Rent Review - RTB Calculator contradicts RTB Guidance

K-Man

Registered User
Messages
69
Hi, apologies if I'm being thick here, but I issued a first rent review notice a few months back, to take effect on Jan 1st 2020.

The details directly from the RPZ Calculator are as follows:

Summary of results:
Tenancy Type:Existing
Date tenancy commenced:15/05/2017
Date previous rent set:15/05/2017
Date new rent to take effect:01/01/2020
Previous rent amount:€1650
Maximum rent permitted:€1820.50
* Please note the amount above is the maximum increase permitted; Landlords can apply a lesser amount.

The tenants have been paying the new rent for 2 months now, but have just queried the amount based upon the statement on the RPZ website -

"Rent Review in a Rent Pressure Zone
Following the designation of a Rent Pressure Zone, all existing tenants at the relevant date of designation are still covered by the 24 month rent certainty laws. Therefore, a landlord must wait 24 months from the tenancy commencing or 24 months from the service of the last valid rent review notice before serving a further rent review.
A tenant must be informed of any review to the rent with at least 90 days’ notice in writing of a change in rent (an email or text is not considered appropriate notice of a rent review). The rent can only be increased up to a maximum of 4% and the rent being sought should not be more than local market rents for similar properties. After this, the landlord will be entitled to review the rent every 12 months."

This statement seems to suggest that "the rent can only be increased up to a maximum of 4%", however the RPZ calculator applies an increase of 10.3%.

Am I missing something here and which is correct - a 4% flat increase (just because of this statement), or the calculated amount using the calculator ?

Puzzled :?

Thanks for any thoughts / guidance here.
 
It's 4% per year, so if its more than 12 months since the last increase, that is taken into account.

In your example you calculate a 4% increase in May 2018 another 4% in May 2019 and pro-rata to Jan 2020.

So if you had applied 4% in May 2018 the rent would have increased to 1716. In May 2019 it would go to 1784, and by May 2020 that would go to 1856.

So yr calculations are correct.

Another good reason to do annual rent reviews.
 
It's 4% per year, so if its more than 12 months since the last increase, that is taken into account.

In your example you calculate a 4% increase in May 2018 another 4% in May 2019 and pro-rata to Jan 2020.

So if you had applied 4% in May 2018 the rent would have increased to 1716. In May 2019 it would go to 1784, and by May 2020 that would go to 1856.

So yr calculations are correct.

Another good reason to do annual rent reviews.

Thanks, yes that's what I thought - it's just that the RTB wording ("the rent can only be increased up to a maximum of 4%" ) can be interpreted differently - it's ambiguous and that's what my tenant is latching on to.
 
@K-Man

The tenancy commenced after the RPZ regime came into effect and therefore the quoted paragraph is not relevant.

In other words, your tenants were never covered by the 24 month rent certainty laws.
 
@K-Man

The tenancy commenced after the RPZ regime came into effect and therefore the quoted paragraph is not relevant.

In other words, your tenants were never covered by the 24 month rent certainty laws.

Ah, thanks for that. Makes sense.
 
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