New Residential Tenancies Bill

[lff12]

even if prices fall, you'll make a small profit or break even. A professional as well doing this will have a fair idea what is going on it in the market and if the news on the ground (as opposed to what is in the media) is becoming negative will pull back

There's truth in this - I was surprised to hear of a couple of people in a certain perhaps not so salubrious part of Dublin buying a tenanted property a couple of years ago, evicting the tenant to move in themselves. Now they'd no intention of selling, but would imagine they got a reasonable deal. I was surprised a solicitor would handle such a sale though. But if you've the stomach for it, and are prepared to go to the whole way to evict the tenant, it would work.
In most cases anyway even vacant ex rentals were cheaper than owner occupied stock, even when I was buying 4 years ago.

 

[lff12]

The specialist BTL buyers will check all documentation like a hawk (and obviously bid much lower). They may just not exists in certain areas.

Out of interest, I know someone who had the rental they were living in a couple of years ago bought out twice in the space of a couple of years. So this is definitely happening. Probably some consolidation in the market by professionals who are more confident what they are doing.

 

[LarryScott]

I know someone who had the rental they were living in a couple of years ago bought out twice in the space of a couple of years.

That wasn't quite what I was thinking of. But you are right, there are likely some in-situ sales (say between large landlords)

I was thinking about a small landlord who uses that status to evict. He could buy from large landlords.

 

[Greenbook]

Out of interest, I know someone who had the rental they were living in a couple of years ago bought out twice in the space of a couple of years. So this is definitely happening. Probably some consolidation in the market by professionals who are more confident what they are doing.

This has happened in the past and would happen in the future as well with or without the new rules. It was rare though and will continue to be.

90% of purchasers buy as owner occupiers. The dreaded sitting tenant will put them off.

Landlords will prefer to choose their own tenants. There is always the suspicion that the current landlord is selling because of a bad tenant.

Tenant in situ sales will continue to be as they were in the past a niche area - an apartment on top of a hospital rented by doctors, they are practically guaranteed to be good tenants and even if they aren't they'll be gone in a year or two, a house near Apple Cork rented to engineers, that type of situation.

What wasn't spotted when they mandated tenant in situ sales is that the sale price is now a function of the rent, so the rent has to be as high as possible to achieve a high sale price, the quality of the tenant becomes all important and short term tenants are much preferable as the property is much more saleable with them in situ or they'll leave and the house can be sold with vacant possession.

As per usual the incentives the government are creating for landlords run completely against what they want to achieve - low rents and long, stable tenancies.

 

[stormy]

Actually this is interesting, Greenbook copied exactly what John Cummins said, i.e. rent reviews would be allowed 7 days grace. However that's not included in the proposed bill. I guess he's also confused?

John Cummins was right here actually. The Committee Amendments include allowing for rent reviews to be allowed the 7 days grace. Hopefully they are included in the final bill.

https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oirea.../3/amendment/numberedList/eng/b5826d-dcnl.pdf

 

[Bronte]

I just mention it because a solicitor I know said that is what he is doing if his current tenant doesnt move out when he wants his property back. Im sure it would be a real friend and they wouldnt actually move in there anyway. Its just to have the last tenant end the lease themselves. I dont know the legality of it myself. I wont need to do that myself. Just thought it was a good idea when I heard it.

That's a crazy suggestion and you'd be in right hot water with the RTB as you're bound to be caught out. Well dodgy.

 

[MOB]

Plus on the legal advisers who we'll have to get advice from on all these Residential Tenancies Bills

I would say most solicitors are going to run a mile from RTB work. We only do it for existing clients and it is not a viable stand-alone business.

 

[Bronte]

I would say most solicitors are going to run a mile from RTB work. We only do it for existing clients and it is not a viable stand-alone business.

My own solicitor and a solicitor friend want to avoid anything to do with this ..... It's just not worth it because the law is so complex and the RTB website is very difficult to follow. Who has the time to do that in a busy office. Plus all the rule changes. That's before you get to to the very distinct possibility of getting something wrong because it's really easy to get it wrong no matter what you do.

 

[Wavelly]

My own solicitor and a solicitor friend want to avoid anything to do with this .....

I would say most of us who are regular readers of this site are more knowledgeable of the rules than most solicitors at this stage, due to our interest in the matter. I would actually be nervous of asking our solicitor to issue an NoT on our behalf in future in case they got it wrong.

Last time we met with them while signing contracts for sale of a property we mentioned one of our other properties that is coming to the end of its 6 year cycle (pre 2022) and he didn’t seem to know anything about it, just said no the new 6 year rules won’t apply to you.

 

[Greenbook]

Just shows how crazy the whole area has become if solicitors don't think they have enough expertise to give advice.

At the end of the day you are just renting out a house to a tenant. It should be relatively straightforward.

 

[MOB]

Just shows how crazy the whole area has become if solicitors don't think they have enough expertise to give advice.

There is a mismatch between the complexity of the work and the fees that can be charged. It feels like this mismatch is by design on the part of the State. But it might be just poorly-considered.

