I had a surreal experience recently at a Residential Tenancies Board adjudication.
Despite not being paid rent for the best part of two years, notwithstanding the submission of two case files in advance of the hearing, and, to put the tin hat on it, despite the fact that the tenant did not show up for the hearing it looked like I was going to lose the case.
And by lose the case, I am referring to an order for possession of my property and an order that a significant sum of rent was due and owing to me.
The remarkable thing about the hearing, of course, is that it appeared that tenant who had not bothered to show up for the hearing was better off.
He did not have to do anything or prove anything.
Notwithstanding being advised at the outset that this process was supposed to be informal there was plenty of Kafkaesque formality about the proofs the adjudicator was seeking from me.
You really would have to question whether the RTB has had its hand tipped by the powers that be that evictions and repossessions of property by their rightful owners are a ‘bad thing’ and should be made as difficult as possible.