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.

Dillon Marshall Property Consultants was directed by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) to pay the sum as compensation to tenant Agnieszka Nowakowska in an equality ruling published today.

Ms Nowakowska said in evidence to the WRC last month that when her complaint arose in July 2025, 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.

Ms Nowakowska had seen other residents using fobs to get into the gym, and inquired with the security guard on site about access, she said.

His reply was that she was not permitted in the gym because she was living in Block 5, "the social housing block", she said.

She proceeded to write to the property management company running the complex seeking access to the gym, the tribunal noted.

It was Ms Nowakowska’s evidence that the firm "ignored her email" and did not reply to a registered letter she sent either.

Dillon Marshall Property Consultants failed to attend a hearing into Ms Nowakowska’s complaint under the Equal Status Act 2000 last month.

Adjudication officer Niamh O’Carroll wrote in her decision that after Ms Nowakowska wrote to the management company looking for clarity on the situation, the firm "failed, refused, or neglected to respond" to the complainant’s correspondence.

Ms O’Carroll wrote that she 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 Ms 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, Ms 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," Ms O’Carroll wrote.

This denial of access "constitutes discrimination" and Ms Nowakowska "should have been afforded the same opportunity to access and use the gym facilities as any other tenant", Ms O’Carroll wrote.

She ruled the complaint "well founded" and directed the payment of €2,500 to Ms Nowakowska for the breach of the Equal Status Act 2000.