Incidentially, her personal life is her own business, so whatever he alleges he found in her room after she left is irrelevant. However a creepy naked man walking in on you naked in your own room is the business of the Gardai, I should think - this is well beyond just sexual harassment - borderline or actual sexual assault perhaps? I would definitely go to the guards with this one. Also write a letter demanding the deposit back rather than just texting, taking a photocopy of the letter before posting it. And get the PRTB involved. Hit him where it hurts most (probably his pocket)

She's here for an erasmus year, she went back to Germany for 5 weeks to finish/print/hand in her thesis just after the "want a shag" text incident and starting looking for a new place when she got back. She didn't leave anything in the room! But I assume he was implying used condoms - disgusting.
Thanks for all the advice, she has emailed Threshold and I told her she should probably give them a ring too. I wasn't sure if the PRTB covered rent-a-room situations. The SIM recovery info is great, thanks.
I will keep you posted on what happens!

These are some examples of similar cases that went before the court previously -> http://tjmcintyre.com/2007_11_01_tjmcin ... chive.html

Anti-social behaviour by adults -> http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categ ... -by-adults

Send a solicitors letter as recommended above and charge him for it. Then follow up with a complaint to the Gardai about this mans anti-social behaviour.

Under the Rent a Room scheme, you are not covered by the landlord / tenant legislation in Ireland. The PRTB does not have jurisdiction to deal with any other disputes involving licensees. This is because licensees have no direct relationship with landlords and the PRTB does not deal with disputes between occupants, whether those occupants are tenants only or a mixture of tenants and licensees. This means that although the PRTB deals with disputes about the non-refund by landlords of deposits paid by tenants, it has no authority to deal with disputes between tenants or between tenants and licensees about monies paid to a tenant as a form of ‘deposit’.

http://www.prtb.ie/DownloadDocs/Licensees.doc

No, they are not going to have the text itself. However his operator will have a record that the text was sent as long as it was within the last 3 years (soon to be 2 years).

To update briefly, she has emailed the guy asking him to provide her with a copy of the lease she signed stating that the tenancy would last for 12 months and that she would give a month's notice. She didn't sign anything like that so she's hoping he'll back down and pay her back the money. He hasn't responded as yet.

He will drag it out until your firend goes legal. Tis always the way.

It can be very difficult for people experiencing sexual harrassment to acknowledge the seriousness of what's happening. People want to just get on with their lives and not have to face down behaviour of this sort which lets face it they shouldn't have to.

The witholding of the deposit is probably as much about power as anything else.
I would hope that she and the other person would approach a Garda and make a complaint as this kind of behaviour if not challenged and confronted can be a precursor to a more serious offence.

It would do this creep no harm to get a wake up as to how inappropriate his behaviour is and a chance to regulate it.

She should also as a matter of course seperately seek her deposit back through small claims

I think the issue of the deposit is a side one.
This woman should report this asap.

She was firstly sexually harrassed:



The non return of the deposit is secondary.

I have suggested it to her but she doesn't seem keen to do it. She's in the middle of a final presentation for her degree and is already stressed so I don't want to pressure her, if it was me I would have gone straight to the Gardaí.

Make her promise to get the Guards involved after her degree is over. Otherwise she is allowing the guy to do it to some other girl.

If she has the same phone and sim card that the original text was sent to, it can still be retrieved even if she deleted it.

Every text sent and received on every phone is stored on it.

She has to do what's best for her. It's very easy to tell people what they should do if you're not in the position. It really isn't up to the original poster to make the girl promise to do anything. TBH, if I were the girl, I would walk away from it and start life afresh. It's a semi-selfish position to take, yes but she's in the realm of having to do what's best for her, not for some possible other victim.

In part, that's because the state has a shocking bad record on getting results in cases like this. For the most part, it is not worth the hassle to the victim of going through the process and it doesn't necessarily prevent recidivism. You may see it as defeatist and I don't know if you've ever been in the position that this girl has been in.

Update: he has sent her a cheque for €200 as a "gesture of goodwill" - she's in Germany finishing her degree until December but wants to pursue him for the rest when she gets back to Dublin.

Has she even mentioned the gardai to him? Goodwill? He's hoping she just goes away.If she doesn't report him,you should.
Has she done any of the things suggested on this thread?