New Residential Tenancies Bill

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Greenbook

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This seems to have passed under the radar, but there is a new Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill published.

Part of it is social housing related, you have to be resident in Ireland to get social housing, but the rest of it looks like forty changes to the Residential Tenancies Act 2004. It's all legalese so hard for me to work out what it is about, but most of it looks like more fines and criminal liabilities on landlords for various breaches of the rules including rent setting.

The Bill is here in case there are any legal people who can explain it better.

Will this ever stop. The last changes are only in place for 3 months and there is now what looks like more new rules including even more stringent criminal penalties.
 
I found the Explanatory Memorandum which explains things a bit better. It is here

A huge amount of changes, but the most important that I can see are:

1. RTB officers can now enter into a rented premises to inspect it without the owner's consent. They get a warrant from the District Court
2. The 90 day notice period for termination within the first 6 months is now being increased to 120 days. So four months notice now.
3. More crimes that landlords can commit and increased penalties and fines.

Astonishing that they are making 40 changes to the law when the new rules only came in 3 months ago.
 
Thanks @Greenbook !

I entirely missed this. Absolutely extraordinary stuff. In the mist of a housing crisis, more beatings for accommodation providers. Basically longer prison sentences, higher fines, power to enter houses by force and more public shaming. Wow.

What can I see:
  • Higher criminal penalties: now class A fines (€5,000) and 12 months imprisonment (up from a class B fine and 6 months imprisonment ) (s.9)
  • Three new on the spot fines:
    • Failing to copy the RTB on your rent-setting statement - €100 fine, up to €500 fine (new s.12(6)/(7))
    • Rent-setting breaches - €200 fine, up to €1,000 (new s.22B)
    • Registration failures - €100, up to €500 (ss.144/144A)
  • RTB entry/inspection of a dwelling on consent or District Court warrant, by force if needed (s.145)
  • Damages/costs ceiling set at the same level as the Circuit Court, i.e. up to €75,000 (s.115)
  • Seems like AHBs didn't escape fully this time, they are introducing fines on them for Late registration fees (a fine which has been levied on private accommodation providers for years already)
  • More naming and shaming - adjudication hearings will now be held in public (before just outcome was public, but now the hearings themselves will be held in public)
 
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stormy said:
I entirely missed this. Absolutely extraordinary stuff. In the mist of a housing crisis, more beatings for accommodation providers. Basically longer prison sentences, higher fines, power to enter houses by force and more public shaming. Wow.
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Not surprising that you missed it. It is hidden in a general Housing Bill which seems to be dealing with entitlement to social housing. Most of the Bill is actually all these new Residential Tenancy rules, however.

It is to be debated in the Dail this Thursday, but I suspect it is the entitlement to social housing aspects which will be discussed.

Obviously the plan is to sneak in yet more anti-landlord regulations and restrictions in order to encourage investment in the PRS!
 
I did a quick skim.

The Director may, by notice in writing given to the parties concerned, correct any mistake (including any omission) of an administrative or clerical nature in a determination order.”.
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So a "Terry Gorry" rule? :) At least 1 good thing, well assuming the directory uses it.

There does seem to be potentially good news in saying that the High Court "shall" enforce determination orders. That may be an improvement, depending on how the courts read it. It does allow the courts to order the director to make corrections to a determination order.

There is also more secrecy. The RTB can decide that hearings are not in public. It is written that it is exceptional, but perhaps they will just trigger the rule every time.

It adds a rule that a court may require pre-payments of claimed money (to the court or other party) before allowing an appeal, in some circumstances. Maybe, if a landlord appeals an order to pay €10,000, they could be asked to pre-pay that amount before appealing. Likewise, a tenant with outstanding rent.

There is a lot of procedural stuff for how the RTB should handle offenses. There are fixed payments, like with speeding offenses. You pay the fine within the time limit, and it is over. Otherwise, it can go to court.
 
LarryScott said:
It adds a rule that a court may require pre-payments of claimed money (to the court or other party) before allowing an appeal, in some circumstances. Maybe, if a landlord appeals an order to pay €10,000, they could be asked to pre-pay that amount before appealing. Likewise, a tenant with outstanding rent.
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I think the landlord will always be ordered to pre-pay and it'll stop the appeal if you don't have the money. There will never be a similar order against a tenant.

Can they even do that though? I lose a case and I want to appeal, but my right to appeal is gone if I can't pay up the sum involved. Most of us don't have €10k just lying about.
LarryScott said:
There is a lot of procedural stuff for how the RTB should handle offenses. There are fixed payments, like with speeding offenses. You pay the fine within the time limit, and it is over. Otherwise, it can go to court.
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Also, those fixed payments are awful, I've come across them in the consumer law area. If you don't pay, you're treated as having appealed to one of the Courts, but if you lose in the Court, you've now a criminal conviction against you. Essentially you're forced to pay the fine rather than take the risk of being branded a criminal. I can see the RTB issuing fines to landlords right, left and centre for all sorts of minor things. We know how anti-landlord they are.

