkin either knew Wall remained living at the property or was “indifferent as to whether he remained in occupation”, it said this represented a “flagrant breach” of tenancy laws and ordered him to pay €6,500 in damages.