Landlord hung 'No Rent Paid' sign on tenant's home

A CUSHENDALL landlord has been fined for using a steel barrier - which had a sign attached declaring 'No Rent Paid' - to block the front door of a tenant's house, a court heard on Friday.

A woman had been a tenant in the house at Bellisk Drive, Cushendall, for eight years and left the property after the incident, North Antrim Magistrates Court in Coleraine was told.

The house owner, Paul McAllister (36) pleaded guilty to a charge of causing the tenant to give up occupation by acts calculated to interfere with the peace or comfort of the tenant.

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McAllister said he put the barrier and sign in place to “let neighbours see” the tenant was behind in her rent.

A prosecutor told the court the actions amounted to harassment of the tenant when in November last year McAllister - whose address was given as another address in Bellisk Drive - put up a steel barrier on a door and attached a sign which referred to ‘No rent paid’.

The court heard it claimed that the tenant owed money and she said it would be paid when she got money she, in turn, was due.

The court was told the case was investigated by Moyle District Council and that McAllister confirmed to officials he put the barrier in place.

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He told a Council official: “I had to do something to get money out of (lady’s name) and let neighbours see she is the type of person I could not get rent out of”.

A defence solicitor told the court it was a case of “hands up time” for his client.

He said McAllister regrets what he did and accepts it was “totally out of order”.

He said his client owed a mortgage on the rented property which he was using as his “pension plan”.

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When rent money was not coming in, claimed the solicitor, it created a “vicious circle” and instead of doing things the proper way to get the hundreds of pounds of rent owed he took the action he did.

The solicitor said McAllister is self-employed and works in the family business and is “mortified” by his actions which were “wholly disproportionate”.

District Judge Richard Wilson told McAllister he could have sympathy for people who feel they are entitled to get rent “but you went beyond what was appropriate”.

McAllister was fined 200 and also had to pay costs of 132.

After the court case, a spokeswoman for Moyle District Council, said: “We are pleased at the conviction as it lets landlords see that they cannot harass tenants in this way. The tenant in this case was very distressed.”

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