Not for a moment do I think the RTB will do this. Market rent has only one meaning. The RTB cannot change the legislation to make market rent equal to rents on their website. In any case, in 6 months time the rents on the RTB will be much higher. It's very clear from DAFT we are moving to market rents. Thank goodness. This means my massive investment will pay itself off eventually, and already has had an increase in the capital value.
RTB Rent Register
- Thread starter Sr. Tayto
- Start date
Hopefully, but I am not sure at all. The RTB is quite clear that your main port of call for deciding the rent is the Rent Register which shows lower rents than Daft.
The RTB has a political agenda and its current director is anti-landlord.
I can certainly see cases being taken against landlords after 6 months to get the rest to 'behave' and set the rent 'properly'.
I hope I'm wrong, but the whole system is stacked against us and this will be another aspect of that.
The government will do their best to ensure that rents don't rise significantly and the RTB will assist them in that in every way it can.
Courtesy of ChatGPT:
Here is a fully exhaustive list of Electoral Divisions (EDs) within the
Cork City South Central LEA (based on the standard CSO ED structure used for local elections):
Complete list of EDs
- Centre A
- Centre B
- South Gate A
- South Gate B
- Gillabbey A
- Gillabbey B
- Glasheen A
- Glasheen B
- The Lough
- Turners Cross A
- Turners Cross B
Again ChatGPT:
Does it belong to Cork City North East LEA?
No — it is not part of the Cork City North East LEA.Where it actually belongs
- St Patrick’s A is a city-centre ED (northside of the River Lee)
- It is typically grouped within the Cork City North West LEA, not North East
Why the confusion happens
- Cork city centre EDs (like St Patrick’s A, Centre A/B, South Gate A/B) are:
- small and tightly packed, and
- often assumed to be interchangeable across LEAs
- But LEA boundaries split the city centre carefully:
- North West LEA → includes St Patrick’s divisions
- South Central LEA → includes South Gate, Centre (southside), etc.
- North East LEA → more suburban (Ballyvolane, Mayfield, etc.)
Bottom line
- St Patrick’s A → North West LEA
- Not part of North East LEA
The LEA is auto-populated when you enter the address in Step 1. I suppose they intend that you don't change it, because that is the LEA of your reference property. If you use the results from a different LEA to support your rent level, the RTB might reject it. (If you changed the county, for sure they would!)
Care to comment on how they calculate annual inflation over 10/11 months? This is not provided for in legislation yet they do it.
Care to comment on why for the 2% annual rent increase cap they round down to the nearest whole month? This is not provided for in legislation, yet they do it.
Issues here
Popping the eircode for another one of these (1 Southern Road, Cork)
Nothing close to the €1700 being sought. One at €1500, next closest at €1172.
There's no difference though in location between the rental property advertised in Copley place and say McCurtain street on Daft. But the RTB is treating them differently. They are both different electoral areas, but both are actually city center. Versus say the one in Mahon or Douglas. Limerick was easier to understand. Because somehow Shannon was grouped in with the city center, which I suspect is because Limerick is right on the Shannon. Maybe it didn't mean near the airport.
If you changed the county, for sure they would
Ok then, always up for a challenge, I give you, Waterford !! (having lived in nearly all of Irish cities ()not counting Kilkenny which is ridiculous) and owned property in two etc ....). Much of Waterford is in Kilkenny !!! Specifically Ferrybank, but it's literally across the water from the city center.
It's quite fun doing this isn't it. Complete nonsense as regards comparisons. At least it keeps the RTB people busy wasting time trying to sort out their 'comparator' table. Salthill isn't in Galway, neither is Oranmore, but the rents are comparable. If looking at 3 beds the likelyhood is much more comparable. In Cork Douglas is not Cork city, nor is Mahon, as for Shannon being Limerick ..... etc etc.
OK, but my point is that the example I posted is also city center (as is your presumably). If I'm setting rent for that place, I'm obliged by law to include these much lower rents on the review/setting form. I can't put in the rents for other addresses on the form.
