Firm linked to rogue landlord Marc Godart spared conviction for breaking fire safety laws at residential lettings

Dublin District Court heard that the Beaver Street property was converted into an unauthorised short-term residential letting but lacked a range of vital fire safety measures, including an alarm system and viable escape routes.

Following inspections, Green Label Short Lets Ltd was prosecuted by Dublin City Council (DCC) for failing to comply with a fire safety notice issued over a “potentially dangerous building” on Beaver Street, Dublin 1.

In March, Judge Anthony Halpin ordered the property firm to donate €500 to charity and pay €3,884 toward the council’s legal costs.

He adjourned the case until today when Judge Halpin noted that Green Label had complied and paid in full, and he struck out the case.

The offence was contrary to the Fire Services Act.

Earlier, DCC’s barrister Christopher Hughes said the case centred on a building, comprising Unit 1, Block G, The Foundry on Beaver Street in Dublin 1.

Mr Hughes outlined the facts, telling Judge Halpin that the defendant company failed to comply with the notice issued following an inspection on June 20 last year.

The building had been a ground-floor commercial unit, but it was converted into a residential unit comprising six bedrooms. The council’s warning required residential use “to cease” until matters specified in the notice were addressed.

“And those matters required the installation of a fire detection and an alarm system complying with the requisite standards throughout the unit: a viable internal escape route, it required emergency lights and escape signage to be installed complying with requisite standards throughout the unit, it required a protected escape route to be provided to the unit with 30-minute fire resistant construction and FD30 fire door sets,” Mr Hughes had said.

“It required the kitchen to be composed of 60-minute fire-resistant construction; it required all doors on the escape route to be fitted with simple fastenings so they could be operated in the direction of an escape without the use of a key,” he also told the court.

The building was subdivided into two units. The safety notice “required the walls separating the two units to be constructed in such a way to achieve minimum sixty-minutes fire resistance, and it required an electrical system to be examined, tested and certified to the requisite standards and required a fire safety certificate to be applied for and granted in respect of the unit.”

Mr Hughes said a further inspection occurred on October 16, and at that time, those issues still needed to be complied with, resulting in the court proceedings.

Defence barrister David Staunton had pleaded for leniency. He acknowledged that “it was an unauthorised development because of the short-term letting aspect of it. And so there has been a change of use.”

However, he added that the company had engaged an architect to do the remedial work.

Judge Halpin noted that the firm had no prior convictions under the Fire Safety Act.

Mr Staunton acknowledged they were serious matters but pleaded with the judge to note that his client agreed to pay the council’s costs and submitted that the guilty plea was of assistance.

Judge Halpin said that if the case had been contested, it could have taken a “chunk” of the court’s time. He indicated he would not record a conviction if the company paid the council’s costs and donated €500 to the Little Flower Penny Dinners charity.

In February, Mr Godart, a Luxembourg businessman with significant property holdings in Ireland, had another prosecution dropped for “egregious” breaches of planning laws with unauthorised Airbnb lettings in Dublin.

However, two firms he directs, including Green Label Short Lets Ltd, accepted responsibility; they were fined €7,500 and agreed to pay “substantial” legal costs.

DCC also brought those proceedings before Dublin District Court.

That case heard by Judge Mark O’Connell stemmed from complaints about unauthorised short-term lettings booked through the Airbnb website at three properties in Dublin 1: 11 Capel Street, Block G, The Foundry, Beaver St, and Unit 2A, The Forge, Railway Street.

Those offences were detected following inspections between June 4 and 6 last year, which revealed that some of the bedrooms were windowless and others in former shopfronts.

A council inspector found several tourists from Ireland, mainland Europe, and North America had used them for one to seven days.

By the time that hearing concluded, work had already taken place or was about to start to bring the properties in line with regulations for short-term lettings.