Judge Michael Quinn
GOLDHAWK’S FAVOURITE landlord, Paul Hourican, is back in action again, with a new company but some of the same old problems.
Fans of The Phoenix will be familiar with Hourican’s rental adventures thanks to the high-profile collapse of Period Door Properties Ltd (PDP). It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 23/4/21) that Hourican first made an impact when the number of complaints by tenants in the Dublin properties he was sub-letting reached critical levels, with the Residential Tenancies Board ruling against PDP on various occasions, according to data available on howmuchrent.com.
PDP had been incorporated back in 2014 to rent out upmarket properties in southside Dublin (or at least the individual bedrooms in them) to mostly Silicon Valley types. But after the pandemic kicked in, the company was wound up in the High Court by Judge Michael Quinn. By then, Hourican had exited the board, along with his wife, designer Susan Hourican.
It is clear that Paul Hourican did well out of his time at PDP, receiving dividends of €400,000 between 2018 and 2019, while there was a further €¼m trousered in the year to March 2020. His Station Island Holdings was sitting on net assets of €1m at the end of March 2022.
Another vehicle, Blucher Ltd, was involved in a legal spat in 2020 with receivers over the purchase of his impressive D4 pile on Wellington Road for €3m. This, however, is not the address Hourican gives in company filings, where an Ely Place, D2, address is often used.
For a while, it appeared the multi-talented Paul was refocusing his energies on his fledgling music career, having incorporated Hurricane Music Company and posting videos on YouTube of him performing ballads. He previously posted that an album was in the works but there is still no sign of the opus.
What has popped up is a new trading name for the sub-letting business, after briefly operating as Roomourz. These days, the property owners who sign up with Hourican are dealing with Property Letting And Management, which is a business name registered by Hourican’s 100%-owed company, Laputa Ltd.
Given the new name, it is likely that those engaging with the entity are not familiar with any links to the controversial PDP, although Goldhawk is aware of some property owners who claim to have encountered problems after handing over their properties.
Another name registered by Hourican is Corporate Leasing Solutions (CLS), which is “a boutique property management business based in Dublin” that features testimonials on its website from happy punters, such as “R Clohissey, Trinity College Dublin”, who says CLS “has been a great partner for our growing portfolio in Dublin”. It is indeed refreshing to hear from those who have had really positive experiences with the irrepressible Hourican.
