Landlord vs. Tenant

Philly2014

Hi guys,

I'm looking for advice for my situation. At the moment I do martial arts in a building complex in dublin. The building complex has become a hostel in the last couple of years and the owner has allowed our club to lease and remain in a room within the hostel. Recently I was confronted by the owner over a small incident which led him to abuse me in front of the people staying in the hostel and threw me out of the hostel and threatening to ban me.

I was wondering if he can do this to me, taking into consideration the instructor leases the studio in his property and I pay membership and monthly payments to train there.

What are my rights/options?
Thanks.

Peregrinus

He can't throw you out of the part of the building which he has leased to the club. Depending on the terms of the club's lease and/or the nature of your behaviour that upset him me may be able to get the club to throw you out, and/or terminate the club's lease. And of course he can throw you out of the part of the building which he occupies himself.

Mr. Incognito

What was the incident. The club being there is irrelevant

Philly2014

Cheers guys, I'm not sure if he has a legal binding with my instructor for renting the area, I think he just gives him money. But to answer the question from the incident, or club was under the impression that we could use the kitchen to make some lunch after training. so I went there to make a meal which I was then confronted by a staff member and informed that I cannot use the facilities if I'm not paying too stay in the hostel. so I responded with an apology and asked if it was ok to finish my cooking just for that day and the staff said yes. a few minutes late I was the confronted by the owner and yelled at, he implied that I was cheeky for doing it and then began to accuse me for sleeping in the hostel without paying. I tried to diffuse the situation and apologised to him and even offered to give him some money in compensation for cooking, though he refused and kept shouting at me and then threatened to ban me from the hostel before storming out. Thats the situation up to date

Mr. Incognito

You lease a room for martial arts.

What made you think you had the right to use the facilities for preparing food?

Cooking? Sounds like you using the oven also.

I see you also have opened a thread on pi over this. You are a student using facilities to cook food when you are attending a class.

You have no right to use the facilities. He would be entitled to ban you outright

Philly2014

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

You lease a room for martial arts.

What made you think you had the right to use the facilities for preparing food?

Cooking? Sounds like you using the oven also.

I see you also have opened a thread on pi over this. You are a student using facilities to cook food when you are attending a class.

You have no right to use the facilities. He would be entitled to ban you outright

I was using a hob, the kichen had been openly used before and our instructor even thought it was ok for the students to use it, and if you read my threads I explained that I went to cook some lunch after training.

Mr. Incognito

Philly2014 wrote: »

I was using a hob, the kichen had been openly used before and our instructor even thought it was ok for the students to use it, and if you read my threads I explained that I went to cook some lunch after training.

Go home to cook. You have a licence to use the facilities for training. Not to cook.

If you burned yourself he would be wide open to a claim

Pat Mustard

The title of this thread is Landlord v Tenant.

However, it appears to be Landlord v Tenant's licensees and/or invitees.

The tenant will have a copy of the lease, but others in the martial arts class are unlikely to have a copy. It simply isn't feasible to attempt to advise somebody on rights arising out of lease without having read that lease.

A lot of leases allow use of kitchen facilities in community halls and the like. Although it seems apparent that the Landlord objects to the martial arts students using the kitchen facilities, this does not describe the wording of the lease.

There is no accurate way to advise here. Any attempt to do so can only amount to guesswork of one degree or another.

MyKeyG

I'm not legally qualified to offer legal advice. This is merely my opinion based on my study of law.

Just regarding the use of the kitchen you've used terms like 'we were under the impression' and 'even our instructor thought'. You've mentioned nothing in your post that even suggests that the use of facilities external to the leased area are expressly permissible. And no! Students having previous (and perhaps even future) access to the kitchen makes no difference whatsoever. The owner reserves the right to allow the use of his facilities at his own discretion much like a barman allowing someone to 'just use the toilet', management reserving the right to refuse admission or a local school/club letting you play five-a-side on their pitch etc he may allow some, not others.

I realise that's a side point. As for banning you from the premises entirely that issue is between your instructor and the owner and the terms they agreed on in the lease (e.g no belligerent behaviour, no interaction with customers, no entering the hostel area etc). Should you be ejected from the class you may have a separate case with your instructor regarding mis-communication of class rules etc but The Mustard is right without knowing the details it's all guess work.

My advice to you would be that the limit of your vested interest seems to be, and no offence, hurt pride. He merely threatened to ban you. Might be worth eating a few pieces of humble pie, getting on with your training and staying out of the hostel area.

If you feel you have a case regarding the level of abuse he directed towards you then that's something you may want to report to the Gardai but that's obviously up to you.