Cuisle Properies Limited
Also known as: Aughrim Centrum Limited, Holy Lane Limited and 10 other companies.
John and Brendan Rooney are brothers with very little online presence. Originally linked to rural Co. Monaghan, near the towns of Newbliss and Clones close to the border with Northern Ireland, they created their main company Cuisle Properties Ltd in 2012. Brendan is the director of all the companies, John the sole shareholder.
By 2015 they had started to buy up properties relatively cheaply with loans from Ulster Bank, Capitalflow (Commercial Real Estate) Ltd and Dilosk DAC. None of these properties appear to have been for their own use: Dilosk in particular only gives loans for buy-to-let mortgages.
They now own over 200 rented units.
Most of these properties are located around north inner city Dublin, with one or two on the southside and in the suburbs.
Similar to other top evictors like OCP, Broadhaven and Grayling, the Rooneys bought up a load of rented properties for a bargain during the recession, then wanted to evict the tenants living there, either to renovate or just to increase the rent.
However, the Rooneys appear to have had a messier time than others evicting the sitting tenants from their new properties. Perhaps one reason for this is the Rooneys’ apparent lack of previous experience running a large-scale rental operation.
In 2016, the Rooneys bought several properties that were in receivership. This is not unusual - many landlords did this at the time, when the recession was still in full swing.
There were tenants in many of these properties, and most if not all of them were gradually evicted to make way for higher-paying tenants, renovations, or so their homes could be used as short-term holiday lettings.
When the Rooneys bought one property in Dublin 1, they tried an unusual strategy to evict the tenant from their home.
The tenant started paying rent to the Rooneys in May 2016, when the brothers legally came into possession of the property, but the landlords claimed this tenant should have paid rent to them in February, March and April, because they “had standing in respect of the property since committing to purchase in February 2016”. The Rooneys issued the tenant with a rent arrears warning notice and shortly afterwards an eviction notice, citing the arrears as the reason for eviction.
The RTB saw through this tactic, saying the tenant didn’t owe the Rooneys any rent for the months before they took possession and declaring the eviction notice invalid.
Report of Tribunal Reference No: TR0916-001956 / Case Ref No: 0616-27430 - RTB
Sadly, this tenant was evicted legally less than a year later, showing that the Rooneys really just wanted the building empty (as another eviction case from the same building around the same time indicates).
Determination Order Ref: DR0417-33553 - RTB
Determination Order Ref: DR0117-31696
A few years later, a tenant in Dublin 7 reported living with terrible conditions: “damp and mould, a leaking roof, gutters taking in too much water, heating problems, faulty plugs, bulging shower tiles caused by excessive damp and mould.” The management company the Rooneys were using at this time was Home Estates & Lettings.
Report of Tribunal Reference No: TR0521-004958 / Case Ref No: 0720-63544 - RTB
After making several requests for the maintenance issues to be dealt with, the landlord’s agent told this tenant “if he did not like the dwelling he could leave”, and during the RTB hearing they claimed that the issues with the property were because “the amount of the Tenant’s belongings had caused ventilation problems.” The tenant replied that he was entitled to have stuff, and because the floor was cracked “he had to do a lot of moving around to clean up the damp and wet on the floor.”
Tenants in another complex owned by the Rooneys in Dublin 1 reported similar problems with damp, mould and sewage issues. The drains would often block and overflow, so their toilets wouldn’t flush and their showers and washing machines would flood the floor. This also made some of the electrical fittings very dangerous. One tenant had 2 small children who became very ill from the mould.
When they reported these issues, they were either completely ignored or sent eviction notices. They also reported employees of the landlord would enter their homes without permission or warning. One tenant returned home from work to find someone had come into her flat uninvited and put up notices over her toilet.
A particularly upsetting case came in late 2022, when a woman with 4 young children was issued with an eviction notice after falling into rent arrears. The eviction notice was invalid, and she lodged an RTB case to dispute it. Evictions had just been banned for the winter. But the Rooneys didn’t want to wait.
On a cold day in October, the Rooneys sent a group of men to evict the family. They were given 10 minutes to pack their bags and then evicted onto the street. They managed to get back into the building, as they had nowhere else to go, but shortly afterwards they were threatened by a young man with a large dog claiming to be private hired security. Gardaí later sent this man away as he was unlicensed and his dog was neither trained nor muzzled correctly. This man stated several times that he was sent by the landlord.
Eviction Defense Callout - CATU Mountjoy/Dorset
This tenant was a member of CATU and was able to call on her local branch to resist any physical harm coming to herself or her children. Union members and other supporters from the community responded to an anti-eviction callout and ultimately this very distressing situation was defused.
2 years on, it’s shocking to think that the Rooneys, with their 200+ tenants, are still operating as landlords after they knowingly set a Doberman on a woman with 4 young children.
In 2017, all tenants in one of the Rooney's buildings on Capel St in Dublin 1 were issued with eviction notices that stated the landlord planned to renovate the building. One couple who had been renting a 1-bedroom apartment there for several years were among the last tenants to leave. They noticed that when some of their neighbours moved out, their apartments were filled within 2 or 3 weeks with completely new tenants. There did not appear to be any substantial renovations happening - nothing that would have required the tenants to leave.
The letting agent from Home Estates & Lettings, who represented the Rooneys in the RTB case, admitted that no renovation or refurbishment was carried out “apart from some minor works”, and the dwelling was never offered back to the Respondent Tenants (which is, legally, what a landlord is required to do after evicting a tenant in these circumstances). One of the tenants described how the dwelling, a one-bedroom apartment, was now occupied by 6 people each of whom was paying €400 per month. He stated:
"the effect of this was that the monthly rent being paid to the Appellant Landlord for the dwelling had increased by 160% from €925 to €2,400 per month.”
Report of Tribunal Reference No: TR0219-003526 / Case Ref No: 0818-47204 - RTB
Some of the apartments in this building are listed on short-term holiday booking sites booking.com and AirBnb.
Very Central 1bed new refurbish - Booking.com
Very Central 1bed apartment newly renovated - Airbnb
4 Poster Luxury Georgian Apartment - Booking.com
RTB reports show that several apartments in 17 Gardiner Place were evicted during 2018-19. In summer 2024, all bar one of the 12 apartments were being used as short-term holiday lettings. One 1-bedroom flat was going for about €3000 per month. Another was €4066 per month.
There are no records of planning permission for change of use being granted for 17 Gardiner Place, despite this being a legal requirement for holiday lets.
Renting your property for short-term lets - Citizens Information
Some of the flats at 17 Gardiner Place (e.g, flat 6, a 2-bed for €2500 pm) have been advertised for longer-term lettings. Others (e.g. this studio for €1600 per month) have no minimum lease. In the photos for all of these listings, you can see the tidy, barely-lived in rooms complete with towels rolled on the neatly made bed, hotel-style, suggesting the property has recently been used as a short-term holiday let.
Flat 6, Gardiner Place, Dublin 1 - daft.ie
Studio Apartment, Gardiner Place, Dublin 1 - daft.ie
You’d hope any tenant signing a lease in these properties knows not to get too attached to their new home, and is aware of the personal risks involved in clashing with the Rooneys.