Pre 2022 Tenancy Query re Lease

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LISA Simpson

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Hi. Looking for advice please.

I have a tenant in my rental that I would like to legally remove when the 6 years are up and not enter in a new agreement.

Lease commenced in Jan 2021

I'm aware under a Pre 2022 lease that after 6 years I do not need to have a 'valid reason', like selling/family moving and that if the rental agreement continues then I will no longer have this right as a landlord as Pre 22 will no longer be around.

My question is around the lease. I am having issues locating the actual lease that was signed as I believe it was stored on my work computer but when I went on mat leave, my whole account was deleted so I have no access to these files.

Tenant is a HAP tenant and everything is registered with the RTB as expected. I can't recall if I had to furnish HAP with the lease itself but I do think they were happy with thr RTB registration For proof of registration. This is renewed annually with RTB.

The reason I am querying is because I am aware that there is a chance the RTB date of commencement may differ to the actual lease itself (perhaps by a couple weeks/month). Foolishly as the person was known to me (friend of a friend , not personally) and was on hard times, I let them into the property prior to HAP being approved. This was potentially 6 weeks I think. They did not pay me rent for this time and were there rent free until HAP kicked in. HAP pays the rent in full with no top up from tenant to me. I did this as I knew they were on hard times and I was happy that it was HAP with guaranteed rent So didn't have an issue letting them reside in property while HAP kicked in. In all honesty, I was led to believe it was pretty much approved but it ended up taking 6/8 weeks.


Will I have an issue when I serve notice for termination if the dates dont fully align if the tenant pulls the actual lease should they have a copy. As noted it may only be a difference of a few weeks. My reasonings for thinking it may be OK are

* either way via the RTB registration or the lease if located by me/tenant it proves that it is a Pre 2022 tenancy even if dates differ

* the RTB registration ties in with the rent that i received as i only received rent from HAP. Nothing from tenant.


My concern is that this will give tenant grounds to appeal If the commencement date differs between RTB and actual lease.

Any thoughts? Am I overthinking this or would this cause an issue should o go ahead with a termination notice when I can?

Lasly, even though i think im quite clued in to the dates i need to follow and what notice to give etc... i do have a concern that i may fck it up someway. Is there a service out there that can assist to ensure im following it correctly? Would happily pay for someone to help me ensure I'm fully compliant when I start to serve notice
 
Thanks for reading
 
LISA Simpson said:
grounds to appeal
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IANAL

From my reading of the RTB cases, tenants seem to be given a lot of leeway when bringing a complaint to RTB. That doesn't mean tenant complaint will be upheld.

Having said that, its not as though you are the very edge of being pre-22.

If tenant took up occupancy in Jan 21 - when were the bills put into their name? Do they pay for waste collection / broadband etc?

So far as serving notice goes, all these templates are on the RTB site. I'd add an extra 21 days to your notice period,just to cover yourself.

No matter how well you do your paperwork, tenant could still act the maggot; stay patient & accept it might take some time.
 
Thank you. Yes bills were transferred on Feb 21 or thereabouts. So there is no disputing it is a Pre 22 tenancy (and as you say not even close to a dispute).

Don't mind adding extra days onto notice period either. One of the reasons I'm a bit wary of a potential dispute is because the tenants brother is a much larger landlord himself with multiple properties rented out in ireland (10+). So if he did want to dispute (and the date of commencement on lease would be the only part I could think that could ever be raised), he has a relation who is very familiar with the laws etc....

I may be overthinking hopefully but am aware the landlord rarely wins
 
You should think of getting a solicitor to handle the paperwork and serving the papers for you. It will cost you money, but they've designed the paperwork to be difficult for the ordinary person to complete properly. You don't want to be in a situation where when the notice period is up the tenant announces to you that they don't have to move out after all because you missed something in the paperwork and it is all invalid.

Also, I'm not sure about this as the legislation isn't drafted yet, but it may be, because the tenant won't have left of their own accord, that you won't be able to increase the rent to market rent for a new tenancy after March 2026. They've said that something along these lines will be included in the new rules, but there are no details yet.
 
Thank you. Yes good idea re solicitor.

I'm not clear what i want to do with property yet (as in sell / rent again/ family member). But dont want to run this contract over for another 6 years where I will have little / no recourse to get out.

Rent is not massively under market thankfully, though I haven't increased rent in past 5 years at all. Will look into it further by think I'm allowed to increase for those years at 2% p.a. Still not a huge increase but is something at least
 
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