A CIVIL SERVANT who was evicted from his Dublin home of 11 years in January is spending thousands of euro to stay in a hotel while he tries to find a new place to live.

Scot Buchholz, who came to Ireland from Denver, Colorado in the US in the early 2010s, said it has been a “chaotic” six weeks since he had to leave his apartment in the city centre after his landlord concluded a legal eviction process to sell the property.

Since 22 January, Buchholz has spent €10,000 to stay in hotels in Dublin.

Some of this money has been sent over by his family in the US in a bid to allow him to find stability and maintain his job in the city, before eventually finding somewhere new to live. The Journal has seen receipts for the stays.

“The stress that this puts on day-to-day life and living is incredible,” Buchholz said.

He currently stays in a 4-star hotel in the city centre with his two dogs.

“I want to be able to come home from work and just read the news, eat some food, but I’m immediately looking through listings for new places to rent as soon as I’m back,” he added.

It is humiliating, it’s embarrassing, and it completely takes away your self-confidence.

The case underscores the vulnerabilities facing people who have been evicted in recent months, particularly those who have come to Ireland from abroad and may not have typical family support.

Buchholz refuses to be separated from his beloved Daschsund dogs – 15-year-old Dylan and five-year-old Madigan – and accepted that this has limited the options available.

“I’ve enquired with 13 different places to rent and only one of them accepted dogs,” he said. “But I can’t leave them behind either, I couldn’t do it.”

Similarly, Buchholz – who has Irish grandparents – does not want to leave this country.

I am grateful my dad can afford to help me. Not all families are in a position like this, which would mean people either moving back in with their parents or back to their home country. Ireland is my home and has been for over 11 years and 7 months now.

He has previously applied for Irish citizenship through his descendants, who hailed from counties including Donegal and Meath.

The bed and some belongings in Scot's hotel room.

Investment firm

In his case, the owner of Buchholz’s apartment – investment firm Vestry – served an eviction notice as it wants to sell the home. The eviction was legal under rental laws.

The apartment is now listed for sale starting at a price of €350,000.

The Irish company has a portfolio of over 850 properties, many of which are second-hand accommodation.

After joining the search for a home, including to buy, Buchholz criticised what he called a “lack of transparency” around apartments.

“It just feels like letting agents have way too much power, I’ve went to put in bids for apartments and I’m getting calls back saying the price has already €40,000 above the asking price. There’s no way to know for sure of course,” he said.

Rental changes

Buchholz believes the situation has been exacerbated by the government’s sweeping rental reforms, because there may be more people now looking for accommodation, making it much harder to get a place.

In December, the Government sent letters to landlords asking them to rescind their eviction notices ahead of the changes that took effect on 1 March. The Department of Housing has not commented on the success of those letters to date.

Those changes seek to incentivise construction in the rental sector by allowing landlords to raise the rent well beyond former caps, thereby making it more attractive for private investment.

They have come in for criticism since coming into effect, amid concerns they have prompted evictions, for a variety of reasons.

“It means they are a lot of people trying to find accommodation at the same time in the rental market,” Buchholz said.

He added that Housing Minister James Browne and other senior figures “should have been looking at and trying to protect people so that they didn’t have this wave of evictions” over recent months.

“They weren’t being proactive at all,” Buchholz claimed.

Up-to-date figures on the number of evictions served in recent months have not yet been made available by State agencies.