Two tenants whose landlord claimed they “paid nothing” for a Co Meath property for more than a year have been ordered to pay more than €31,000 in rent arrears and parking charges.Victor and Ionela Tanase were also ordered to vacate the apartment on Convent Road, Athlumney, Navan after a Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) tribunal deemed a notice of termination issued to them was valid.The notice followed a warning letter sent three months after their tenancy began over an alleged failure to pay rent, which was set at €370 per week, alongside €105 for parking.Ronan Carolan, who appeared on behalf of his mother, landlord Martine Carolan, told the tribunal the tenants paid rent for two weeks when the tenancy began in early December 2024. However, he claimed at the time of the RTB hearing in March of this year that “nothing has been paid since”.According to a report on the case published this week, the tenants did not attend the hearing, but the tribunal deemed it was “appropriate” to proceed regardless.In their submissions to the tribunal, Victor and Ionela Tanase claimed their rent was “paid in cash” and that they were “overcharged for electricity”.They also claimed the signatures on the eviction notice and warning letter did not belong to their landlord, although Carolan maintained he witnessed his mother signing the document.While Carolan accepted that the first payment for rent and parking had been made in cash, he said “the other payments were not paid”.[ RTB awards €6,500 in damages to tenant after ‘traumatic’ incidentOpens in new window ]He told the tribunal that “Government interference” in the rental market had created “moral hazards” or “biases” if tenants were able to occupy properties “without paying rent”.He also argued that “bureaucracy and paperwork” made removing a tenant a “lengthy process” and “near impossible”.Carolan told the tribunal he believed the housing crisis was a “narrative”, adding that he hoped his mother’s case would be “picked up by a publication of substance such as The Irish Times or Independent”.He further told the tribunal he hoped private landlords would stop supplying properties to the rental market in light of the “level of Government interference”.The tribunal found Victor and Ionela Tanase to be in arrears of rent and parking charges totalling €31,224.30 as of the hearing date and ordered them to pay the sum in 10 monthly instalments.Separately, deeming the notice of termination issued in April last year as valid, it noted there was “some evidence” the tenants were not in the Republic at the time of the hearing, although there was no indication they had vacated the apartment.The tribunal said there was “no basis on which to afford any leeway” to the tenants, noting their arrears “continue to accrue”, and ordered them to vacate the property within 21 days.