Tenant who added his name to lease loses his squatters’ rights claim to home in D4

15/07/2025

A man who fraudulently added his name to a lease agreement has lost his claim to squatters’ rights to a family home in Ballsbridge.

The three-bedroom house on Percy Lane, Dublin 4, was valued at close to € 1million a few years before Juerg Von Geitz moved into it, in around 2010, and was sold in 2022 for €500,000.

High Court judge David Nolan said that despite no longer living there, Mr Von Geitz was seeking confirmation of his alleged adverse possession – colloquially known as squatters’ rights – of the house, and had claimed that the sale was void.

The defendants, receiver Tom O’Brien and accountants Mazars, had sought to dismiss his claim on the grounds that it was an abuse of process and bound to fail.

Judge Nolan said Mr Von Geitz claimed that the former owner of the house had borrowed €1.5million from Bank of Ireland Private Banking in July 2007.

Mr Von Geitz said the man was unable to service his debts, and his long-term mortgages were allegedly transferred into a loan. He alleged that in 2010, the owner abandoned his properties and relocated to the UK, where he sought to declare himself bankrupt.

The bank then appointed a receiver, and Mr Von Geitz alleged that the receiver recognised a lease which the previous owner granted to a company called Skrambel Ltd, registered in Gibraltar.

On foot of this lease, Mr Von Geitz, who had connections to the company, moved into the house, allegedly with the permission of the former owner.

‘He alleges that he is now in adverse possession of the property and applied to what was then called the Property Registration Authority, and now Tailte Éireann, to be registered as the owner on the basis of his claim of adverse possession,’ the judge said.

Judge Nolan said the receiver had written to Mr Von Geitz in March 2019, warning that the locks would be changed. The bank had by this time sold the loan to Ceberus, a private equity fund, which wished to sell the house, the judge said.

During the correspondence that followed, in April 2022, Mr Von Geitz sent a loan agreement to Mazars. Judge Nolan said the document was identical to the previous tenancy between the former owner and Skrambel Ltd, but with the addition of Mr Von Geitz’s name, his address at 42 Percy Lane and his email address typed onto it.

Mr Von Geitz claimed that the amendment was executed soon after the creation of the original lease. He then offered to purchase the freehold of the property for up to €400,000 in cash, the judge said.

Judge Nolan said that Mr Von Geitz the ‘must have been fully aware that the company had been struck off the Companies Register in Gibraltar, years before’.

In a further email in May 2022, Mr Von Geitz denied access to the property ‘as per the lease provisions’, thus holding himself out to be a tenant, the judge said.

Mazars wrote back saying that the purported lease was not recognised and any occupation was an unlawful trespass. The Property Price Register confirms that the house was sold in December 2022 for €500,000.

Judge Nolan said Mr Von Geitz was representing himself in the case, but that he was a ‘regular litigator’ and was the subject of an order limiting the legal action he could take without court permission.

He said Mr Von Geitz had also, in a sworn statement, admitted to fraud in what he described as the ‘amended lease’. ‘He now says that he never was a tenant but adds that he was simply “stretching his negotiation position and seeking an amicable solution”, by suggesting he was,’ the judge said.

He added: ‘It was in fact fraud. When this was put to him, he literally put his hands up. He says that he has admitted his wrong.

But that is simply an untenable proposition where he fraudulently added his name to the lease in the hope that the defendants may come to the view that this might be more trouble than it was worth to pursue him any further… Such behaviour cannot go unremarked upon by the court.

If the court sees fraud, it should call it out… ‘The plaintiff seems to have a disconnect with the truth, so that he believes that it is appropriate to tell lies in order to further his financial goals.’

Judge Nolan said Mr Von Geitz’s claim was ‘untenable’, adding: ‘The plaintiff has not been in occupation of the property since it was sold in 2022.’ He ordered that the proceedings be struck out.