A woman who was told she was not allowed to use a gym in the apartment complex where she lived as her home was in its social housing block has been awarded €2,500 for housing assistance discrimination
In an equality ruling published on Wednesday, Dillon Marshall Property Consultants was directed by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) to pay the sum to Agnieszka Nowakowska as compensation
Nowakowska told the WRC in evidence that when her complaint arose in July last year, she had recently been placed in an apartment at the complex as a social housing tenant
She said she was not sure whether the use of the gym was provided for as part of the management fees or if her neighbours were paying separately
Nowakowska said she saw other residents using fobs to access the gym and asked the security guard on site about this
She said he told her she was not permitted in the gym because she was living in Block 5, “the social housing block”. She then wrote to the complex’s property management company seeking access to the gym, the tribunal noted
It was Nowakowska’s evidence that the firm “ignored her email” and also did not reply to a registered letter she sent
Dillon Marshall Property Consultants failed to attend a hearing into Nowakowska’s complaint under the Equal Status Act 2000 last month
In her decision, WRC adjudication officer Niamh O’Carroll noted that after Nowakowska wrote to the management company looking for clarity on the situation, the firm “failed, refused, or neglected to respond”
O’Carroll was satisfied the respondent was “on notice of the date, time and venue for the hearing”, as it had written to the WRC asking unsuccessfully for a postponement
As Nowakowska had raised an inference of discrimination on the housing assistance ground, it fell to the respondent to rebut the presumption of discrimination laid down in the Act, O’Carroll wrote
“The evidence before me is that the complainant was denied the opportunity to access the gym solely because she resided in the block designated for tenants in receipt of the housing assistance payment.”
This denial of access “constitutes discrimination” and Nowakowska “should have been afforded the same opportunity to access and use the gym facilities as any other tenant”, the adjudicator found
She ruled that the complaint was “well founded” and directed the payment of €2,500 to Nowakowska for the breach of the Equal Status Act 2000
