Social housing resident denied gym access awarded €2,500
An apartment complex resident who was told she was not allowed use the on-site gym because she lived in its social housing block has been awarded €2,500 for housing assistance discrimination.
A social housing tenant, Agnieszka Nowakowska, has been awarded €2,500 for being denied access to an on-site gym at her apartment complex. Dillon Marshall Property Consultants, the property owners, were ordered to pay the compensation by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) after being found guilty of housing assistance discrimination.
Nowakowska, who moved into the complex in July 2025, was unsure whether using the gym was included in the management fees or if her neighbors were paying separately. She noticed other residents using fobs to enter the gym and asked the security guard about access, who informed her she was not permitted to use the facility due to living in the social housing block (Block 5).
Nowakowska subsequently sent emails and a registered letter to the property management company seeking gym access, but her attempts were unsuccessful. The property consultants did not respond to her correspondence and failed to attend a hearing under the Equal Status Act 2000. Adjudication officer Niamh O’Carroll concluded that Nowakowska was on notice of the hearing date, time, and location, as the management company had sent a letter to the WRC asking for a postponement.
Since Nowakowska raised an inference of discrimination based on the housing assistance ground, Dillon Marshall Property Consultants had to rebut the presumption of discrimination under the act. O’Carroll ruled that the denial of gym access solely due to Nowakowska's status as a social housing tenant constituted discrimination and awarded her €2,500 for breaching the Equal Status Act 2000.
Written by urgent.news from RTE News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