It is incredible. Another Residential Tenancies Act coming out of the blue three months after the last one and as there will be all sorts of issues with the new rules themselves, we can expect yet another Bill in six months time.
 
LarryScott said:
So a "Terry Gorry" rule? :) At least 1 good thing, well assuming the directory uses it.
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Same thing popped into my head! We've seen other cases like this also (determination order dated before the NOT date!) Glad they are finally dealing with it after 22 years.

LarryScott said:
There is also more secrecy. The RTB can decide that hearings are not in public. It is written that it is exceptional, but perhaps they will just trigger the rule every time.
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But aren't all adjudication hearings in private at the moment? I think this can only lead to less secrecy. It seems the private option is only "on foot of special circumstances" via procedural rules that need Ministerial consent.


LarryScott said:
It adds a rule that a court may require pre-payments of claimed money (to the court or other party) before allowing an appeal, in some circumstances. Maybe, if a landlord appeals an order to pay €10,000, they could be asked to pre-pay that amount before appealing. Likewise, a tenant with outstanding rent.
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That's very sharp reading - they give the example of the tenant having to pay outstanding rent, but yes it can also mean the landlord having to pay upfront. I reviewed a case this week where a landlord was ordered to pay €12k to a tenant that was reduced to €3.6k on appeal. Basically it's a method to make it even harder for accommodation providers to get justice.


LarryScott said:
There is a lot of procedural stuff for how the RTB should handle offenses. There are fixed payments, like with speeding offenses. You pay the fine within the time limit, and it is over. Otherwise, it can go to court.
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Greenbook said:
Also, those fixed payments are awful, I've come across them in the consumer law area. If you don't pay, you're treated as having appealed to one of the Courts, but if you lose in the Court, you've now a criminal conviction against you.
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Indeed, seems like they are setting up the system to make it easier to hand out more fines and penalties and distincentivise accommodation providers from challenging them.


Greenbook said:
It is incredible. Another Residential Tenancies Act coming out of the blue three months after the last one and as there will be all sorts of issues with the new rules themselves, we can expect yet another Bill in six months time.
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It is indeed incredible.
 
This is being introduced by one of the Housing Ministers in the Dail now. All the stuff highlighted previously, fixed payment notices, higher criminal penalties, more complex procedures etc. etc.

Additional measures are to be introduced by James Browne at the Committee stage so it'll be more than 40 sections dealing with the PRS.
 
Bronte said:
I’m confused, why is there another piece of legislation?
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Good question, the last one was supposed to sort out the PRS forever.

Anyway, hot on its heels is yet another Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. This one has 40 sections and counting, all about additional powers for the RTB, more penalties and criminal sanctions for us and more complex procedures.
 
In a statement, RTB director Rosemary Steen thanked Keegan for his “significant service” and said.....

“He has made an important contribution to delivering a rental sector that works for the people of Ireland.”


Minister for Housing James Browne will now begin the process of appointing a new chairperson to the board. In a statement this evening, Browne thanked Keegan “for his service in this role and his contribution to the work of the RTB”.

“He played a significant role in critical work around implementing the changes in rental legislation from this year from 1 March 2026. I wish him the best going forward,” Browne added.
 
Keegan stepping down probably isn't good news for landlords. The chairman hasn't much power, but he did come across in Housing Committee meetings as someone who had a nuanced view of the sector. It wasn't all evil landlords and exploited tenants.

They'll replace him with somebody more to their liking.
 
The usual stuff in the Dail when discussing this latest Bill. The PRS is growing, new landlords are entering the market, tenancy numbers are up etc. etc. Nothing about that only being true if you include cost rentals and previously unregistered landlords.

Plus the dicussion on the Bill revealed RTB funding is now just under €23m a year and that does not include landlords' contributions from registration fees. Funding increased €8m between 2025 and 2026. The RTB costs over €500k a week to run.

This may explain the new Bill and its complexities and increased police powers. The only thing that is benefiting from all this is the RTB itself. It is becoming an increasingly powerful, it now has a say in rent setting for example, and money is being thrown at it.
 
Greenbook said:
Plus the dicussion on the Bill revealed RTB funding is now just under €23m a year and that does not include landlords' contributions from registration fees. Funding increased €8m between 2025 and 2026. The RTB costs over €500k a week to run.
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My goodness.
 
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