RTB Rent Register

Bronte said:
This I do not see happening, it makes no sense to do so.
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We will see.

It does make sense. The opposite will be howling about rent increases. The RTB will have to be seen to be rooted this out.

The RTB is becoming very aggressive. From the most recent Housing Committee hearing

Ms Sinéad Murphy: The quickest way to flag it to us is to put in a report straight away into our online "report a landlord" form-----

Deputy Séamus McGrath: So it is the tenant that raises it, then?

Ms Sinéad Murphy: -----but we do also analyse all large data sets available to us. We will be monitoring the rent setting notices.

Deputy Séamus McGrath: So, the RTB is proactive in that space in terms of red flags.

Ms Sinéad Murphy: Exactly and my colleague, Mr. Gallwey can talk about the work we do about the individual property level analysis. We have a routine annual piece of research we do to identify rent settings that look like they are out of kilter with permitted limits.
 
Greenbook said:
Ms Sinéad Murphy: The quickest way to flag it to us is to put in a report straight away into our online "report a landlord" form-----

Deputy Séamus McGrath: So it is the tenant that raises it, then?

Ms Sinéad Murphy: -----but we do also analyse all large data sets available to us. We will be monitoring the rent setting notices.

Deputy Séamus McGrath: So, the RTB is proactive in that space in terms of red flags.

Ms Sinéad Murphy: Exactly and my colleague, Mr. Gallwey can talk about the work we do about the individual property level analysis. We have a routine annual piece of research we do to identify rent settings that look like they are out of kilter with permitted limits.
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Let's analyse this.

1. We the RTB have a fabulous report system that the tenant can use to report landlords
2. We do a load of 'wafle' analyses of 'wafle' data sets.
3.. We are doing a load of wafly monitoring on the 'Rent Setting Notices'. What that means is someone in the office gets the job of looking at a selection of the notices and there you go, Monitoring. Produces a lovely looking report and nada
4. We the RTB are waffly watching out for red flags. No clue in any of that what red flags they are on about. Coz it's BS.

5.Sinead then directs away from herself to Gallwey to explain the marvellous 'Individual Property Level Analysis. That's just high flauting language to justify jobs that will actually not amount to a hill of beans.

6. Routine Annual Piece of Research. LOL. BIG TIME WAFFLE.

They are literally creating jobs to justify all the lovely money us landlords pay them with. Reminds me of the job: Light Switch Operative - for the guy turns on and off the lights. If I'm bored I might have a look at the ever expanding RTB Organisation Chart.
 
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@Bronte

We'll just have to wait and see.

I think there will be howls from the Opposition about gouging once the next Daft Report comes out.

The RTB has a system now for flagging outliers. They'll have to be seen to use it and be doing something.

They are very anti-landlord.
 
Unfortunately the Rent Register is very sensitive to the BER rating you input for your search. If you input different BER ratings, you get different results. Frustrating I know. You can tell from the RT Number that this apartment was registered with the RTB in April 2026 (0426) under the new Rules, and it is likely that the rent has been increased to market level. Ideally the Register should allow users to search for properties that have been registered more recently under the new Rules where the rent has been set at market level.

LIMERICK CITY AND COUNTY COUNCILLimerick City WestApartment / FlatRT-0426-0183804210B31,700.004478.81PATRICKSWELL
 
As I was doing Limerick today let's test GerardO's observation. I'll take the O'Connell street eircode from the Daft ad, let's say a one bed, 40m and start with BER A1

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Only 5 BER's - non A 1
 
Let's jump to C1

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No C1 - the first 7 properties on both lists are entirely the same. Edit: it's 8 the same, the one at C3 rent 1250 area Dock A is the same on both lists.
 
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Let's try D1

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One D1, seven are the same as the list for A1 and C1. This last list adds in three new D's in blue. And the first one on this list, it's percentage has moved from 89% for A1 and C1 to 93% for D1
 
patfert1 said:
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.
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Ok guys, today I was wondering about the BER's after Gearoid mentioned it, so I went back to check all the tables I've done, no property in 2026 is without a BER, any year prior to that is hit and miss. I know I didn't put it up for my registrations as I had no BER in the past. They must be making it compulsory for registration.
 
Open to correction, I believe you have to declare it, but I don't recall uploading a report/cert. In my experience tenants look at me blankly when I mention the BER at viewings.
 
Greenbook said:
We have a routine annual piece of research we do to identify rent settings that look like they are out of kilter with permitted limits.
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Is there actually anything in the legislation defining "permitted limits", or they are just making this up? As far as I recall, the legislation simply says it has to be a market rent, so all you *should* have to do is show that your tenant who agreed to sign a lease agreement was not somehow coerced into paying a rent above a fair market level. Or rather the tenant should show they were. Comparables from the rent register - even if required by the RTB when you register a new tenancy - are just for reference, and anything from the register which is not a recent new tenancy can easily be said to be a non market level. Anyway, there are no such thing as "permitted limits"!
 