If you change the electoral area, isn't that a criminal offence under the new legislation? Much like having the floor area out by say 1mtr sq.
If you change the electoral area, isn't that a criminal offence under the new legislation? Much like having the floor area out by say 1mtr sq.
You could try it, as part of your justification for your rent level, but if the RTB rule against you, that is that, I suppose.
Kilkenny is ridiculous, or the fact you never lived there?
That is a very important point.
If the RTB rules against you, that is that - what else can you do, appeal to the High Court?
The RTB has said that it's mission is to regulate landlords, it is anti-landlord, so I would say there is a very strong chance it will find against you.
It's not a city. Arguably neither is Sligo or Waterford ! They're just towns, not even very big ones.
No idea why they do that. Has anyone asked them? Or has anyone challenged their calculation?
Sorry, completely missed your point. Is it a criminal offence to use a different electoral area? Same question re floor area?
This I don't know - but my point is that this clearly is what happens in practice (you can go to the rent cap calculator now to check it). I would imagine there is the best part of 10,000* rent reviews have been based on these calculations that skew against the accommodation provider.
So its fine to say "RTB cannot change the legislation to make market rent equal to rents on their website" , yet in practice they are doing things like this. Again these are things that are not provided for in legislation yet they do it in practice.
The tenant will appeal the rent, and as soon as they do this they might argue they don't have to pay it while its under appeal (source). The outcome could take years (see this post in relation to what seems to be a very significant slow down in processing times of disputes).
Section 113 makes its a statutory offence to provide any false or misleading information, that could be considered material, to the board - Section 113: Offence of providing false information to Board
The RTB could argue this is material as one would only do it to get higher rents. In practice I suspect they'll do people for improper conduct.
I appreciate what you are saying, but where does one draw the line? Like couldn't we also say there is no difference between a C1 and a C2 so I'll just put a C1 into the calculator as that shows a higher rent on the day I look at the register?
In any case, it's just beyond me why we are being forced into grey areas of the law.
*there are ~240,000 tenancies. Lets assume a rent review done every three years (although likely more often). That's 80k rent reviews/year or 220/day so ~10,000 since 1 March (220 x 50 days (1Mar to 20Apr)).
Last edited:
I don't think stating that your 29m2 apartment is 30m2 is material. Nor do I believe we are going to see landlords criminalised for it. That section of the act is to stop outright lies.
As regards the rent calculator, if it so happened that it's miscalculating to the detriment of a landlord, than that landlord should complain to the RTB. That's the first step.
As regards BER's. Many of the properties don't even have the BER on the RTB data base. I'd just print off the most suitable ones and not bother showing what data I'd put in. If I were doing this a couple of years ago I didn't even have a BER myself !
Anyway all of this is moot. Market rent is clearly what's on DAFT, not the mad stuff on the RTB website that is full of old RPZ properties and putting properties into different data bases based on electoral areas when in many cases it doesn't make sense, like city center ones. One would love to know who dreamt up this comparison madness.
As regards the rent calculator, if it so happened that it's miscalculating to the detriment of a landlord, than that landlord should complain to the RTB. That's the first step.
As regards BER's. Many of the properties don't even have the BER on the RTB data base. I'd just print off the most suitable ones and not bother showing what data I'd put in. If I were doing this a couple of years ago I didn't even have a BER myself !
Anyway all of this is moot. Market rent is clearly what's on DAFT, not the mad stuff on the RTB website that is full of old RPZ properties and putting properties into different data bases based on electoral areas when in many cases it doesn't make sense, like city center ones. One would love to know who dreamt up this comparison madness.
My property doesn't have a BER. I've read that since years ago a rental property is supposed to have a BER, but the RTB didn't actually require it for registration purposes until mid-2022 and my current tenancy pre-dates that.
When you run a search it records a reference number. This might mean they store the results of all queries, and they might check up on what you show to back up your rent level.