Anyway, whatever the reasons, if the complexity could be charged for, professional advisers would readily fill the niche in the market. It seems unlikely to happen.

 

[Greenbook]

There is a mismatch between the complexity of the work and the fees that can be charged. It feels like this mismatch is by design on the part of the State. But it might be just poorly-considered.

And becoming more so, a second 2026 Residential Tenancies Act is on the way with 40 plus new sections all on technical points like notice periods, filing forms and, naturally, new criminal liabilities.

Difficult for landlords who can't in reality face a bill of E4000 or E5000 plus VAT. The tenant, of course, gets in all free from Threshold who is taxpayer funded to the extent of E2m plus a year. All landlords are extremely wealthy of course and wouldn't notice spending thousands of euros on legal advice.

 

[stormy]

Oireachtas Library & Research Service Bill Digest on this has been published. This is the neutral in-house analysis prepared for Second Stage.

https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oirea...ies-miscellaneous-provisions-bill-2026_en.pdf


The galling part we missed before: sections 40–42 let the RTB raise its own registration and late fees automatically in line with inflation! So the regulator gets a built-in inflation increases on the charges it levies on landlords, while the majority of landlords face a hard 2% cap on rent increases regardless of how fast their costs rise. It will be very interesting to see if their fee increase of annual inflation is measured over 10/11 months like they unfairly impose on property owners.

Also of interest, these fee provisions are new policy that never went through pre-legislative scrutiny!

It's one punch after the other for accommodation providers.

 

[Greenbook]

Also of interest, these fee provisions are new policy that never went through pre-legislative scrutiny!

It is amazing the amount of things that are being sneaked in in that Bill without any scrunity at all.

The Housing Committee examined it recently but they only discussed the Housing part (something about entitlement to social housing if you are not resident). The residential tenancies part wasn't discussed for one minute.

The Department of Housing and the RTB can bring in any laws they want it seems and the Dail just nods them through.

Keep in mind the RTB is currently funded by taxpayers to the tune of €24m. It really doesn't need inflationary increases on landlords fees.

 

[Greenbook]

The RTB's inflationary increases has got me thinking.

Why didn't they allow us go to market with a new tenant and then allow annual inflationary increases? That is a far more sensible system. It is not gouging tenants and it ensures that our costs don't overtake the rent. Why this bizarre 2% for 6 years and then an increase to market which could see a tenant facing a sudden 20% or 30% increase. It's a crazy approach.

The sheer illogic of it when you think about it leads me to believe that there will never be a market increase at year 6 and this is just a backdoor way of continuing the 2% rent cap as much as possible. This is the same policy idea as the 6 year/large landlord permanent tenancies just being a re-introduction of the Eviction Ban by another name.

 

[lff12]

In practice, a BTL buyer would be strongly recommended to verify that it was not-rented for at least 2 years.

They can do so by looking at current RTB registrations - they don't end immediately the tenant leaves, the home will remain on the register until the next registration is due. I even got a letter in the post looking to arrange an inspection, despite the last tenants being gone almost a year.
That's assuming of course the landlord was compliant - only one of my landlords post 2003 rules bothered to register, despite the penalties being well known. One landlord in 2007 even asked for me to pay the full registration fee if I wanted them to register. I let that go. (Yes I know - that landlord took a huge chance on me not reporting them, and they were a huge operation with a large portfolio of properties. Most people who talk about "corporates" don't realise there are very large domestic operators here going back decades).

 

[Bronte]

I even got a letter in the post looking to arrange an inspection, despite the last tenants being gone almost a year.

I got 2 email letters in February this year for 2 inspections, tenant's are gone since the summer of 2022 !

 

[Premos]

tenant's are gone since the summer of 2022 !

Does this mean these properties were still registered?

 

[Bronte]

Does this mean these properties were still registered?

No idea ...

The letters have my name, my old address here abroad (I moved a couple of years ago, this they would not know) it has a date for the inspection , the RT number, the tenant's names and the date of the inspection. It involves at least 4 parties/groups. The council, the people sending the letter, the people they hire to do the inspections and someone else (I'm trying not to be too outing) - someone is paying for all this ...

My sibling is getting non stop inspections, the latest item they 'found' needs doing is a lock on the bathroom door, (it's a one bed with one tenant) lock was immediately delivered to the tenant, who is pissed off as to why there is yet again another inspection, the tenant said why are they inspecting since nothing has changed since the last inspection, he even said to my sibling that he doesn't get why my siblings compliant property is getting so many inspections as he knows loads of property that are in a really bad way !

It's a financial and bureaucratic merry go round that you can never leave ......... Even I'm getting letters and I've been out of the landlord business 3 years (until recently )

 

[Premos]

My sibling is getting non stop inspections

I have been getting regular inspections to. And actually inspection report when clearly there has been no new inspection with our pictures in the report. We recently sent a boiler service confirmation as it wasn't in the apartment when the inspection took place. As our plumber had put some remark, we were told that something needed to be rectified/changed in our boiler. We went back to our plumber who confirmed that everything was ok and the remark was there as per regulation. We went back to the inspector with the regulation and actually everything is perfectly fine now.