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patfert1 said:
Is there actually anything in the legislation defining "permitted limits", or they are just making this up?
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They are making this up!

The RTB seems to have decided (with government encouragement) that they decide what market rent is.

It is not what a willing tenant will pay, it is what the RTB decides a willing tenant should pay.

This is the clear impression I am getting from comments like this and the emphasis on the clearly massaged Rent Register.
 
About the BER's sometimes being blank on the Rent Register results, it could be that they are listed as Exempt when they are being registered. Whenever I see our own property come up as one the 10 comparable hits, the BER column is blank. I always fill in the BER as exempt when registering so the RTB would have that information on their files. I have never seen any hits listed as exempt under BER.
 
Bronte said:
It’s “market rent”
Not
“Fair market level” which does not exist
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In fact the legislation does not use either of these terms as far as I can see.
I refer to https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/act/2026/3/eng/enacted/a0326.pdf
It's very complicated to follow because it amends previous legislation. But what I pasted below are what appear to be the relevant sections.

These state that a registration of a new tenancy has to (a) explain the rent level and (b) refer to 3 comparable properties from the rent register.

So far as I can tell, it does not state what is the legal obligation of the new rent level regarding these 3 comparable properties. For example, what happens if a new rent level is above these comparables - whether or not that "disallowed" in any sense. However one can think that the clause 6.(iii) implies you have to justify the new rent level with references to these 3 comparable properties. You could presumably offer a justification of a new rent level also with regard to other evidence, e.g. daft.ie printouts, other rents you have evidence of (such as commercial data), but this could easily become a topic of push-back by the RTB.

Note there is no reference to "permitted limits" or anything of the sort.

I fully expect that once the RTB starts to flag rents which are in their view, as they say, "out of kilter with permitted levels", there will be cases that will establish some precedents, but currently we are in unknown territory. I also expect that if the RTB are heavy-handed about this, sooner or later there will be a legal action on the topic. My instinct is that the RTB will take a interpretation of the legislation that might not stand up to a legal challenge, for many reasons which are documented in this forum, such as the fact that the rent register is by definition "lagging the market", contains many RPZ properties, and so on. But the RTB will fight it hard, that's for sure.

Another observation. This legislation does not define how the rent register query should work, as far as I can see. That is entirely the creation of the RTB. The filtering criteria, sorting criteria, cut-off limit of 10, etc - theese are all inventions of the RTB. I see no legal barrier to making a large number of searches on the RTB rent register, varying areas, BER levels, etc, and cherry-picking your favourites, so long as you can make a justification why they are "similar" to your own property. "Similar" is the term used in the legislation. (The RTB register query tool I made is useful in this regard to gather large number of data from the register rather than make many manual queries.)

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The RTB's website
rtb.ie

Setting and reviewing private rents from 1 March 2026 - Residential Tenancies Board

rtb.ie rtb.ie
defines market rent. It's interesting because
  1. the term "market rent" does not appear in the legislation, so far as I can see. It might be in the previous legislation which is amended by the new one.
  2. Their definition "Market rent is the amount a tenant would reasonably pay a landlord for a similar home in a comparable area at the time the tenancy begins" is reasonable enough on the face of it, since it implies market-driven supply and demand.
  3. But then the subsequent text implies that you must use comparables from the RTB rent register to justify your rent level (as opposed to any other justifications). This may perhaps be a step beyond what the legislation actually states, however that would require legal interpretation.

1778216159029.webp
 
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patfert1 said:
I fully expect that once the RTB starts to flag rents which are in their view, as they say, "out of kilter with permitted levels", there will be cases that will establish some precedents, but currently we are in unknown territory. I also@expect that if the RTB are heavy-handed about this, sooner or later there will be a legal action on the topic. My instinct is that the RTB will take a interpretation of the legislation that might not stand up to a legal challenge, for many reasons which are documented in this forum, such as the fact that the rent register is by definition "lagging the market", contains many RPZ properties, and so on. But the RTB will fight it hard, that's for sure.
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@patfert1 that is 100% correct.

The RTB will start to challenge rents which they regard as outliers. Its Tribunals will establish precedents as to what the 'permitted' levels are. That's completely open to challenge, but they won't go after IRES Reit who can afford to take them to the Supreme Court. It'll be the ordinary small landlord who can't that they'll chase down. They'll be hoping to establish a norm or a practice that the RTB controls the rent levels via the Rent Register and its Tribunal precedents. I can see them issuing guidance in time as to how to calculate the appropriate rent.
 
"Market rent”.
24.—(1) In this Part “market rent”, in relation to the tenancy of a dwelling, means the rent which a willing tenant not already in occupation would give and a willing landlord would take for the dwelling, in each case on the basis of vacant possession being given, and having regard to—

(a) the other terms of the tenancy, and

F111[(b) rent information contained in the published register in relation to dwellings of a similar size (determined by reference to floor area), number of bedrooms, type, character, and (where applicable) BER, to the dwelling and situated in a comparable area to that in which it is situated.]
 
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