Judge threatens to haul rogue landlord Marc Godart before court to explain his failure to comply with High Court directions

A judge has ordered controversial landlord Marc Godart to file an affidavit explaining why he failed to comply with court directions to fully disclose his directorships and convictions recorded against his companies.

Mr Justice Brian Cregan made the order after it emerged affidavits previously filed by Mr Godart (35) failed to list four of his company directorships and what the judge described as “serious convictions in relation to fire safety”.

The judge said today that if an explanation was not filed by Mr Godart by April 30, he would have “no hesitation in directing he come to court to be questioned by me as to why he has failed to comply with directions”.

His comments came in a case where one of Mr Godart’s companies, Green Label Short Lets Limited, is being pursued by former tenant Lizet Pena-Herrera after it failed to pay an award of €15,433 made in her favour in 2022 for what the Residential Tenancies Board described as an “egregious unlawful eviction”.

Ms Pena-Herrera, a psychologist from Bolivia, was turfed out of accommodation in Cork Street, Dublin, after raising concerns about overcrowding.

The matter is one of several unlawful evictions linked to Luxembourg national Godart, who has substantial property interests in Ireland.

Rather than pay the award, Mr Godart’s firm has hired a high-powered legal team to fight the case, even though he claims the company had no earnings for 2023 and had effectively ceased operation.

“I am going to give Mr Godart one final last opportunity to explain what appears to be on the face of it a non-compliance or not full compliant with directions the court has made and secondly to address inconsistencies with his affidavit,” the judge said.

“The court has jurisdiction to ensure its directions are complied with and that false and misleading affidavits or misleading affidavits are not filed by defendants such as Mr Godart.”

The judge said the omissions “might have been an innocent oversight or might have been something more deliberate. I don’t know”.

As well as the missing information regarding directorships and convictions, the judge said Ms Pena-Herrera’s counsel John Kennedy SC had identified inconsistencies.

On one hand, the company said it had no income in 2023, while on the other it was engaged in short-term lettings.

The judge said it was “an important matter” and the court had to establish whether what Mr Godart put before the court was truthful evidence.

“If this company had no income in 2023, that is one thing. But if it did have income and it knew a judgment was being obtained against it and it actively moved the money abroad so there was no money in the company to meet the debt, that is a completely different matter,” the judge said.

At an earlier hearing, the court heard that while Ms Pena-Herrera was at work, and without warning, her possessions were packed up by an employee of the company. Some items were broken. Others were not recovered. Her deposit was withheld.

The court is considering an application from Ms Pena-Herrera to have Mr Godart and his parents René (71) and Denise (64) cross-examined over the affairs of the company as part of her efforts to execute a District Court judgment she obtained on foot of the RTB award.

The application is being resisted by Mr Godart, who claims the company cannot afford to pay.

Opposing the application, Gary McCarthy SC, for Green Label Short Lets, said a creditor could not seek reliefs sought by Ms Pena-Herrera under the Companies Acts. He also argued the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the application.

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